If you haven’t noticed, since May we’ve seeded this blog—well, maybe once or twice—with hints and codewords about something we’ve been planning for a while. Since the thing in question didn’t even exist yet (and wouldn’t for at least another three months) we thought it would be pretty silly to do a post about it; however, I think pretty much everyone knows our plans by now (especially after blabbing all about it to guests at our weekend party), so what’s the use in hiding it?

We’re getting a dog!

“Why a dog?” you ask. One: to get us—nay, force us—out of the house every day. Sitting at the computer all the time makes it very easy to have days where we don’t even leave the house. This is bad. Two: to give Jon an ersatz “sibling”. For a while now, but definitely since his operation in July the centre of the universe has coalesced around Master Jonathan, which is not necessarily a healthy situation. We’d like to redistribute the attention a bit. Three: we felt we needed a bit more chaos in our lives. Either that or I’ve decided I don’t like to wear black anymore. Take your pick. 😛

The breed is a miniature Australian Shepherd (AKA mini Aussie). They look just like regular Aussies, but are less than 17 inches at the shoulders (which is a fair bit smaller than the Aussies’ 18 to 23 inches) and about half the weight. They are intelligent herding dogs, and look a little like thickset border collies, but don’t have the border collies’ type-A intensity. One of the best descriptions of Aussies I’ve heard is that they’re like “border collies with an OFF switch”.

We’ve been in talks with the breeder since May. The reason we’ve been waiting so long is because there’s one particular breeding pair who are calm and mellow and who have already produced mellow pups (more mellow than most aussies, anyway). Oh goody! Pretty straightforward. Until this weekend when the breeder threw us a curveball.

She felt that one of her young (8 months old) dogs was no longer suitable for her breeding program. There’s nothing wrong with him, but she discovered some fear issues in his bloodline that she felt could pop up in any potential puppies of his, and she didn’t want to risk it. She’s sad about this, since the dog himself is a real lovebug. Another problem for the breeder is that he climbs over her 4-foot fences with aplomb—not to escape, but to simply go around the house to be where the people are!

The last few times we’ve visited, this dog has been one of her “ambassador puppies”: relatively calm and quiet, and definitely very gentle with Jon. Big plus in our books. We’ve been cogitating ever since her Friday email, and even more since our visit yesterday.

And, oh yeah, to add to the fun, the mom of the litter we are considering is in heat a month early….

Getting a young puppy
Pros:
Bond with them from newborn beginning (breeder posts pics of pups from their first day!)
Start behavioural training early; easier to mold them to what you want
Puppies are soooo cute!
Cons:
Puppies can drive you crazy!!
Housetraining
Chewing and biting
You don’t always know what temperment you’ll end up with (personalities can change)

Adopting older dog
Pros:
No surprises in size, looks or temperment
Housetraining and crate training already done (Apparently housetraining isn’t totally complete. Ugh.)
We can have a trial period and take him back if it doesn’t work out
Cons:
Miss cute puppy stage
Not much other training has been done, so we’d be training an older dog—we’re not sure what has been ingrained already or not

Here’s a cutie with Jon when we last visited the breeder. Note the puppy’s expression. Note that this was on the hottest day of the year (humidex 47°C). This is NOT the energy level we’re looking for.

Here’s the older dog we’re thinking of. That’s about as big as he gets!

Vote on what we should do! (Results, needless to say, are not binding.)