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Originally Posted by ScottieK
Blarg, I'm glad to see those Australian Shepherds looking so good and hearing about how they make your family happy. Yesterday, my wife and I adopted this Aussie Shepherd mix puppy. We named her Nutmeg.
She's about nine or ten weeks old. We chose her over another dog that had a gray coat and very blue eyes....really cute, but Nutmeg won us over. She's very laid back, and she loves to sleep.
We have been taking her for walks, and she is getting the hang of it. We're also trying to crate-train her. She does get whiny when we leave her in there and leave the room. But overall, she's been good about being in there. Nutmeg has started to eat and to earn treats. We have read that Australian Shepherds are eager to please and need mental stimulation to avoid boredom.
Unfortunately, our cat Meeko does not appreciate Nutmeg being in the house. Meeko is also very laid back, and he hasn't really checked Nutmeg out yet. He just keeps to himself. We don't allow Nutmeg to go everywhere in the house yet. Meeko does have his own space for now. We have caught Meeko sneaking into the room to spy on Nutmeg. Nutmeg doesn't even notice. We figure Meeko will get comfortable with Nutmeg on his own schedule.
Any tips about raising puppies or Australian Shepherds would be greatly appreciated.
I can maybe pass them along to my mom if you like. Probably a specific question would be best.
She is thinking of starting up a blog about Aussies now that she is retired. I got one started for her, but she was too wrapped up in her work and social life to bother with it before. She's a terrible technophobe, but I told her all she has to do is write and I can post it for her. We'll see.
Nutmeg looks very cute. Crate training is a great idea too. Nobody ever did this when I was a kid, but now it has caught on. I thought it was a little weird of mean at first, but now I'm finding my mom's adult aussies really enjoy their crates and go in them voluntarily quite frequently. It's their little indoor doghouse and they like it.
If Nutmeg expresses her Aussie side much, you will have to spend some physical time with her every day, like real walks, not just hugs, or she might develop problems that manifest in weird ways, everything from tearing up furniture to pulling our her own hair and having stress-induced illnesses. Aussies really are working dogs in every sense. They need to work. It makes them happy. They are not the lazy footwarmer type. In a way, an active dog like an Aussie is a dog you have to "live up to" if you don't want them to become destructive or sick or unhappy. They are simply too smart and driven to be treated like a potato or part of the living room decor.
So my first suggestion is, energetic walks every day without fail. Right after work is great. Our Aussies got a huge kick out of those slingshots you can get, the really big ones with surgical tubing and a metal brace that wraps around the back of your wrist, which you can use to launch tennis balls far away. They can get a lot of running in, and their curiosity is sparked. And every time they return with the ball in their mouths, you can praise them and pet them. They'll think the whole experience is the greatest thing on earth. In fact, so much so that you have to pace them or they'll run themselves flat and just plop down in exhaustion for a while and ultimately forget about the ball.
Also, if you're walking around outside, don't forget dogs don't wear shoes. Sometimes they get hurt feet from rough rocks, or blisters from hot pavement. You might not even know it until you see them limping, by which point they're already hurting and it's too late. So if you see multiple paths through a park, for instance, or that one side of the street has some cool grass for them to walk on and the other has only the hot sidewalk, make the extra effort to take the route that will keep their feet healthy. You don't want to have them making a long walk home on a blister, and a 40 or 60 pound dog is not easy to carry around for long.
Last edited by Blarg; 02-14-2010 at 04:34 PM.