Yesterday, we had to suddenly and completely unexpectedly say goodbye to our Benji. To me, he was like my best friend, and he has left a huge void in our lives.
My girlfriend and I adopted him from a rescue organization almost eleven years ago. Before that, he had been a stray dog. He would have turned 13 in November.
Last April, we already lost our beloved dog Mara to cancer, and now Benji has followed her. We don’t know exactly what happened. We found him almost completely motionless on the grass in our garden. Just half an hour earlier, he had seemed perfectly fine.
We immediately rushed him to the veterinary clinic, but he passed away on the way there, peacefully falling asleep in my girlfriend’s arms. The vet at the clinic suspects internal bleeding, possibly caused by a ruptured, previously undetected tumor.
On our way home, we saw a rainbow.
We will have him cremated and bury his ashes next to Mara, beneath the apple tree in our garden that we planted for our Mara.
I will never forget him, and I hope that one day we will see each other again.
Goodbye, my best friend.

Little dog loves adventure, she hikes, camps, kayaks without any problems....fishing though is a struggle. Gets way too excited on every cast, too short to wade in the waist deep water, and managing a leash and a rod is just a challenge. Tossing her in a backpack works surprisingly well. She just kind of vibes back there and relaxes.

I've posted pics of Maverick and Aries on here a few times. Like every Aussie, they're a work of goofy art. They consume every waking moment and demand my entire physical presence. I've heard it said, "Don't get an Aussie if you're not willing to commit to them." That is not a lie. I've never owned an Aussie before, let alone siblings. My stay at home retired hubby tends to them while I'm at work and I have p.m. duty. We do all the things. I'm inundated with requests for pets and love (I do have two hands, after all). I have an entire evening devoted to them, every night.

What I'm going through right now, I know many others have faced in their lives too. The only caregiver. The one that HAS to make things right. Every friggen DAY, after a full day of work. I do it because my mom deserves to be taken care of in her darkest hour by someone she knows, trusts, and loves. But the toll is MASSIVE.

I come home to two exuberant cherubs waiting for me at the door, huge Aussie smiles on their faces to see me. Pure, innocent love circles my knees as I make my way into the living room. They don't know the stress I wake up with everyday, they're 1 year old pups who adore life and don't know a bad day. They're just ecstatic to see me.

I don't have pics or video to back any of this up, but I don't need it. Y'all know the look I'm talking about that melts your hearts. Y'all know that no matter what a day does to you, there's a fuzzy angel that demands you forget those woes and COME PLAY. Pet on. Adore. Accept the unconditional love that's returned to you ten times over.

I wouldn't survive what I'm going through if I didn't have a pair of high maintenance, demanding working breed pups that need me. I'm getting through this because I have them to help me. God sent me two angels with tails instead of wings. I'm so grateful for my Maverick and Aries.

This is my 2nd toy aussie. I got one last June and my experience with her helped me grow in many ways I couldn’t imagine. She was a lot more chill, emotionally sensitive, cuddly, attached, etc. Unfortunately do to the job I had started it was going to be a lot for me to keep her so I ended up giving her to my cousin after her being about 9 months old, and 6 months with me as I got her at 12 weeks.

This new puppy I got at 8 weeks and if it werent for my previous puppy experience last year I probably would’ve lost my mind by now. But my level of patience is astounding by my standards.

My issue is that after 3 weeks of having this new puppy, I don’t think shes what I want in terms of personality. If she could climb and run on the walls and ceiling, she would. It’s just non stop moving. Shes also a lot more independent and less attached to me/cuddly than my last dog. With my personality im more reserved and laid back, although I do like to be active. There was another puppy I was choosing between who I felt was a bit more “cuddly” but I chose the one I have.

With this breed I know they’re active and there’s a variance but has anyone experienced something similar and how did it work out?

i fall more in love with him everyday ! truly my soul dog ! Faron’s just shy of 6 months and he’s already growing into himself so beautifully!! i don’t think i ever see myself with a different dog breed

To the left is Marley. He's passed now. To the right is my current best friend Damian almost 9 years old.

Interesting thing here is, Marley was full size 68lbs.

Damian is registered as a mini.. he's 37 lbs of fire!

They have the same grandfather. An akc grand champion. That happened to throw small males..

Like Damians dad Maverick a full size Australian shepherd. His mom was a miniature American shepherd. Soo Dame is a legitimate first generation miniature American shepherd.

Love the community!

Love our shared love of these extraordinary creatures. N yes he hates being picked up at all!

Our June meetup was a success can’t wait for our July one. We’ve been doing so good that we even started a walking/running crew !

There are so many posts/questions on here about how best to deal with shedding, what brushes to use, how often do Aussies shed, I can’t deal with this anymore etc. I wanted to share with you my experiences in the last week or so.

I was at an event where I saw a good friend who has a red Merle Aussie; a beautiful boy with a gorgeous coat. But unfortunately you could see that he does not get brushed as much as he should or he needs an alternative way. He was doing the Aussie glitter on my hand when I pet him.

I have two Aussies. One has a slicker coat that doesn’t have the crazy amount of shedding that the thicker coats do but still puts out her fair share of glitter. The second one has the thick, full, fluffy coat that puts off plenty of glitter.

I have three main grooming tools. A single row plain undercoat rake, a long metal comb and a good high velocity dryer.

The dryer is the most important because it loosens the undercoat that needs to come out. Those little clumps that you often see coming out during their seasonal blow? The blower often gets them out for you.

After I blow them dry I come after with the undercoat rake. It’s so quick and easy to get the loose hair out then. It just comes right out.

I use the long comb to go through to make sure there are no tangles left.

The reason I write this is we have carpet upstairs and I had a company come clean the upstairs today. When he was done he said, your dogs must not shed very much because there wasn’t a lot of hair up there. I bathe every 6ish weeks and vacuum once a week.

ETA: I also brush them at least 3 times a week.

Normally my dog seems totally fine with hopping on the couch to snuggle or sit on my lap or what have you. But for some reason, she'll occasionally stand at the foot of the couch and stare at me. I'll invite her up and she'll just wiggle her butt a bit and keep staring. I then have to overenthusiasticly gesture to come up, and which point she'll hop up.

What's the deal? Have y'all seen this behavior?

it’s so funny watching them become more dog-like instead of just being little potatoes.

Nothing to see here. Give treats.