Welcome Home Gypsy

Meet our newest family member, Gypsy. She's a Miniature American Shepard...aka Miniature Australian Shepard. She's perfect! My husband loves to do his research. I'm not going to say that he's obsessive...no, I won't say that...but seeing my sweet husband staying up late night after night on the computer looking at puppy pictures makes me love him more.

We were very particular in what we were looking for. Finding the right puppy for your family is very serious business. We have been thinking about this for months. My 9 year old son is a bit on the hyper side and his older brother is NOT. My daughters are a bit young to play the way Anthony wants to play...and, well, he's a boy. We needed a dog he could play fetch and Frisbee with in the back yard. We needed a dog that would have the energy to keep up with him. That was the first criteria.

Secondly, we have been wanting to get really involved in Agility Training ever since we went to a show and met the dogs and their people. We have training courses close by until we build our own. I am going to train Cricket my Coton - Zhu, but she isn't what you would consider high-energy. She is a companion dog and has been calm and easy from the day we brought her home. She's great at tricks and being by my side 24/7. She's more of a 1 person dog...mine:)

We also didn't want a dog that would be so big they would knock the girls over. I've had a Lab and they are wonderful, but they would be a bit big for my 3 and 4 year old girls. We do have a little bit of land for running, but we didn't want a big runner. We also didn't want a hunting dog that would be apt to run off on the scent of something. My husband has had Beagles. They are loving and sweet but once they want to chase they tend to go. Hunting dogs and gun dogs were out.

Next, our chickens and cats. I LOVE Terriers. They are fun and loving and crazy smart. They are also amazing killers when they want to be. Of course Cricket is also and she's not a Terrier. She can find and kill a mouse before the cats have a chance. She is great with the chickens though. I read too much about most Terriers having a hard time being part of the chicken and cat family.

link to when Gypsy meets the chickens on Yellow Hen House

 We don't mind the grooming, in fact we like it. My husband sits with Cricket every night and we found a great local groomer to take her to for the bells and whistles. That opened up more choices for us.

Back to the chickens for a second...if you read my blog and have ever seen my other blog Yellow Hen House then you know I LOVE my chickens.  My Dad has Border Collies and he bought them sheep. Australian Shepherds are also herding dogs that will round up the chickens. Voila...perfect match.

Why we found the Miniature Australian Shephards to be a perfect match for our family:

Great with the family and other pets including chickens.
Will play ball and Frisbee with my son - a LOT
The breed is on the top 5 of Agility Course Champions
Very Smart so we can start Obedience Training in a few weeks.
We love the herding type dogs like my Father's.
The mini size is perfect for us and won't take up the whole sofa
I'm home all day with the girls so she will get lots and lots of attention to be well trained.
The breed is healthy - (this knocked out a few other breeds that were in the running.)
Last but not least....look at that face!!!! Pure love!!