Zipp's Intro:

[mmbelk]

Hello! I just became a member of this website tonight and thought I'd come by and introduce my family. My husband and I adopted an Australian Shepherd mix from the Humane Society summer of 2007. He was only 3 months old and just the cutest thing in the world, he was in a crate alone because they had to separate him from his sister and brother because he was bullying them while trying to eat!
The minute we heard that we knew he was our dog, my husband and I are both the youngest of our families and so was he. :doglaugh:
He is a really smart dog, we had no idea this breed was so intelligent until he came home and was house broken in just two days. I began reading up on the breed and discovered just exactly what a gem of a dog we had found!
We've taught him a lot of tricks and enjoy always teaching him more. He loves going to the dog park and herding the other dogs (although he doesn't seem to get along with females). Although he does have a lot of energy, he is also very sweet and passive. Some days he just loves lounging around the house trying to act like a 5lb lap dog.
Wow sorry... I tend to ramble on about him... anyway, I just wanted to say hello and to say I look forward to working on challenges given and making new friends!

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Lol, I just replied to another Aussie owner with these same words...
Aussies are great to work with and I really love the breed. ^^

Welcome to the Academy! Trick-training is a great way to keep your Aussie mix entertained. You guys would probably really enjoy the monthly challenges! Enjoy the site, and good luck with him!

 

[snooks]

Welcome to you and you smarty dog. Aussie's are amazing. This is the place for him. Do post some pictures. I LOVE Aussie pups. Did into the challenges too, this inspires me to get dust off my imagination more often. Congratulations. :doglaugh:

 

[snooks]

How is that new pup? All settled in yet? Hope things are going wonderfully.

 

[tunnels97]

hey

thanx for telling me that i never know that the internet could ever be as dangerous as you put it. So i told my mom and dad about what you said and they are going to help me with talking over the internet
thanx:doglaugh:

 

[snooks]

You're very welcome tunnels. This is a great site for you to learn and ask questions. Everyone is very nice and the site administrators do such a wonderful job of being sure that content of posts is appropriate for all ages. The training we all discuss here is positive and reward based so the dogs always have fun. I commend you for taking on the responsibility to train your dog, you sound like a very confident person that will make a great dog trainer. :dogsmile:

I didn't want to scare you but it is important that you are safe. Maybe this can even be a family project with you as team leader. If you are in Girl Scouts or any other clubs at school they often give credit for badges or points for dog training. I used to take my dog to nursing homes to visit people that didn't get many visitors when I was in Girl Scouts. Sometimes he was just a puppy. My first dog was a poodle named Charlie that I got when I was 13.

I'm training my puppy now to go visit children in hospitals that don't get to go outside much for a while. She's got a little more to learn being calm so she won't be too excited. So we're kind of teaching the same thing. To be polite and calm. She still needs a little work on the calm part. :dogtongue2:

Good luck to you Erin. I'll look forward to hearing about Nanie's progress. Be sure and ask questions any time about anything you want to teach her. We're all here because we love our dogs and it's fun to help and hear about success with every dog.

There are some great videos on here of people training their dogs here that I love to watch. Be sure and go to the video section and check some of them out. Some fun ones are posted by Szecsuani, Collieman, Shaktishiloh, Fickla, (and more great ones I could list but I just got back from dog training class and I'm sleepy enough to forget off the top of my head). Sorry to those I left of, it's late. There are many other neat ones too. I remember those because I'm trying to teach some of the same things right now. My beginner amateur video is here [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7anhdPpPAV4[/media]

These all give me great ideas for new tricks and every person I ask has been very kind helping me. Have fun!!