wuffles

The Aussies I've met vary quite a bit in activity levels. My girl is quite high energy, she was not exactly the shrinking violet of the litter, but I have also met some Aussies who are extremely active and drivey, and some who are quiet and almost lazy! She's fine in our small backyard. She's content being by herself (well, with our other dog) but while our boy sleeps during the day, Ava tends to potter around, chase butterflies, lie beside him chewing feathers or sticks... she is a bit of a busy body. I would love to have a bigger backyard for her but she copes and doesn't get into too much mischief. I'm sure that you could get a quieter pup from a litter if you really wanted an Aussie and that would be fine. I haven't found her shedding too bad yet, she is only 13 months old though. Our other dog has a GSD-like coat and he loses a lot more fur than her. Koolies are a breed that seem similar to Aussies in many ways and you can get the short coat if that's what you would prefer.

Take them for a walk down the road a few times a day and get them to poop there... you still have to pick it up but no remnants in your yard

I got my girl tested for MDR1 to take out the guesswork and worry

Awww great pic of the boys!!

I use Filtabac. Edit: I only put it on when we're out in the sun for prolonged periods or most days in summer. My girl's nose is black but she has pink skin above it, near her eyes and ears.

PoppyDog my friends have a CKCS x poodle and he weighs 12kg. Sometimes it's hard to tell on longer coated dogs, isn't it? My little Aussie is very lean, you can easily feel her ribs and hip bones. If you trust your vet, you could always ask them what they think.

We picked my girl up from her surgery after work. She was groggy and slept the whole afternoon/night. She woke up the next morning almost like nothing had happened. Stitches were in for 10 days. We were home with her for 4 days. We gave her short on leash walks after a few days as she was going a bit stir crazy. When we went to work, she was outside but confined to our pergola and separated from our other dog so they couldn't play. The stitches can't get wet so it's harder if it rains. The stitches did pull a bit but everything was ok in the end. Stitches came out after 10 days and she was back to normal.

It actually took me a while to get used to my Aussie following me from room to room, so I know where you're coming from. She isn't clingy but she likes to be where the action is so follows us around a lot (thankfully she has quite good body awareness so she rarely 'gets in the way' as such). For example, this morning OH had to lock her out of the room because he was trying to do pushups and she kept coming in and lying right where he wanted to do them. Now that I'm used to it, I don't mind, and it makes me smile when she wags her tail or comes over just because I've looked at her, or to see her curled up at the bathroom door when I come out of the shower That being said, at the moment I'm on the couch, OH is in the study, and both dogs are asleep on the rug in a completely different room. All very content

The colours are great, that blue is one of my favourite colours ever - almost impossible to reproduce in paintings or on the computer - only ever see it in the sky

Here are a few of mine... thankfully she seems to keep her destructive tendencies outside rather than in! The shelf in our pergola. Ex-Hound House kennel... a few days later it collapsed because they ate through the bit that holds the roof up

Here is mine for week 2. White dogs are really hard to photograph! week-2 by wufflesx, on Flickr

I love you guys At work when I talk about Christmas presents for the dogs or even taking them to dog school every Sunday, one of my colleagues looks at me like I am a Crazy Person and then I wonder: "Am I a crazy person because I dote on my doggies so much?" One guy at work has always made fun of me for spending so much time with and talking about my dogs so much. Well, he ended up with a pug x cavalier from a pet shop. After a week or two, he then started asking me about training: "I can't toilet train her! Whenever I leave her for a few seconds she just pees on the floor!" "I put the leash on and she just sat and wouldn't go anywhere, how do I take her for a walk? Don't all dogs love walks?" "She keeps biting our fingers. Will she just grow out of it?" All well and good that he's asking questions but from chatting to him, he expected the dog to train itself And now he actually appreciates why I put so much effort into my dogs, who I informed him and sit, drop, wait at the door, walk on a loose leash, wait for their dinner, are full toilet trained, do lots of tricks, get along with other dogs, and can be taken anywhere they're allowed. "I want dogs like that" he says - well put in the work buddy!!!

There are a few TTs at my club. They do need a fair bit of grooming. The one I am thinking of is moderately drivey, is lovely to watch when he is cooperating but has a mind of his own and has been known to run off in stays or recall He can have a bit of an attitude with other dogs. Cute as a button

You are so lucky! Mine are poo machines!!! They poop at least twice a day. We have to do poo picks twice a day as a result. I'd feed them less but they're actually very lean as it is! Satch does two a day (usually one on his morning walk and one during the day, sometimes both on his morning walk!) and Ava does three or so but not at night They have their dinner around 6-7pm then go straight to sleep! Ahhh pooping habits, it's like mother's group at the local cafe

Maybe Hoover doesn't have anything ready to go before bed Mine never do #2s at night, ever...

KTB this might sound weird but... can Hoover last the night even if he doesn't toilet before bed? Satchmo has a bladder of steel and can NOT be persuaded to pee before bed. Most of the time we can't even bribe him to go outside. He goes while he's out there for dinner, then not again until the next day. I always make Ava go before bed because I don't trust her as much.

Clastic, when can I come see your new house??????????? Can I invite myself over?

KTB you think that bag of kibble is big, wait until they do a 3kg for free promotion then the bag is 18kg And as mine eat two different kibbles, we get two big bags

I was looking at Welsh Springers, great little dogs! Collie Smooth? And I love Soft Coated Wheatens too. Pharoah Hound? Pyr Sheps

That is scarily accurate...

Have you tried sardines? The oil goes all over the dry food and you can mush the sardines in with it. Ours go crazy on sardine nights. Satch isn't big on plain kibble but once he realised that was all he was getting (and he only gets fed once a day) he happily ate it. Ava thinks kibble is the OMG BEST THING EVER. She even eats it before any meat or bones that are in her bowl. I am currently using supermarket kibble (Beneful) as her training treats

I have one of those too, the redoubtable Lucy, whose cartoon portrait is in my avatar. Enough to break the will of most instructors. She does the famous "tune out" PF mentions, will roll on her back when she has had enough and wave her paws in the air. It is certainly not because she can't learn. At least she does something cute. Mine is more likely to lie down and lick his privates in the middle of a heeling exercise

I have to say, when I saw the question I thought "oh god, I'll hear that now in addition to the rest of the excuses". He's a rescue, so he can't sit He's a spitz, so he can't sit He's learning disabled, so he can't sit. Yeesh. Agree with PF that the greatest handicap most dogs have is their handler, and I include mine in that assessment That is so true, Im sure other instructors will also agree. People come to obedience all the time and they say he won't, he won't he won't and one of the instructor takes the dog for a few minutes to do a demo and the dog is perfectly capable fo doing all those "he won'ts" Or in the case of my dog, the instructor takes my dog for a demo and can't get him to do a damn thing Then the instructor says "oh, well... keep working at it..." Seriously, one of my dogs just does not catch on to some training. I taught him some things easily with two or three repetitions including touch. But there are certain things he just does not get. I've been working on 'stand' with him for almost 3 years and although sometimes he seems like he's getting it, it's still about 50/50 as to whether he'll stay standing or sit/lie down/scratch himself. I have tried shaping with him, for example just leaving a box down and clicking any interaction with it... he can sniff it a few times and get a C&T each time... he exhibits the staring at the treat behaviour you mention... but he never connects interaction with the box with rewards. Yet with this same dog, I can get him to wait at the door, come in and sit on the mat, and offer each paw individually to have it dried :D corvus, is there scope for you to try teaching the dog you're describing something else just to see what happens? My dog is far from a stupid dog, he is very smart in the sense that he does what works for him. He is intuitive and instinctive and weighs up everything before he does it.

My younger dog gets them probably once a fortnight or so. It has nothing to do with eating for her, although she is a garbage guts, she tends to get them when waking up of a morning

Cancer wasn't a bit factor in my decision to desex my girl, but growth was, because I am planning on doing dog sports. She was done at 11 months, before her first season. If we had the facilities to manage her in season we would have waited longer.