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Melody Ranch · 03-31-2008, 05:45 PM

Steph....your eys are great. Good count. Here is a picture of the "missing" one.

yukionna · 03-31-2008, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfrodge

Anyone else have an Aussie? Or experience in agility?

Congrats on your new addition to your family! What a cutie! I don't know anything about Aussie's as we adopt Golden Retrievers. I do have experience in agility as I trained one of my Golden's in it. The Golden's are too big to ever win an agility run but they sure have fun trying! I have found that clicker training is the way to go with agility training. You need a means to quickly acknowledge to the dog that he did a good thing as you are sometimes too far apart to quickly give him a treat. Clicker training is used successfully on all sorts of critters including dolphins. It doesn't work well on husbands.

sd90mac · 03-31-2008, 06:53 PM

Michelle,
God luck with your new puppy (almost adult). May you have many years of fun and companionship.

Aussies are adorable and should do well in agility training. A friend of ours, who lives in Canada, has been going to agility training for 2 years with her Shelty and both seem to be enjoying it.

Marie

cameront120 · 03-31-2008, 07:22 PM

Congrats on the new arrival. I can't wait for pics!

Mackhopp · 03-31-2008, 08:41 PM

Whew. Tonight's been a long night.

Finally introduced the younger, enthusiastic long-term resident to the newbie Aussie this evening.

Seems Gus (Aussie) didn't want to play with Lexi (lab/shep), at all. He ignored her like no one's business, and if she got too energetic he snapped a few times. I'm sure it'll take a bit for them to fall in love (or to accept their fate in life!) but in the meantime it'll take some patience and time.

I'll see about posting some pictures tomorrow - if I can get him to step away from me for a bit. I'm not sure if all Aussies latch onto one of their humans but it seems to be the case with us so far. Have to be careful not to let it get out of hand...

After all this dies down we're going to see about this agility thing - it's easy to see how Aussies could be good at this! I can't imagine six of them though - wow... Must keep you very busy Melody. I think I can see blue merles, red merles and black tris, right? Beautiful family!

Sugarfoot · 04-07-2008, 04:58 PM

How's it going with the new pup, Michelle? It sounds like he's a velcro-dog and already very attached to you. I hope things work out for you with Gus and Lexi.

Mackhopp · 04-07-2008, 07:30 PM

Well happy to report that after a week, things are going much better now than I had anticipated. The new guy (Gus) would rush at my lab Lexi and snap at her whenever she would get excited (which if you know Lab pups it's pretty much 100% of the time). I was beginning to worry.

I called a well-known canine behavior company to see if they could help, but I squawked when they quoted me a price of $745 plus tax - good for the lifetime of my pets... But I couldn't stomach that pricetag.

Ended up getting terrific advice for integrating a 2nd dog from an Aussie breeder/Agility trainer in the area. For free. Great info (don't put the dogs in the same crates all the time, keep switching them around so the new guy doesn't territorialize his sleeping quarters; don't feed them in their crates; feed the Lab first, etc...) - it worked for us anyway for the most part.

I've acquired a real shadow - he literally follows me everywhere, every time. No privacy left!!

And it's almost impossible to take a picture of him because of that - he's either so close to me or else when I call him to look up at the camera he pops up to come over.

Should be interesting when trying to move around in the AS!

I'm going to try to take some pictures of the two goofs playing tug of war - great to watch!

Sugarfoot · 04-07-2008, 07:40 PM

I'm so glad to hear things are looking better. Look at that grin on Gus! And I completely understand Lexi's energy. I have an over-energetic GSD/Lab trying to crawl into my lap right now.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about a velcro dog in the Airstream. Ought to be interesting.

**Stefrobrts** · 04-07-2008, 07:41 PM

Good for you! They look like happy dogs. Our dalmatian is also a 'velcro' dog, it gets pretty annoying sometimes. Good luck!

flamingo-kid1 · 04-07-2008, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefrobrts

Good for you! They look like happy dogs. Our dalmatian is also a 'velcro' dog, it gets pretty annoying sometimes. Good luck!

Is your velcro pup as STOOPID as mine.. hanging on to my ankles as I drag her along?

Louie28 · 04-07-2008, 09:08 PM

How exciting! We have two westies and one pit bull and let me tell you, they are a handfull!! and its even more challanging taking them in our 18 "foot" airstream
i am very happy and excited for you!!

we all love our "kids"

yukionna · 04-09-2008, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Louie28

How exciting! We have two westies and one pit bull and let me tell you, they are a handfull!! and its even more challanging taking them in our 18 "foot" airstream
i am very happy and excited for you!!

we all love our "kids"

We experienced challenges fitting everyone (i.e., humans and animals) in our 19' Bambi when we had two Golden Retrievers. At bedtime, the floor area was completely taken up by dog beds!

We definitely had to turn a light on or use a flashlight to move around the trailer after dark.

Mackhopp · 04-11-2008, 08:23 PM

Well, both 4-legged family members are getting along quite well now. So well that they're both trying to bury some bones that have "surfaced" in the backyard due to the snow melting.

Trouble is, it's a mud pit in places back there. Especially Lexi the lab. She was having an absolute whale of a time

until I saw what they were doing and called them in.

She certainly knew a bath was coming...hang-dog look...

cameront120 · 04-11-2008, 08:52 PM

She is obviously thinking to herself, "A bath is no reward for digging to China! I should be getting a nice meaty marrow bone!"

yukionna · 04-14-2008, 06:28 PM

Michelle -- great photo!

I can empathize with you...my Golden looked just like this past weekend! The melting snow revealed 2" in diameter "critter" holes in our backyard which Cody, following a scent, promptly dug 12" wide craters inside of. We could have stopped him but it was too amusing to watch the dirt flying through the air as he buried his head into the ground; we did nothing but sit back and laugh the entire time.

Mikethefixit · 04-14-2008, 06:51 PM

Mac
It doesnt look like U need any advise as indicated In your first posts.
Let me commend U for Adopting a dog, sometimes POUND PUPPIES make the best companions.
After losing one of our mini-Schnauzers,who was 14yrs old and had cancer and a heart condition,we elected to Adopt from Schnauzer Rescue and now have three. I 5yr old PuppyMill Dog who had never even walked on grass and a blind and dieabetic 8yr old that just missed being putdown. We love them to death. Best of luck with your new FurBabys.
Roger

Mackhopp · 04-15-2008, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yukionna

Michelle -- great photo!

I can empathize with you...my Golden looked just like this past weekend! The melting snow revealed 2" in diameter "critter" holes in our backyard which Cody, following a scent, promptly dug 12" wide craters inside of. We could have stopped him but it was too amusing to watch the dirt flying through the air as he buried his head into the ground; we did nothing but sit back and laugh the entire time.

I had to laugh as well! Making her sit through an impromptu photo session didn't help her mood. And I did give her cr*p for getting her Burberry bandana all dirty!!

Mackhopp · 04-15-2008, 11:52 AM

But I didn't snap pictures of her after she finished chewing completely through the usb cable on my brand new Wacom drawing tablet... I'd only had the bloody thing for a whole 3 days...

Who'd have thunk that a usb cable could taste so good? What with a slew of bones and toys scattered around the living room... I'll never know.

Alumatube · 04-15-2008, 01:55 PM

What is it with pets and Wacom tablets??? My cat chewed through my cord when he was little. Do they flavor those things?

Susan

Breiz · 04-15-2008, 02:41 PM

We just got our 3rd dog this past weekend. Our dogs now are an 11 yr old terrier mix, a 7 yr old retriever mix and the new guy. He's an 8 week old black lab/ english springer spaniel mix. We adopted him from a shelter (had gotten the 7 yr old at a shelter when he was just a baby too). He's a cutie for sure. But I forgot about those sharp puppy teeth and claws, ouch! People think we're crazy for getting a 3rd dog. We were already crazy for many, many reasons though

In fact when my husband told his sister that we got a new (to us) camper and told her it was an AS, she said, "Those are the silver things right? You guys are so weird."

Did you all know you were weird for having Airstreams?