Woof - We'd love to share this portion of Dogster with you, but first you'll need to login.
If you don't have a Dogster account yet, you can register in about 60 seconds. Registering allows you to use all our free features while allowing us to create a safer, more meaningful environment for the community as a whole.
Registering is fast, free and lets you create your dog page(s), find adoptable dogs, save your favorites, connect to your Pup Pals and more.
Likes: Agility! I LOVE agility! And kisses. Big, sloppy, wet, tongue up the nose in the ear down the throat kisses.
Pet-Peeves: Mullets
Favorite Toy: Lobster! Like a true New Englander, she loves a good lobster (or two). Red or Blue - take your pick!
Favorite Food: Hot dogs and string cheese - Yum!
Favorite Walk: Walk? Sunny has two speeds - stop and GO GO GO!!!
Best Tricks: Hold it/Catch it - She balances a bone on her nose and flips it up in the air and catches it.
Arrival Story: After Cinnamon died, I was insane with grief. When Cinnamon's breeder told me she was discontinuing her breeding program 5 years ago, I knew I'd better get started finding another good one whom I "clicked" with, and who properly did their research and planning. I'd found one about 2 years ago, but since she doesn't have litters often, I figured I was S.O.L. But, she had 3 from the last litter. 2 show-hopefuls who didn't quite make the cut, and one that was "on hold" for a friend. We liked them all, but especially the one that was "on hold." She responded to both of us, was sweet and affectionate, and seemed to be what we were looking for in temperament. The lady who had reserved her said she couldn't convince her husband to let her get another dog, so she was ours! She'll never be a show-dog - too much white on the face disqualifies her, and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to breed her because of it. (She was gonna get spayed anyway before I even met her, little does she know).
Sunny LOVES agility. We discovered it totally by accident, when we brought her to a Puppy 101 class at PetSmart. They had a "fun" day with a tunnel, a hula-hoop and some traffic cones. All the other puppies were terrified, but Sunny was fearlessly zipping in and out, immediately learning what to do! Employees started coming out of the woodwork and said we should bring her to the agility club and take an agility class. Since she was a very active little girl, we had to do SOMETHING with her, so we went to agility class! She turned out to be a natural!
I probably would have given it up several times within the first few months, as I'm not much of an athlete and don't enjoy running, but every time we left class, she'd go potty outside, and then would drag me back towards the building. I told her it was time to go and tried to get her in the car, but she put the brakes on, straining with all her might back towards the building! And now, in competition, when we're getting close to the chute, she eagerly wants to enter the ring! I put her in a sit-stay at the start-line, and you can see the intensity on her face - she's ready to go! Everyone tells me she's a joy to watch not only because she does so well, but because she's got a huge smile on her face and so obviously is having fun!
Bio: Sunny's a "mis-marked" red-merle Aussie pup with a penchant for mischief. She's not a double-merle or lethal white - so anyone who thinks she's beautiful, please DO NOT seek out a breeder who makes or sells all or mostly-white Aussies, because they probably don't know what they're doing, and you'd be encouraging a very bad thing, and will wind up heartbroken when your dog has problems from it. When they don't have enough pigment in key areas, it can lead to deafness and blindness.
To clarify, she was properly bred, and the litter was carefully planned and thought-out, but she happened to have too much white on the right side of her face (called a "mismark"). So please do the same and carefully research and plan ahead when selecting a breeder and a puppy. While the timing of her purchase was somewhat quick and impulsive (after Cinnamon's death), the plan was well-researched and in place - I just didn't expect to act on it as soon as I did.
Whenever buying an Aussie, please do your homework, as they're not for everyone, and there can be issues due to the merling genes, hip dysplasia, cataracts, collie-eye anomoly, epilepsy, etc. And then there's their personality - they can be very strong-willed and bossy, and it takes a certain type of character to be able to handle one. So become very familiar with the breed before you get one, please. Yes, they're adorable, but please don't get one based on that.
Aside from their energy, there's the mental aspect. It may be well and good that you take your dog jogging and bring it with you everywhere, but an Aussie practically needs math drills and serious brain-flexing training worthy of a 3-year old human, not a poodle. So you should be prepared to be adopting a dog that's more like a child than a backyard dog or family-hampster pet.
Forums Motto: I want to lick your brain!
The Groups I'm In: !~!~!~CUTEST PUPPYS EVER!~!~!~!~, **~Awesome Australian Shepherds~**
The Last Forum I Posted In: Second Dog... Good Idea?
Titles:: CD, RN, NA, NAJ, NF, RS-N, JS-N, GS-E, Therapy Dog
So, Sunny has been proving just how good she is at Rally. We've entered in 5 rally runs so far, and Q'd (qualified) in all of them! She just needs one more Q to get her AKC RA (Rally Advanced) title! We hope to continue our winning streak... ;-) Obedience hasn't gone as smoothly, but she did finally get her AKC CD (Companion Dog/Novice Obedience) title last weekend. We may spend a bit of time in Open, as it will require some tricky long-stays unattended and off-leash heeling without wandering off to sniff stuff!
So, it was suggested by the specialist that we should probably retire from agility to make sure her legs don't get worse. Physical therapy seems to be helping, but since she's young and we don't want her to lose her mobility, we're going to quit while we're ahead. It was certainly a blow we weren't expecting, and is hard to swallow, only one Q away from all her open titles... so, since she's had some time off, and it's a chronic-inflammation thing, not an overnight injury, we figured we'd enter in two last trials and it would either happen, or it wouldn't... but it would give us some closure. Last weekend is making us think it probably won't... but we still have one left. We're hoping she'll at least get her Open FAST title - that one is theoretically possible even if she knocks bars, and she's always been good at the gambler-type courses.
In the meantime, though, in an effort to "move on" we've started Rally-Obedience classes, which she enjoys. She still looks longingly to the agility class in the other ring, but she's embracing all the new things she has to learn.
So THIS weekend, we had our very first AKC Rally trial... and since it was the same day, we figured we'd give obedience a shot too, even though our one previous attempt didn't go so well. (You mean you're NOT supposed to play-bow and stick your tongue out at the judge when they want to touch you?) We figured Rally would be doable, and obedience was a, "eh, may as well" even though we had no expectations there.
She... was... fantastic! Ok, so many of our fellow-competitors referred to her as "Crazy Dog" after hearing me call her that... but she left no doubts that she comes through when she needs to, and has finally settled down into a reliable working dog. She qualified in EVERYTHING (2 novice obedience legs and 2 novice rally legs) and got a 3rd and 2nd place in obedience, and a 2nd in rally. (Our first time out in rally we qualified, but didn't place). Wow! She even simply wagged, but stayed planted while the judges touched her this time!
Points off for sniffing the "posts" in the figure-8's on-leash heel, some mind-wandering in the off-leash heel, and 1 point off for coming in for a landing crooked on the recall, but all-in-all, not bad. Perfect stand-for-inspections, long-sits, and long-downs (which all were the big shocker, as she HATES sitting and standing still, and all of which required it!)
So, the bad news is no more agility. The good news is she's transitioning nicely to new activities, even if everyone still thinks she's the high-energy sheepdog your mother warned you about! :-)
Well, our physical therapy so far has been two-part: 1) ultrasound therapy to heat the deep tissue in the muscle, to make it more flexible and subject to stretching the scarred muscle fibers while we next 2) do the water treadmill to "re-teach" her how to walk with a correct gait.
The good news is Sunny is no longer dragging her toes noticeably when she walks, and I feel some minor muscle development on the outside where it had been atrophied. However, she still "bunny hops" (runs with her back feet together) when she runs, and the muscle still feels rather hard to me. I suppose only time will tell if it's truly making a big difference.
She HAS reverted back to giving us kisses on the lips when we don't ask for it though... and here we thought she just finally matured and out-grew jumping on people! When in fact, she just didn't have the muscular flexibility to! *sigh*
We have a follow-up exam with the specialist on April 3rd - we'll keep you posted on her progress. We're still not sure what this means in terms of agility or the long-term, however, and the not knowing is the killer. It's an "under-studied" rare disorder, so not much is known about it, as we keep getting told... but that doesn't make us feel much better. Especially when what I do read about it says the (final straw) surgery only seems to help for about 6 months and then it's back to where it was...
My Account
