Journey: Puppy to Adult

Dakotah

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#81
That was so cute. I smiled the whole time. "Pick up dumbbell, drop dumbbell, treat" and repeat lol.
I saw something in the background and I kept going "wtf is that?" and I realized it was Dance's tail lol.
 

Toller_08

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#82
That was so cute. I smiled the whole time. "Pick up dumbbell, drop dumbbell, treat" and repeat lol.
I saw something in the background and I kept going "wtf is that?" and I realized it was Dance's tail lol.
Yeah, Dance feels the need to be a part of everything haha. Especially when there's food involved! She was jealous that Journey was hogging it all.
 

Toller_08

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#84
Figured it was time for a small Journey update in her own thread!

I had a coupon, so Journey got a new tag in the mail a few days ago. Suits her personality perfectly:



She's also been sporting pigtails a lot over the last few weeks. She's teething like crazy (seriously, every night a tooth or two lands on the floor or I pull them out of her mouth as she chews on them) and her ears are all over the place. Hoping they settle down soon. I think Dance was 8 months before hers did.



Playing with Dance is still her favourite pastime. When she's done with Dance, she moves on to Ripley, and when she's done with Ripley, she makes sure Keira gets a turn too haha.



She thinks she's ferocious.



Then tonight I decided I needed a group picture of everyone suddenly. But it was dark out and cold, so we had to make do with the livingroom. Surprisingly everyone was very cooperative. :)





Prior to that, she got a rinse to get all the bus/train dirt off and then a blow dry. Prior to the blow dry though she had fun rolling on things and playing all over the basement.





Then I decided I needed a 19 week stacked picture. But I had no help, so it's not perfect plus I'm still learning, but thank goodness I have a patient puppy who has a good idea of stay now!



 
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Toller_08

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#85
And after all of that I just couldn't stop taking pictures because she was all clean and fluffy and extra adorable.





And then we played with a favourite squeaky toy for a while! This is her serious "just throw it!" face.





And her happy "omg she's gonna throw it! She's gonna throw it!" face.



Aaaand back to seriously hopeful.











That's all for now!

She's still seriously the best puppy ever. She makes me want a house full of Aussies forever. She and I just click and mesh so well together. Even my mom said this morning (jokingly) that we should just trade all of the adult dogs in for another Aussie haha. They were being bratty at the time, but she really is just that enjoyable. She's funny, she's smart, she's fun, she adores her family, is polite and happy to oblige strangers who want to cuddle her, she's busy but easy to live with... she truly hits all of my marks for what would have made the perfect dog for me.

She does have one weird quirk that I hope she outgrows, though. She hates when the other dogs bark. Which is not really a big deal, because the Dobes rarely bark, but Dance OTOH, barks a couple times a day anyway and Journey runs and hides and then comes out to see what happened. I've seen young puppies be afraid when other dogs bark, but usually they outgrow it as they get bigger. It's weird, but not detrimental or anything, so not a huge deal or anything, but I hope for her own sake she gets over it considering Dance doesn't plan on not alerting to things for the rest of her life.
 

Cali Mae

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#87
That group photo is perfect, I love the matching head tilts! Her tag is perfect too, I've been wanting to order both dogs new tag but have yet to get around to it.

I honestly cannot get over how great she seems, it just makes it harder and harder to wait! I'm thinking of going to University of Toronto and living with my aunt, who has an ACD, simply because that would open up the possibility of getting an Aussie a bit sooner, pending schedules etc... plus my aunt is a member of the agility club so that would be great as well.

We need more pictures of Journey though, she's looking so grown up!
 

Toller_08

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#88
That group photo is perfect, I love the matching head tilts! Her tag is perfect too, I've been wanting to order both dogs new tag but have yet to get around to it.

I honestly cannot get over how great she seems, it just makes it harder and harder to wait! I'm thinking of going to University of Toronto and living with my aunt, who has an ACD, simply because that would open up the possibility of getting an Aussie a bit sooner, pending schedules etc... plus my aunt is a member of the agility club so that would be great as well.

We need more pictures of Journey though, she's looking so grown up!
Thanks! I don't normally bother buying fancier tags for my crew as I eventually just end up covering them up so I don't have to listen to the noise, but suddenly one night I decided I needed a cute tag for her haha. And one for Dance too, cause they have to have matching stuff apparently.

She really is wonderful. Even just having had her for a couple of months, I'm pretty certain that Aussies are my new forever breed. I knew I'd enjoy her and probably love living with the breed, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten one obviously, but I'm blown away with just how ideal she is for me. Even the adult dogs at her breeder's house were totally my kind of dogs - I could have happily taken any one of them home.

On paper they sounded great for me, but my hands-on experience with Aussies prior wasn't fabulous as there are a lot of not-so-nicely bred ones out here with clueless owners, but I've met a good handful that I fell in love with since working at the pet food store and they helped convince me that I needed one for real instead of just fantasizing about my 'maybe someday' Aussie. So I decided kind of on a whim one day just to go for it and e-mail Journey's breeder and it was the best decision dog-wise that I've ever made. Even if I was needlessly worried Fran would hate me for being a copy cat.:rofl1:

Your wait, no matter how long it is, will be well worth it I am sure! I really can't complain about a single thing about Journey and my experience these last two months. She is seriously the best puppy/dog I've ever had so far.

She is so beautiful and growing up fast! She has the kindest eyes ever too. :)
Thank you! She is definitely growing up fast. And she just gets to be more and more fun as she grows.
 

JessLough

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#89
That group photo is perfect, I love the matching head tilts! Her tag is perfect too, I've been wanting to order both dogs new tag but have yet to get around to it.

I honestly cannot get over how great she seems, it just makes it harder and harder to wait! I'm thinking of going to University of Toronto and living with my aunt, who has an ACD, simply because that would open up the possibility of getting an Aussie a bit sooner, pending schedules etc... plus my aunt is a member of the agility club so that would be great as well.

We need more pictures of Journey though, she's looking so grown up!
Oh god yes. Must meet Cali.
 

Nbc0

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#90
MUST STOP GROWING!! She is growing up too fast. So cute. The whole gang is too good looking for their own good
 

Toller_08

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#93
Journey goes to work

She goes to work with me every day that I work, but the other day I brought my camera along. Because obviously there can never be too many pictures of Journey. Ok, maybe there can be, but that doesn't stop me from taking them.

Haha believe it or not, this is her happy face! You just can't see the mile a minute bum wiggle in pictures.



"Throw it!" - She's so funny when I bring a toy out. She concentrates so hard and moves/does anything I ask of her in slow motion.





"Bring it back all the way? How 'bout if I just stand here and hold it for a bit instead?"



(don't worry, we don't play hard or long so it's not strenuous - just enough to help her not be too bored)



Uh oh. She's not the most coordinated yet haha



"What do you mean let go? Can't we tug with a tennis ball?"

She's learning to enjoy fetch, slowly but surely. But her favourite game by far is still tug. :)





Mostly she just lays behind her gate by the till. Keeps her safe from unruly dogs that come in but still allows customers to say hello.





More, as usual!
 
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Toller_08

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#94


Mmm, Bully Sticks! Don't worry though, she knows not to steal. She just likes to sniff and tempt herself (and see if I'm actually paying attention - I'm sure she'd steal lots of things if I didn't watch her!)



Checking for dust bunnies, perhaps? I have no idea. She's very curious.













"How about if I just lay here and squeak this for a bit?"





More!
 

Toller_08

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#95
Jailed puppy while I put stuff away.



But it was a small order and nobody was there so I let her help.



Looks pretty yummy, she says!



"Just one? Please?"



And because she was being so good, I let her have her one. Plus it keeps her busy for a little bit.





The end!
 

Toller_08

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#99
She's growing up so beautifully. She's going to rock the confo ring :D
O.M.G.

I think I love her a lot. And more and more with every post/picture.
I didn't think she could get any more gorgeous but she surely did. <3
Thanks, guys! I forgot I posted those in this thread haha. Oops.

Jess, I hope so! She's not perfect by any means, but I think she's very nice and my handling class instructor really, really likes her as well. So hopefully we do well. I've learned a lot and feel much more confident handling her, and while I still have lots to learn, as does she, our first show isn't until July so we have time. And I didn't buy her as a show dog, so if we totally suck, oh well, but I'm hoping we both do really well.

Today I feel like the most horrible person in the world. Amazing how one little black dog can make me feel so needlessly guilty haha. I don't know what it is about her. I don't feel guilty easily when it comes to the dogs usually. But today I came to work and I left her at home. For the first time ever on a work day since she came home. She was plenty happy to go into her crate with her Peanut Butter Kong, but still, I felt really bad. I'm sure she'll be fine... I've left her home on weekends before and she's fine, but she's my little co-pilot haha. The buses and trains have just been so annoyingly packed lately and mucky, plus there's a ton of salt all over the sidewalks and I'm expecting a super busy day here at work with deliveries, so I felt like it was better just to have her stay home.

In other news: She's doing awesome at Flyball. She's doing side-by-side restrained recalls with another dog now rather than just by herself. And this weekend they're going to give me some homework for things I can do at home with her since of course she's not allowed to do jumping or box work yet.

She starts Puppy Agility classes pretty soon, too. Looking forward to that.

We 'graduated' from our Intro to Shows handling classes and now we'll just attend drop-ins with him from here on in. The guy/handler who teaches them is a little different, but I learned a lot. Which is much more than I can say for the classes I took with Dance.

I'm really happy with how her left finish is coming along and we're taking heel slowly because I don't want to mess it up, but so far it's nice and tight and 10x better than any of my other dogs' heels. So yay for that, since I was dreading it cause I seem not very good at teaching a nice heel haha.

Other than that, there isn't really much of anything exciting happening. Just enjoying her crazy puppy self! She's definitely a brat, but at the same time she's just so good, too. And I love how snuggly she is. Seeing as the rest of her family who all thew themselves into mine and Fran's laps, I kind of expected it, but it's still nice. She can go from being absolutely nuts and wild one second into the sweetest, cuddliest dog the next without being needy about it. And she's just so happy and joyful all the time. I love being around her. I feel kind of lost without her today.

She's not always perfect though. Yesterday she embarrassed me three times in a row on the way home from work haha. First, we were getting on the bus and she got in the way and I accidentally lightly stepped on her toe and she screamed, in front of everybody, like I'd just tried to kill her. Then we were getting off the bus and she lacked any regard for leash manners and leaped off onto the sidewalk and almost knocked into a guy. And lastly, some idiot was coming down the sidewalk baby talking her and reaching out to pet her and I told her to leave him, and what does she do? Runs forward and tries to leap on the guy all super excited, to which he said "that's ok! I don't mind!" and I'm like (in my head) "That's great for you, but it's really not ok"... gah, puppies sometimes. So embarrassing. I hadn't given her much leash anyway, so she never touched him, but still. She really needs to learn that it's not ok to say hi to people unless I give her the ok. It'd be much easier if people behaved themselves and didn't just reach for her without asking me though. She's such a people dog that it's really hard for her to resist.

I kind of want to get her some kind of a vest that makes it clear that she's friendly but in training and to please not pet her unless given permission... but I dunno, seems weird to put a vest on a pet dog. I guess it bugs me even more because I have a dog that you can't just run up and touch and stare at, so in a lot of ways, it'd be nice to somehow make people stop and think and use their manners. A people training tool is what I need haha. It's not Journ's fault. She can't help herself - she's just learning. But the people of this city really need some canine education! When you have a dog out in public every single day it becomes really apparent how clueless people are. It's annoying.

But anyway, here are a few more pictures!







 

Cali Mae

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She seems darn near close to perfect! She's maturing beautifully and it sounds like she's an absolute pleasure to be around. :) I'm looking forward to show pictures and hearing how she does when she is old enough to compete in flyball/agility. :)

It must be great to be able to bring her to work with you too.
 

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