We just purchased a beautiful 8 week old female Miniature Austrailan Shepherd, and she is one of the most loving and energeic dogs I've met, not to mention absoultely GORGEOUS! She is tri-colored (black, tan and white), and she has so much spunk in her it's adorable. She grew up with 3 other Mini Aussie's, and a dominating cat that liked to chase her around and rough play with her every once in a while, so young Bailey is known to 'swat' at people..playfully of course! I swear some of her actions are cat-like and we keep joking her to stop acting like a cat and start acting like a dog! We bought her from a breeder in Kingston, Ontario (which is about 3 hours from where we live in Toronto). As soon as we saw her we fell in love. She is absoultely fearless. She was climbing all over a full grown Mini Aussie which was easily double if not triple her size, and started swatting at it, climbing over his face, riding his back. She acted like SHE was in charge and in control! But of course, all the other dog had to do was softly kick her away and everything was back to normal. After asking hundreds and hundreds of questions, and watching her play and interact with us and the dogs, we decided that she would be the perfect fit for our condo. Her maximum shoulder height will be 14"-15", which is exactly what we need (as our condo doesn't allow for any dogs with a shoulder height greater than 18"). When we got into the car, she immediately began to whine. We tried so many different things, but she wouldn't let up. I would hold her. My girlfriend would hold her. We'd let her perch on the side by the window to let the air brush her face. Nothing. Nothing worked. We made a brief stop to Petsmart to pick up somethings for home, and brought her in. Immediately we were overflowed with attention from customers and employees saying how cute and soft she was. A 5 minute stop, easily turned into a 30 minute entertainment set. We got her a football chewie (because I'm a football fanatic), some bones, and a kong. These still didn't do the trick. So I was driving I thought that maybe she wanted to go into the backseat, possibly to lay down or have more room. TA DA!! Exactly what she wanted! A little more space to just lay down and relax...yeah she's a spoiled one that's for sure lol. All 6lbs of her demands maximum space to just sprawl out, she's lucky she's cute! Surprisingly though, throughout the entire 3 hour ride home, she was fast asleep. No whining. No barking. No fidgeting. Complete silence. During this time we had to find a name for her. We thought Summer (since we got her in the summer), Destiny (since her birthday was very close to our anniversary...I know I'm corny), Kahula, Oreo (for her colors), Piper (that was my girlfriend's idea lol...), and then we got it! With only 5 minutes away to our condo, we agreed on.....Bailey! Everytime we said that her tiny head would look up to us, so we knew it had to be. Welcome home Bailey! Once inside our condo elevator, Bailey did not like the G force from it at all, she whined and whined until it was all over. Then once we got inside the condo we let her walk around and do some exploring. Well...we have a mirrored closet near the front door...and apparently she was never introduced to this before, so as soon as she saw it, she needed to investigate this further. She was mystified from the reflection of 'another dog' coming closer to her, and before you know it...BOINK!!! she walked right into the mirror! She shook her head, walked away...then did it again THREE more times! It was absoultely hilarious!! We also have a sliding door near the office in our condo, so as I was sitting there typing up an email, I hear another noise. There she is, face planted into the sliding glass door again! Silly Bailey!! We put puppy pads down near the door so she would be trained to go near the door when she wants to do her business, then gave her dinner, took her out for a brief walk (she doesn't like the leach much), played some games inside, and then the hard part....the crate. When it was time for bed we put her inside the crate and gave her a treat. For the first half hour she was excellent and didn't make a sound! But then...the howling and whining came. We ignored it because she already did her business and she needs to learn that the crate is her home. After about 45 minutes, she stopped and went to sleep. I got up every three hours to let her out to use the puppy pads, get some water, and then go back to sleep...day one...fun but exhausting!
