Introducing Pippin Took Robinson

One year ago, our much anticipated Pippin was born. It has been such a whirlwind of a year that I haven't had a chance to properly introduce this newest member. I thought his first birthday was a great opportunity to finally do that.

Background about Pippin's Breed

When we lived in England, I was in graduate school for conservation biology and we took a trip across the country to visit a bird Sanctuary and study bird conservation (Slimbridge Wetland Centre). While we were there, we saw a demonstration on how they are able to capture the wildfowl in order to tag them and obtain blood samples to monitor diseases like bird flu. To do this they used a dog that was specially bred to look like foxes and used for hunting waterfowl; the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. The interesting thing about ducks is that when they see a predator like a fox in the wild, rather than fly away from them the whole group will swim towards them and try to intimidate the predator, following it as it trots along the river bank. Besides duck tollers look like foxes, they are able to the same thing. The duck toller they had there (her name was Tolly) was trained to get the ducks to follow her down stream where a large net shaped like a funnel was in place. The ducks swam into the funnel, were closed in and captured at the small end where they were quickly tagged and sampled before being released into the wild. I had a chance to hang out with the dog for a bit and she was just the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. She had a gorgeous color, a beautiful long coat, was the perfect size (smallest of the retrievers), very friendly, playful and athletic. I fell in love! Here are some photos of my first toller all those years ago:

You know how people often get dogs that reflect their personality and appearance in a way? A duck toller is my breed. It became my dream dog. And now, 10 years later, we have our very own Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever: Pippin!

We got Pippin from Wassookeag Retrievers. We were the sixth ones to put a deposit down for a toller pup, and because everyone ahead of us wanted a female we were able to have a pup even though there was only two puppies in the litter. I kind of wanted a girl since I live in a family of a boy spouse, 2 boy children, and 2 boy cats...but it seems to be my lot in life to be surrounded by beautiful boys.

Pippin's Mother:

WASSOOKEAG’S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE
“Boogie”
DOB:  06/19/09
OFA Good Hips, OFA Normal Elbows, Annual CERF
OptiGen Clear/Normal for PRA/CEA by parentage
Sire:  Can Ch Kare’s Red Typhoon, JH, CD, WC
Dam:   Wassookeag’s Winter Solstice

Pippin and his sister nursing their mother

Pippin's Father:

Kare’s Jake of Sheepscot (Jake)

Pippin's Birth and Homecoming

Pippin was born January 8, 2016. We couldn't meet him until he was four weeks old, but the breeder sent us photos of him the day he was born and updates throughout the waiting period.

When Pippin was 8 weeks old we got to bring him home.

Link took to Pippin right away. They were both wild toddlers, both fearless and full of life and spunk.

Pippin, as a retriever, was naturally quite nippy as a little pup. This made Meo cautious around him and a little more reserved about playing with him at first. But once he found safe ways of playing with him like fetch and tug, they became best buds as well. Meo has actually grown to be a very good dog owner and spends quite a bit of time playing fetch and doing simple training exercises with him.

Mobius had never met a dog before and was fascinated with Pippin. They love each other and wrestled frequently then, and still now that he is full grown. Theta was indifferent to Pippin which infuriates Pippin causing him to bark at Theta to egg him on. Theta has no interest in playing with him though and will just swat at his nose until he backs off.

Socializing Pippin with People

Before we brought Pippin home, Robbie and I both read several books about positive dog training. This is the kind of training we used when I was a dog walker and puppy trainer years ago, and to me its the only type of training that both respects the animal and is effective. One of the most important thing about training a puppy (and one of the main reasons we had are heart set on getting the youngest puppy possible) is socializing it. Most adult dog problems come from lack of proper early socialization. In Dr. Ian Dunbar's "Before & After Getting your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy & Well-Behaved Dog", he writes:

Raising a training a pup to be people-friendly is the second most important goal of pet dog husbandry (Remember, teaching bite inhibition is always the most important goal.) But during your pup's first month at home, urgency dictates that socialization with people is the prime directive. Y

Your puppy must be fully socialized to people before he is three months old. You now have just a few weeks left to socialize your puppy. Unfortunately, your pup needs to be confined indoors until he is at least three months old, when he has acquired sufficient immunity through his puppy shots against the more serious dog diseases. However even a relatively short period of social isolation at such a crucial developmental stage could damage your puppy's temperament. Whereas dog-dog socialization may be put on temporary hold until your pup is old enough to go to puppy school and the dog park, you simply cannot delay socialization with people. It may be possible to live with a dog who does not like other dogs, but it is difficult and potentially dangerous to live with a dog who does not like people, especially if the dog doesn't like some of your friends and family.

Consequently, there is considerable urgency to introducing your puppy to a wide variety of people - to family, friends, strangers, and especially men and children. As a rule of thumb, your pup needs to meet at least a hundred different people before he is three months old - and average of three unfamiliar people a day.

The idea of having Pippin meet at least 100 new people in 3 weeks seemed overwhelming, but we felt it was very important. So we asked everyone we knew to visit. We had guests over for dinner every weekend day, we had people stopping by all week long. To all these people: THANK YOU. You are amazing and were such a great help. Thank you for your pats, your giving treats and helping us train him, and for putting up with all the nipping. Pippin is such a friendly, well socialized dog and we couldn't have done it with out you. In the end we made it to 120 strangers in those first 3 weeks! I don't have photos of everyone, but here are some of our amazing helpers:

Socializing with other Dogs and Puppy School 

The other really important commitment to having a dog in our opinion was making sure to have it be well socialized with other dogs and be well trained. Once he had all his shots, we brought him to free puppy play groups at planet dog once a week, and we tried to walk him and bring him to houses that had other dogs.

He also attending a Puppy Training Class and a Intermediate Training Class. Both were six weeks long and used only positive reinforcement training methods.

We still have a lot of work to do with Pippin. Eventually I would like to train him to be a therapy dog so I can take him to hospitals and nursing rooms to give people comfort when they are having a difficult time. But we have a lot of training to do first! He is smart and learns quickly, but he is also very energetic, sensitive, and excited when when he greets people. It's tricky to fit in time to train him as much as we want so that's something we will have to figure out how to do better this year.

Photos of Pippin's First Year

I think Pippin has had a very good first year of life. He's already been on lots of adventures! We have a trail out back that he gets to walk/run nearly every day, he is a Frisbee addict and can sometimes catch it in midair, he's gone on a couple camping trips, has hiked many mountains, has played in the ocean and swam in rivers and lakes, he's gone to drive-in movies, he's gone canoeing and sailed out to see on a huge windjammer. He goes to stores, he's a very good boy at the veterinarian's office, and he gets lots of snuggles and play time all day long. These photos aren't necessarily in order, but they are an assortment of some of Pippin's many adventures this first year of life.

First time to the veterinarian's office

First bath

And from his birthday snowshoe adventure to the beaver dam today:

Pippin has been such a blessing to our family. He's taught the boys more about patience, how to be gentle, about responsibility and even sacrifice. But most of all he's deepened their love of animals and has been a tremendous playmate and companion to them. Pippin is Robbie's first dog, and though he has NOT been an easy addition to the family (he was one high maintenance puppy!), Robbie is completely in love with him and is incapable of saying no when Pippin drops the Frisbee at his feet. It has been wonderful to see Robbie transform into a dog lover. And to me, Pippin is so much. He's my protector and companion when we go for walks, hikes and runs. He's always there to give me a kiss or snuggle if I need someone. He's smart and spunky and fun to train. He's a perfection addition to my pack of boys. I'm so thankful for him. Happy birthday Pip!