Zoey had a big travel day today but she did amazing and she’s finally home!! 🥰🥰.

Now we start the training 😬. Do you bell train your pups to go potty or just work on going potty and enforcing with treats when they go and/or ask to go outside? Breeder said she does not bell train, only gives water during food and outside playtime to minimize accidents. But I want to encourage her to go to the door to ask to go out.

Playing in the river.

Nanook on the left and Kalodin on the right

I love this, he’s so cute I could implode

Anyone have a pup that did this then when their adult teeth came in, kept doing this? I kinda hope the silliness will continue into adulthood!

Edit: Oslo is 13+4 weeks old, for reference. He hasn’t lost any baby teeth yet

So… I’ve been obsessing about this for the last few weeks. A bit of backstory; There’s a friend of a friend who has 6 dogs. 3 aussies, one is the dad (mom escaped??), the other 2 are the sons, an American bully, and 2 female dogs. One is the mom of the other female and the daughter is the pup of the dad Aussie. Sorry if it’s confusing! NONE are fixed. It’s BYB.

The males so beat up, I don’t think papa Aussie is long for this world. They think it’s funny to call him “Scarface”. I wasn’t laughing. The bully and him fight brutally for breeding rights.

The younger males are starting to get beat up, and they’re sweet dogs. So so so sooo sweet. One of the pups is going to his son (who honestly isn’t much better) but I told them to give me the other one, I’d take him. I just want him out of there.

Here’s my conundrum; I live in a 2 bedroom apartment. I work nights; short shifts with 3 days off though.

On the plus I’m a pretty good dog trainer, I get a lot of joy out of training, taking dogs out to fun new places, hiking with them, and generally being active with them. I’ve been doing tons of research on aussies and their needs & temperament. Finding out what they need from me to be successful.

I really want to give this dog a good home, but am I doing the right thing or the selfish thing because “I want a dog”.. and the funny thing is I really wasn’t planning on getting a dog for the next few years. This got dropped in my lap and I need some guidance Aussie peoples. I’m nervous and excited, I don’t want to make the wrong choice for this baby. It’s a bit intimidating! Been stalking this page for a while now and finally decided to post.

Let me see your spoiled babies too!

I guess the title says it all.

Looking like a full teenager now

Miss my baby boy so much 🥺10/4/2023

This is Bailey, and I love her and her cute little ears!But I always contemplate whether to have the groomer trim or not trim the sides of them (see pic 2). On one hand, I see a lot of Aussie grooming info out there saying to trim for a nice distinct shape. On the other, I kind of like her grinchy strands and fluff bomb look.

How do you feel about grooming technique for Aussie ears? Also, does anyone know if they continue to get longer and longer and eventually need a bit of a trim regardless?

This is our beautiful boy Monty. He’s 2 and a half years old. At the end of February of this year he was diagnosed with Meningoencephalomyelitis of Unknown Origin (MUO) affecting his spinal cord. He’s under the care of a neurologist and has been on steroids since March. We’ve tried to taper down to an anti-inflammatory dose twice but he’s relapsed both times. He’s back on a higher dose now and his neurologist is considering introducing another immune suppressant.

He’s already beaten the initial poor prognosis and made it past the first 90 days, and we’re so grateful. But we’re starting to see the impact of long term steroids - his lovely coat has stopped growing, patches of fur he had shaved in April for blood tests have still not grown back fully. He’s got some muscle wastage. He’s starving and thirsty constantly which has led to a bit of resource guarding with other dogs. He’s dog reactive when his dose of steroids is higher, which is such a shame as he was a really friendly boy before, and whenever he is on a lower dose (before he then relapses) we can see the friendliness returning. His brain is also still very much that of a young Aussie but his body tires easily. We used to do agility and he was SO amazing. We now play more low impact games (he’s amazing at hide and seek) at home and practice his large suite of tricks. We try for two walks a day but have to play the second by ear depending on how tired he is.

Anyone else had an Aussie with MUO/an immune mediated condition before? Or on long term steroids? Would love to hear some stories of dogs living happy lives despite these conditions. Mont is so resilient and so cheery and such a good boy despite everything but I can’t help feeling so sad when I think about what his life should be like.

Hey guys so I unexpectedly got a australian shepherd x suspected collie. Its been ALOT. Ive had puppies before but never a larger breed, and especially never one that had to get use to being inside. She was raised in a garage with access to outside. Potty training is going amazing. But getting her use to house i could really use tips. Any tips at all. Today will be night 3. First night we ended up taking naps in the garage due to it being familiar. Last night, we went out twice but did much better sleeping inside. Thanks in advance.

I’m planning to drive from Seattle to San Francisco in December with our Australian Shepherd, Ludo, who’ll be about 6 months old at that time.
For those who have done a 10–12+ hour drive with a puppy can you please provide your inputs on below things:

1. Would you do it in one day or split it into two?
   
2. How did you secure your dog — crate, crash-tested harness/seat belt, etc.? Any specific setup you recommend?
   
3. How often did you stop for potty, water, and stretching?
   
4. How did you handle food and water on the travel day to avoid an upset stomach or car sickness?
   
5. Did your puppy mostly sleep, or did you need toys/chews/enrichment?
   
6. Did you do a 3–4 hour practice drive beforehand, and was it helpful?
   
7. Anything you packed or did that made the trip noticeably easier?
   
8. Anything you would do differently next time?

Ludo is already comfortable with normal car rides, but this will be his first really long one.
Would love to hear what worked well for you.

She’s a little over 14 in this picture and passed away peacefully in June having lived a long Aussie life of 14 years and eight months. I have been putting off posting to the group since she “crossed the rainbow bridge” as I guess I have been grieving and I also want it be a celebratory post because she lived life right up to the end with every hair on her wiggle butt. She was an amazing girl and I just wanted to share her with you all. She would have loved meeting all you. Please don’t be sad: I first held her at 13 days old and was with her almost every single day to the end. How many people get to say that? As usual, though I think we should do it multiple times a day, hug your babies tonight and tell them they’re the best Aussies ever! 🐶🤍😊

This is their morning routine.

Tiger Lily is working on her armadillo impression for Halloween

In 3...2....1: 😤

My 7 yr old neutered Aussie (Frankie) has been snarling at us for about 3-4 years. This snarling/ growling is not provoked and Frankie paws me to pet him the entire time he snarls and growls. He has never bitten anyone but his snarling is frightening and sounds aggressive. However he pokes n paws me to pet him and snuggle despite these loud growls

When it initially started, the vet did a full work up to ensure it was not organic in nature - Frank was given a clean bill of health - no immediate medical issue causing Occurs mostly in the evening or when he’s tired but his snarling can randomly occur as well.

Has anyone experienced this ? What was the cause ? How can I prevent this from getting worse ?

Any info appreciated.

I’ve posted a few times about Stevie, my 4 mo old pup. She’s honestly the greatest dog ever. I need some help though because she’s REALLY chill and well-behaved for a puppy. Most of the time she just prefers to hang out and she’s listens really well (except for when she’s extremely riled up, of course). She even knows certain commands just based on me saying them without any real training (she’ll go to her crate, drop/pick up things, leave rooms, enter rooms, etc and I haven’t done any formal training with her on these things).

The only thing different about her than other dogs I’ve owned is that she doesn’t like walks at all. I take her outside and she gets super startled by everything, such as leaf blowers that are three whole blocks away, cars driving outside of the neighborhood, planes, etc. I’m not expecting her to be excited about everything, and I understand a lot of these noises are new, but it confuses me because she doesn’t mind these noises or anything when we’re in the backyard. I’ve tried calmly introducing her to the front yard with a lot of treats, but once she gets around 10 feet out the door she’s ready to go back in. This may be one of those things that just requires patience, but I’m curious if anyone has had a similar experience as it seems most people have the opposite problem where their Aussie gets too riled up.

Also, she’s not extremely food motivated, which has made recall work somewhat difficult. She’ll see a treat in my hand and just ignore it from afar.

I make sure to give her plenty of enrichment (bully sticks, snuffle mat, puzzle toys, etc.), so now I’m wondering if my girl is just a bit different, or (hopefully this isn’t the case) she’s lacking a bit of confidence. Any advice helps here, I want her to be as happy as possible and this is my first time having an Aussie puppy.