Paws to Play, LLC

17/11/2023

Boy, can Aly take cute puppy pictures! Nova's first litter of Miniature Aussiedoodles is gorgeous!

04/06/2023

Really simple, effective way to prevent dogs from herding children.

Herding dog hack. I am not sure how it works scientifically, but usually the first few things a dog herds or has a very reinforcing time staring at, become “fixed” and hard to teach them NOT to enjoy staring at. Kind of the same way a baby duck might learn to follow a person or a dog if that is what he sees first... This is not always the case, but I know many puppies this has happened to. As you can see in this picture, Halo wants to herd the toy I’m holding above the camera and not the chickens that are moving around. This was actually the first time he saw my chickens out and about as they flew over their barrier and without any training with chickens he prefers to look at the toy rather than the chickens behind him. So the hack is, instead of letting your puppy first see and get herdy with a moving car, motorbikes, a bird, a cat, wildlife, a shadow, planes, running kids, your own dogs moving around.... first create some highly reinforcing experiences with playing with and herding things you have 100% control over like dog toys. Once playing and herding the toys is established, you can then have your puppy look at the things you don’t want him to herd and mark and feed treats after 1 second of looking without thinking of moving toward the thing. Then you can mark and feed for ignoring the distraction.

If shadow chasing or light chasing is in your dogs lines, or you just want to play it safe, the first few times you play with toys where you throw them or you are moving around, play when it’s cloudy or dusk so there is no possibility for your puppy to notice and follow the shadow of you or the toy. Never have your puppy wear a tag on his collar that creates a reflection. And if your puppy notices a light or shadow as soon as you can get your puppies attention, or pick him up and redirect him to something else.

03/06/2023

Another day, another field trip!

30/05/2023

This sweet girl is up for anything, including a visit to PetSmart for the last of her puppy vaccinations. She, along with her brother and two sisters, were angelic.

29/05/2023

Congratulations, Aesop on earning your AKC Puppy STAR! It's surprising such a wonderful guy hasn't found his furever home, but we continue his training. He's a STAR in public.

16/05/2023

After dinner chill time

12/05/2023

This is what the beginning of a training session with a puppy frequently looks like.

29/04/2023

This is what happens when you forget you've been to the feed mill before you open the hatch.

26/04/2023

Practicing being in a carrier

25/04/2023

Not every delivery confirmation is this cute.

19/04/2023

Hard to believe these Aussiedoodles are ready for their new homes!

14/04/2023

Gus is still the best puppy training kitty EVER!

05/01/2023

Litter of puppies and their mama were abandoned at a construction site in November. The mama has been adopted but five of the puppies are still looking for homes. They've been vet checked, dewormed, vaccinated (just need their rabies to be finished with puppy shots). Best guess they were born late September or early October and look to be medium to large as adults. Mama dog is a 40lb Heinz 57 and papa is unknown. Their foster home is no longer able to keep them so we're desperately looking for foster homes or adoption families. Both male and female brindles as well as black with white chest and toes are available.

27/07/2022

Still missing

26/07/2022

This is Posey. She slipped her leash this morning at Marion Animal Hospical and has been seen running around Marion. She is sweet, but very skittish, so please don’t approach her is you see her. If you do spot her, please call Carolyn at 434-249-2321.

29/05/2022

Meet Maddie. Maddie is a miniature Australian Shepherd (now referred to as American Shepherds) that was born on 12/8/21. She originally came to us for training, but after returning home, it became obvious that she was just the wrong dog for the owners. They brought her to us to foster and ultimately place her in the right home. Maddie is a sweet, friendly, very energetic girl. She has her basic training like sit and wait, is crate trained and house broken. She does have some bad habits like jumping, but we are working on that. She has not been socialized much except for her training here, so she is not confident and can be a little snarky around other dogs. I believe she will grow out of that with some socialization and practice. Rehoming fee applies.

29/05/2022

This is Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean was born here on 8/30/20 and placed with a loving family. Unfortunately, they were forced to give her and brought her back to us to foster. She is Spayed, Vaccinated including Bordatella, Lyme, and Influenza, Microchipped, and has been Maintained on all monthly preventatives. She weighs 41lbs. She has passed PetSmart Obedience Classes I & II. She was raised with children and been fine with our cats. She has been well loved and well cared for. She is a very sweet, gentle, well-mannered, quiet (lower energy/not hyper) dog who strikes me as having been raised as a homebody, meaning she never went anywhere or met too many people while growing up. This has made her shy around new people and dogs due to lack of experience, but she always remains sweet and simply withdraws if feeling overwhelmed (there are a lot of dogs here). This could change with more practice being put and about and meeting new people. She is housebroken, crate trained (that's where she goes to feel safe), doesn't jump on us, does what we ask, and has no obvious bad habits. She alerts (barks) when people arrive but quiets quickly. She's a really, really nice dog that is probably not suited for the dog park (that would scare her right now) but will be fine visiting friends and their dogs. She was raised with children so I'm confident she likes them and has been great with our cats. A rehoming fee applies.

12/03/2022

So proud of our brand new mama dog, Lotus. She had 9 beautiful babies yesterday, 8 blue merles and one black. This is her first litter and she appears to be a natural. The sire is our Moyan poodle, Jasper J Jarvis. Mother and babies are doing fine.

30/07/2021

Group Beginning Obedience Class begins soon!

Four week class starting on August 16th at 6:30 pm in Marion. The class costs $100 and each will be limited to 4-7 teams. The class will cover basic commands such as sit, down, come, leave it, and stay. In addition, we will cover common challenges such as loose leash walking, polite greetings (not jumping on people), counter surfing, and door dashing.

Post here or send me a PM if you have questions. Send me a private message if you are interested in registering.

13/05/2021

Trixie’s puppies are growing like weeds. Got to spend some time of the porch today with Uncle Gus Gus.

04/04/2021

Trixie was our first mama to have puppies back in January 2019. Of all our girls, she loves being pregnant and being with her babies to most. However, we had decided that she would have only one more litter. She had that litter yesterday, 4/3/2021. What a swan song! Eleven puppies, six red merles and five brown bis.

20/03/2021

So, one of our super-mamas, Trixie, has had three beautiful litters for us. She had nine puppies her first litter and seven her second. Her third litter was a singleton, Leroy Jenkins, now Ollie. This past week, it just so happens that we had Ollie boarding with us as well as one of the puppies from her second litter, Chewbacca. Here are the three handsome brothers. Chewbacca is on the left, Ollie in the middle, and Sherlock, our dog that we retained, on the right.

20/03/2021

Puppies on the porch.

13/03/2021

24/02/2021

Our standard Aussiedoodles are here. A beautiful litter with chocolates bis, black bis, chocolate partis, and light merle partis. Some really beautiful puppies.

24/02/2021

Well our small/mini Aussiedoodles and St Berdoodles had their first time outside and everyone seemed cheery. We even had a St Berdoodle foot-sitter.

21/02/2021

Bristol’s litter had their first taste of solid food today.

28/01/2021

Busy week here at Paws to Play. Conundrum (Little Drum), our St Bernard, had her second litter of beautiful St Berdoodles. Her first litter was just three puppies, but she decided to overachieve this time with ten puppies. Mother and puppies are healthy and happy.