Teaching a puppy manners, handling it and keeping the feed up to it are the three most important things you can do during the first three months of the animal's life.
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This is according to Carolyn Hudson, who has trained the puppies which will appear on the much-anticipated season of ABC TV's Muster Dogs.
The Dubbo resident lives on a farm with her husband Mick Hudson, a champion Australian Border Collie competitor and dog educator.
Mrs Hudson said it came naturally to her to look after the pups in their early life, as she and her husband have twin boys, who are now 22 years old.
"They're just like little kids," Mrs Hudson said of the puppies.
When the Hudsons were asked to breed the pups for the popular television series, they thought their mother dog, Debbie, might have around five pups - but she birthed 10.
"Because there were so many, it was really hard and they're always wriggling around," Mrs Hudson told the Daily Liberal.
"Debbie was a brilliant mother. She's had a litter before so she knew what it was all about."
Despite Debbie's mothering skills, Mrs Hudson rotated the pups to help out the mother dog.
"I had a wash basket here, so we'd put five of the smaller ones on the teats, and then take them off and then put the other five on. It was interesting for the first couple of weeks," she said.
Mrs Hudson began obedience training the pups from only a few weeks old, teaching them "manners" - including not to jump up, not to growl at each other, and not to get under her feet.
She took them swimming in the dam and taught them how to run behind a motorbike.
"This litter were real swimmers," Mrs Hudson said.
"They actually swam out and then they dunked each other and I was getting ready to strip off and jump in and go and rescue them.
"Most litters have a play around the edge but these ones were full-on dog paddling in the dam."
One of the most memorable times of raising a working dog litter is when the puppies begin to show "instinct".
They perform an action Mrs Hudson called "set" which is when they show telltale signs that they know what to do when they are around sheep.
"You'll have the sheep there, [the puppies are] looking at the sheep and they'll be in slow motion, taking a few steps towards the sheep, or they run around and go to the head and try and stop them," she said.
She continued: "It's really good when we see them do it because we know that the instinct's there, it's already kicked in."
The second season of Muster Dogs starts on Sunday, January 14 at 7.30pm on ABC TV, with all episodes to be streamed on ABC iview.
Sarah Falson
Daily Liberal journalist. I love telling people's stories. Get in touch at sarah.falson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Daily Liberal journalist. I love telling people's stories. Get in touch at sarah.falson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
