I'm thinking of Ender or Bean from Ender's Game. Kind of on the great things from an early age theme especially with us going to that school.

He's in full baby puppy mode now. He's either eating, pooping, peeing, playing, or completely crashed out. He likes to play with a towel but hasn't gotten down to seriously chewing it yet.

He really is a baby, his ears are still looking thick and folded.

Congrats!

How big were the sire and dam? ACDs can vary a lot. Some are 75lbs, some 25. Does he have any papers?

I settled on Ender as a name.

Dam is probably 45 pounds or so. More of the kelpie built ACD. Sire was the stocky built kind. 65-70 pounds or so. Looking at the pups I'm surprised the dam didn't have any issues having all nine of them. They all looked big next to her. The litter had roughly half pups that were built more like the sire. Wider and blockier. Ender has more of the dams build so I'm thinking he will mature somewhere around 55 pounds. No papers.

 Quote: Cathy Goessman

I settled on Ender as a name.

Dam is probably 45 pounds or so. More of the kelpie built ACD. Sire was the stocky built kind. 65-70 pounds or so. Looking at the pups I'm surprised the dam didn't have any issues having all nine of them. They all looked big next to her. The litter had roughly half pups that were built more like the sire. Wider and blockier. Ender has more of the dams build so I'm thinking he will mature somewhere around 55 pounds. No papers.

Yeah, me too (???) I would never put a 70 pound stud dog to a 45 pound brood bitch, due to the increased probability of fatal whelping complications

How is the pup doing? Is he settling in?

He's doing awesome. I'm having to wear my boots and jeans to keep needle teeth away from my feet and legs. He's turning into a little alligator really quickly. I finally found a treat that's soft enough for him to eat so we're starting to do some marker training stuff. We're doing some gentle tug games with rags. So far he's gotten to try fleece, chamois leather, cotton t-shirt material, and of course my jeans. I'm also doing noises around the house. So far he's experienced the shop vac, dremel, oven slamming, engraver, electric shaver, hair dryer, sawing wood(Tanner HATES that noise), tape squeaking as it comes off the roll, my alarm clock, a bucket being kicked around, etc. The only one that kind of freaked him out was my alarm clock but my dash to turn that annoying thing off might have had something to do with it. He howled along with it and took a minute to calm down.

Tanner is being really good with him and pup is doing a good job of respecting any signals to back off. The only contact I'm allowing right now is when pup is already tired and I keep it brief.

He's having some soft poop the last time he goes out for the night so I'm dropping off a fecal sample tomorrow. He's a very visually aware pup. He notices reflections and shadows a lot more than most dogs I've had. Herding breed trait I'm guessing.

He really isn't a fan of the harness or collar but I think he's starting to get used to them.

FWIW soft poo often= too much food.
A fecal is a great idea.

Too much food was my first guess but my Mom had a foster litter with Cocci that presented that way. I'd like to know if he's got any worms anyway.

I changed his name to Score. Another character from a book. It reflects his independence and willingness to use his teeth a little better.

Everybody seemed to think Ender meant that he was mean and it just didn't seem to fit him.

He did really well on New Years with all the fireworks.

Turns out with a slight midwest accent yhat it sounds like "squirrel" when i yell "score". Maverick is now his name.