Australian Shepherds aka Aussies- Info is appreciated(:

[luvinmychickens]

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Thanks. I just added it to favorites since it has some info on it.

 

[luvinmychickens]

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Vet referrals would be great!

Please PM me!

 

[Baymule]

I have an Aussie now that was found after hurricane Rita. She is terrified of storms, but nothing else. She is smart, playful and 1000% devoted to me. She loves attention from other people, but she is my dog all the way. I have had other Aussies and they are brilliant dogs. Give your puppy a job to keep him/her busy. My first one loved to fetch. She would fetch anything-I even had friends that would borrow her and take her duck hunting. She would jump out of the boat, swim to the duck and bring it back. If a gun went off, something was supposed to fall so she could go get it. if I missed, she looked at me like I had to be the stupidest thing on earth and she would bark at me.

She went nuts when I said gun, so I had to spell it untill she learned to spell too!

I even raised Aussies. If there is a puppy with excessive white, most of the time they are put down. A white ruff around the neck, white paws, white splash on the chest are all acceptable. But large white patches are not good and somehow are indictative of problems. I didn't believe it on the first white splashed puppy my female had and refused to put her down. Sure enough, the puppy turned out to be deaf. Some white spotted Aussie puppies don't live to be an adult dog. I don't know why, so make sure you don't get a puppy with excessive white. I guess it is like the "lethal white" in overo Paint horses.

 

[Lothiriel]

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In the litter we got Riley from there were two white puppies with a couple colored spots. Do you suppose they had the probability to be deaf? One was a red merle type and the other a black merle kind of color.

Oh, and my girl Ginger is devoted to me like your girl is to you. If I leave the house, she usually spends the time in a room away from the rest of the family until I get back, and in the mornings she'll lay in her spot until I come downstairs. Doesn't matter if others come down first, she'll only get up for me. Aussies are super loyal like that.

 

[Baymule]

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In the litter we got Riley from there were two white puppies with a couple colored spots. Do you suppose they had the probability to be deaf? One was a red merle type and the other a black merle kind of color.

Oh, and my girl Ginger is devoted to me like your girl is to you. If I leave the house, she usually spends the time in a room away from the rest of the family until I get back, and in the mornings she'll lay in her spot until I come downstairs. Doesn't matter if others come down first, she'll only get up for me. Aussies are super loyal like that.

It is very possible the white/spotted Aussie puppies you saw had health problems. Just make sure you never get one. It sounds cruel, but they should be put down at birth.

 

[FlyRobinFly]

What you're referring to is homozygous merle. If a dog inherits one copy of the merling gene, it's a merle. If it gets two copies, it often is white, or has a lot of white. Many are deaf, and several have vision issues too. That's why many breeders avoid merle to merle breeding.

 

[love-my-wolves]

Congrats! I had one, he was so amazing! He started having issues at about 6 months old, couldn't keep food down. Was diagnosed with esopha(something). Basically, we had to feed him up on his back legs. After 3 months he was wasting away and nothing we did helped, everything came up anyways

He was one of the best dogs I've ever had, very smart and loyal, easy to train and gentle with kids/animals/everything. I was told it's HIGHLY rare for this breed to get this. We put him down shortly after his 9 month bday

We had pics done 2 weeks before he was put down, knowing his time was short. This is my baby Loki

 

[Lothiriel]

Yeah, I knew about the merle to merle breeding being bad and increasing health problems. Riley's dad was a blue merle and his mom was black and white, like a Border Collie. She may have had some brown, but I'm not sure. I know he and at least some, if not all, of his littermates had their tails docked. I saw an Aussie calendar the other day and a few of the dogs in it had long tails. I wish Riley's had been left.. They were so pretty.

That's so sad about Loki.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

All the aussies I've known have been extremely smart, extremely obedient dogs. Our aussie mix had a great sense of humor too. I do have one word of caution though. Epilepsy is unusually common in the breed. Know what to look for, and know what lines are more likely to carry degenerative kinds that are not likely to respond to treatment. Some forms are either easy to live with, easy to treat, or both. Others (especially partial seizures/non convulsive/petite mal) can alter behavior dramatically, including outbursts of unpredictable aggression, and can increasingly worsen with convulsive/grand mal seizures also developing. Unfortunately, this is the kind our mix ended up with.

 

[luvinmychickens]

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That is the color Jasper is.

So sorry for your loss.