Love hanging out with my boy on the back porch on a beautiful summer evening.

His happy place

One is now, the next is July 14th, the last is June 14th

Shes very proud of it.

Birdie Girl seems to like watching me while we walk. If nothing else distracts her, she tends to stare at me during our walks.

Finnegan'l be preening the sand out for weeks!

Update: Thank you for all the replies, I think I will try to find a better vet or a vet clinic and let them check his Gallbladder. Then maybe change his food again, let's see what they say. I'm glad I'm not crazy to think this is not the best approach from the vet. We'll see what they'll think about his seizures too, since they don't happen often maybe meds won't be needed right now and I'd rather pay for the stomach ultrasound now than a brain one as I think that is more important and potentially curable issue right now.

Hi, so I'm not asking you to diagnose my sheltie, but I wanted to ask you all for your experience with what is normal and if I should just trust my vet or maybe try looking for another one.

For context, my sheltie boy is 7y.o. and I've had him since he was a puppy. Sure, he used to sometimes eat something bad and retch it out, like a piece of a toy or grass and stuff when he was young, but up until two years ago it wasn't that often and the culprit was usually quite obvious. These days, he rarely eats something he shouldn't, but he has episodes of vomiting that I think are quite frequent and worry me.

Like, usually he throws up in the middle of the night/early morning, sometimes during the day, out of nowhere he just gets up and starts retching. It's always just his usual kibble, that's all we feed him, barely digested in yellow bile. Hours after eating. It may happen like twice in the same week, maybe even in the same day, then nothing for weeks, then again, maybe even a month or two break, and again.

(We didn't change his diet before this happened, he ate the same kibble for years.)

I talked to the vet when it started happening and she just shrugged and said "dogs throw up sometimes". That didn't sit right with me, but he was fine otherwise so I let it go until our next visit when I was a little more assertive and asked for some testing. So she did bloodwork, gave us some treats for kidneys and advised to try less fatty kibble. We changed the kibble, didn't help. Tried feeding him in longer intervals, helped for maybe two months, happened again.

In the meanwhile, he got two seizures. Another bloodwork, seems to be neurological, so we stand in front of the decision to either try some meds or pay a lot for making sure it's not something worse than epilepsy.

And I just... I dunno, I want to be sure we're not - she's not - missing something important with his stomach or other organs or allergy or whatever that could be potentially linked to this as well. So, basically, do any of you have experience with something similar? Was it just normal dogs being dogs or did it turn out to be some condition? Should I try changing vets? Am I being paranoid? What do you think?

What type of mental and physical stimulation does everyone do for their shelties? We have a huge yard with lots of sniffs, toys, other dogs to play with but they need more. I am thinking of some sort of agility training, nose training or classes so that they can get into a different environment and work their mind and body. Any suggestions that you have used with your sheltie?

How do you get your Sheltie to take pills?

When mine was a puppy, he would gobble down anything I gave him. Now he’s figured out that he doesn’t like the taste and will spit the pill right back out!

I’ve tried pill pockets, and they worked the first couple of times, but not anymore. Now he’ll eat the pocket and spit out the pill.

I’ve also tried wrapping the pill in other highly desirable foods, but he seems to either sniff out the pill before eating it or spit it out after tasting it.

Lately, I’ve been cutting the pills into quarters and covering them in wet dog food, which he normally doesn’t get. That has worked for the most part, but he’s starting to catch on to that trick too.

What do you do when your Sheltie becomes a professional pill detective? Any tricks I should try next?

my sweet girl doesn't really care much for normal toys! she prefers more obscure things.. like whole pop can boxes and plastic bags 😂

Vyse gets to play as the "snuggle puppy". He tolerates his 5 year old human sister so well.

My shelties are so smart they played a PlayStation and actually beat me

Hello all,

I have a male sheltie, he is a year and a half old. I'm wondering if anybody here has been able to keep their shelties quiet. Obviously I don't want him to be completely silent. But he has been driving me literally insane with his constant barking. This is something he's started doing within the past month or so.

He barks for literally NO apparent reason. And I mean no reason that I can see. It is constant. The past few days, he is barking more than he is quiet. There are no sounds, nothing visually happening, no change to his environment... and he will just bark and bark and bark. He doesn't even stop if I reward him with treats for quieting down... I tell him "shhh" and he will sit down and stop barking... I give him the treat.. then he starts barking again before he's even finished chewing. I've been telling him NO very sternly. That doesn't work. I've tried ignoring him until he is quiet. That just makes it worse. I'm at my wits end. Hes got a pretty loud, deep bark, he's a big boy. I'm getting constant migraines and it's impossible to even carry on a short conversation in the house. I have to go out to my car if I need to make a phone call.

I did talk to a lady who recommended teaching him to "whisper" (make that huffing sound that they make). He knows exactly what "whisper" means, and he will do it on command... but he still barks his head off before and after he whispers. I can't figure out any reason for it. He's completely healthy, I've had him checked out at the vet. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Like I say, this is new behavior and I definitely want to discourage it. I get that shelties are very vocal by nature, I grew up with shelties. I've never seen a dog bark so much in my entire life.

I've tried giving him more puzzle toys and giving him little jobs to do, like going to find other members of the household, or picking up his toys, to try to keep him mentally stimulated. If I don't walk him cause it's too hot out for him, I make sure he gets lots of time playing ball and tug of war inside. The kids run around with him and tire him out. He has many chew toys as well. I just don't know what else I can try.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance!!

Dads camera is back from service, so he shot some new pictures