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Aussie Rescue of Minnesota

37:00
 
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Mary E Lewis에서 제공하는 콘텐츠입니다. 에피소드, 그래픽, 팟캐스트 설명을 포함한 모든 팟캐스트 콘텐츠는 Mary E Lewis 또는 해당 팟캐스트 플랫폼 파트너가 직접 업로드하고 제공합니다. 누군가가 귀하의 허락 없이 귀하의 저작물을 사용하고 있다고 생각되는 경우 여기에 설명된 절차를 따르실 수 있습니다 https://ko.player.fm/legal.

Today I'm talking with Laura at Aussie Rescue of Minnesota. You can follow on Facebook as well.

If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee

https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Laura at Aussie Rescue of Minnesota. Good morning, Laura, how are you? Good morning, I'm good, how are you? I'm good, it's a really grody day in Minnesota this morning. It is. For anyone who doesn't live in our area,

00:29
It is very, very gray and the fog in LaSour is like pea soup. I don't know what it's like where you are, Laura. It's raining here, which is always miserable in the winter.

00:41
Yeah, it's really weird. I'm not loving this winter so far because it reminds me an awful lot of last year. Yup. All right, so tell me about yourself and about what you do. So I joined Aussie Rescue of Minnesota in 2012 because I had heard such great things about Nancy and the organization, Nancy Anderson, and the organization that she had started with another person like 30 years ago.

01:09
And so she had started, she saw the need for Aussies to find Aussie appropriate homes, because Australian Shepherds can be special. They can be high energy, definitely, but also they're very smart. So sometimes smart isn't easy to live with, because they find lots of things to get into and to do, and if you don't give them a job, they find their own job, which is generally something you didn't want them to do.

01:36
And so she saw a lot of Aussies being re-homed because of that. She saw a lot of Aussies being re-homed because people, maybe their lives had changed. The dog didn't get along with a new baby or they'd lost their home or, I mean, there's so many reasons that people's lives can kind of go topsy turvy. So she started rescuing and a few years later made it into a formal nonprofit.

02:04
and she's been sailing this ship ever since. And I was looking for a way I could help and had heard so many good things about the reputation of Aussie Rescue of Minnesota. So I got on board and kind of got sucked in pretty heavy. I went from just fostering one dog to fostering multiple dogs, to being on the board, to adding roles as I went. So...

02:34
Aussie Rescue of Minnesota has been around for a long time, 30 years. And they pride, we pride ourselves on good matches with people, not just finding a good home for the dog, but finding a dog that really fits that family. And then we are with our dogs for the rest of their lives. So if anything happens, they come back to us. If the new owners have

03:00
behavioral issues or, you know, vet issues or anything like that, we're there to help them or assist them in any way we can. So that's what we pride ourselves on is the long relationship and the quality of our adoptions. Wow. Okay. This is why I wanted to talk to you because I need to know more. Number one,

03:30
because sirens were the mermaids that would suck the sailors in to basically dying. And Aussies suck you in. There's something about her little faces that you're just like, oh, I am yours forever now. I am your human. You are not my dog. And I know this because we have one and we've had her for a little over four years and I love her to pieces. And I've talked about her endlessly on the podcast. So.

03:58
I may throw in a couple things about Maggie today, but I want to know more about the process here because as you said, Aussies are a very special breed and they will get into trouble and they do need a job. And they also bond really, really tightly with their owners. So it must be incredibly hard when they're surrendered to you guys. Yeah, it can be. Although, you know, dogs live in the moment.

04:26
So as much as we'd like to believe that our dogs would shine away for us forever, if given up, they do tend to just bond with the next person, unfortunately for our egos. They really live in the moment and they're looking for that bond, like you said. Having an Aussie is more like having a partnership than having a pet. And I work with my dogs a lot, my own personal dogs.

04:53
I do a lot of competitions with herding and agility and obedience. And so that bond becomes even stronger since we spend so much time training together. But even a dog coming in that's just met me within a couple days, they'll pick the person in the house and it might be myself, it might be my husband, it might be one of my kids. But they actually have an opinion on that. They don't, you know, you can't get an Aussie and say, well, this one's going to be my dog because it's really up to them. They pick their person.

05:23
and you can't change their minds. So yeah, that bond is very strong. Yes, and they will pick the person that is not at home all the time. I am at home all the time. My husband works seven days, well, not seven days a week, five days a week, and he leaves the house about 7.15 and he gets home anywhere between four and 5.30. And Maggie is very sad by four o'clock if he's not here yet. She thinks that he's her person,

05:53
when he's been out of town for more than a day or two, she pouts on the back of the couch looking out the window for him. And then within a day or two, she's right back, to mom, will you feed me? Mom, will you play with me? Mom, I love you. So, so yeah, they are very much, they very much want to be with a human, but as long as the human they're with is kind of them, they adapt pretty quick. Yeah, and the breed was bred to be very adaptable, right? The breed was developed in the Western United States.

06:23
and they were used for like everything you needed on a farm. So they were sheep dogs, they were cow dogs, they were, you know, the dog that was supposed to get rid of the rodents on the farm. They were playing with the kids, they were, you know, jumping in the truck to go to town to protect the trucks so nobody could approach it. So they were a little bit of guard dogs, so we see some of that guardy behavior in them sometimes.

06:49
They were really the all-purpose dog on the ranch out west. And so there's good things and bad things to that also. I mean, when a breed has been developed for certain tasks like that, sometimes putting them in suburbia doesn't work if they have some of those strong instincts. Sometimes it does. You know, the aloof with strangers is right in their breed standard. And we see a lot of that.

07:17
but we just adopted a dog named Boone up to a YMCA camp in Northern Minnesota where he's going to greet, you know, hundreds of people every summer. And he will love that because he was a little bit more golden retriever in an Aussie body type of dog, which isn't something we see a lot, but that was him. So he is adopted to a home that is perfect for him.

07:45
Yeah, they're incredibly smart. I just got Maggie to learn shake. I've been trying to get her to do shake, shake her paw for four years. And the other day she was trying to get me to pet her and I took her paw because she was pawing at me. And she let me hang onto her paw for the first time ever without pulling it away. And I was like, shake, good job. And she put her paw down and that was it. And the next day she came over to me and she wanted me to pet her

08:14
pawing at my arm and I didn't touch her, I just said shake and she picked her paw up and let me take it and I was like oh so it took four years for you to learn shake but you learned everything else really fast. Right. Had to be her idea. Yep and now if we can just find her off switch for barking when people pull in our driveway that would be great. Yeah yeah I'd love to give you that off switch but I don't have it myself. Yes and on that note these dogs.

08:43
I would love an Aussie that was actually friendly with strangers. We did not get one. She must make her opinion known that there is someone she does not know on the property or in our house for at least five minutes. And then all of a sudden she's like, well, maybe I'll go sniff them and see if they pass the sniff test. And then if they do, she's fine. She's their best friend the entire time they're here. And so...

09:11
One of the things that I would tell people who are considering getting one of these dogs, whether it's a toy or a mini or a standard or whatever size you want, you really have to commit to this. You do with any dog, but these dogs are really a lot. I mean, she's wonderful. We love our Aussie, but they have things that are also important to note, like they can be prone to epilepsy.

09:41
And the flea and tick and heart guard, or not heart guard, heartworm medicines can cause them to have seizures too. So there's a gene that these dogs can have that makes them prone to having seizures. And that's no fun. Our dog didn't get it, thank God, because I would be heartbroken. Yeah, and so it's called the MDR1 mutation. And so all dogs have the genes. There's two genes.

10:09
But Aussies tend to have a mutation that's passed down genetically in one or both of the genes. So if it's a fairly simple genetic transmission, so if one of the parents has both mutations on both, a mutation on both genes, then they will for sure pass one down to the puppy. And if the other parent is clear, we call it clear if they don't have the mutation, then

10:38
that puppy will have one mutation on the two genes. And so if they have one mutation, they can have reactions to certain drugs. And those are drugs that would enter, that would cross the blood brain barrier. So they get into the brain tissue. And the dog, because of the mutation, has trouble clearing that drug back out. So that same drug in a different dog, say a lab, would still cross the blood brain barrier. Sorry, that's hard to say.

11:06
And would, but then the dog would be able to clear that drug out of the brain easily because of those two genes. And in the Aussie, they can't, so it builds up. And that's why they have not necessarily seizures, but neurological issues when those certain drugs, ivermectin being a common one that we see a lot build up in that dog. It's...

11:30
Fairly easily managed. There's a list of drugs on the University of Washington State on their website and they were the ones that discovered it and described it and they have a list, very complete list of drugs that you would avoid with dogs that have that mutation. They also have a blood test. It also is in all the genetic testing that a good quality breeder would do anyway on a dog.

11:56
And so you know whether your dog has it or not if you buy from a quality breeder. Um, so, you know, cause oh, I have, um, you know, multiple Aussies in my house. They're clear. I can treat them like any other dog. They can have the same drugs as any other dog because they don't have those mutations. Yeah. Maggie does not either. Thank goodness. I swear to you, Laura, if anything was wrong with my dog, I would be heartbroken. Like she.

12:22
She was out playing frisbee with my husband yesterday, the day before, and she got a snoot full of snow. Like she must have inhaled a whole bunch. Yeah. And she was coughing and coughing and coughing. And I was like, please don't let her get pneumonia. Please don't let her get pneumonia because that happens when you inhale water or food into your lungs. It can make you sick. And so I watched her like a hawk all day yesterday. My husband got home. He was like, did she cough today? I was like, not a peep. She's good. He's like, you look...

12:50
He said, you look so relieved. I said, honey, I said, I'm telling you, anything happens to this dog, I'm gonna be a disaster for a month. I love her so much. So that's how sick I am about this dog. We never should have gotten her, it's terrible. Yeah, I hear that a lot. And I know, I've had other breeds too, but yeah, there's something about the bond between an Aussie and their owner that's just so strong. It's ridiculous.

13:17
If anyone had told me I would be this obsessed with her, I would have just laughed myself stupid. And now I just laugh myself stupid because I am this obsessed with her. So the other thing I was gonna say about getting any dog is that you can't just go get a dog and do nothing. You have to really want to take care of a dog to be a good dog owner. And right now, the care for dogs or cats or any animal is exceedingly expensive.

13:47
We just took her for her well checkup thing back in October and it ran us almost $260 just for the checkup and her shots. And I was like, it was $160 a year ago and the vet tech was like, yeah, inflation hit us too. And I was like, wow, okay. Everything is more expensive. And also, pet medicine has become more like human medicine and that we have access to

14:14
ultrasounds and MRI machines and all the, you know, which is all great. I mean, I've used some of that stuff, right? And when you have a dog that you're looking for what's wrong with them, to be able to have access to all those tools is awesome. But it's also increased the cost, just like human medicine, because they have access to all that stuff. So you have to pay for it. Yeah. So what I'm, what I'm getting at is that these days, if you want a pet, it's like adopting a child.

14:41
because you are going to have to do the things to take care of that pet. Almost like you are adopting a child. It's not cheap, guys. It's money. And if you're not in a position to have a kid, you're not in a position to have a pet, is my take on it. Yeah. Well, I see a lot of young couples getting a dog or something, you know. And you know, I love those adoptions because they have all the time in the world for that dog, right? They don't have...

15:09
kids to run to school or to soccer practice or whatever. And, you know, I mean, we can all look back in our early years and think, oh my gosh, look at all the free time I had and I didn't even realize it, you know. Yeah. So, yeah, I have a, you know, so we adopt two apartments. If the dog is suitable, obviously, if you have a big barker who doesn't like people walking by in the hallway outside, that might not be the best for that dog.

15:36
But if it's suitable for the dog that we're adapting, we adapt to apartments. We just make sure that, yeah, they're getting adequate physical exercise and even more so mental. So a lot of people when they have an Aussie who's out of control and crazy like this new little foster I just brought in last week, she's just exploding with energy. She's young, she's been in a kennel at an animal, local animal control, and she's just exploding with energy.

16:06
And she gets adequate exercise, but mostly what she needs is mental stimulation because that's what she's been missing. And so we're doing things like stuffing Kongs for her. So when she's in her crate, she has a Kong that she can, you know, unstuff and get all the goodies out of. We're letting her play with other dogs, which is great mental stimulation while they figure out the social aspect of it, which she's not that great at. So I've got her with one of my own dogs.

16:35
loose in the house together so that they can, she can learn a few social niceties and the other dog can teach her that they can play without her getting offended by, you know, whatever the dog just did. And so when we go on walks, I put her on a long line, she gets to sniff. So sniffing is a great mental stimulation. So instead of just, you know, if you're a runner, maybe running a dog miles.

17:00
They'll actually be more tired if you take a slower walk and let them sniff a lot because that uses so much of their brain. So anything you can do, like you were talking teaching tricks with your dog earlier, that's a great mental stimulation and it's fun for the dog and for the owner. Yes, and one of the things you can do is, my husband does this all the time in the evening for her dinner time. He will take her kibble and we have a blanket that is just hers.

17:30
and he will toss the kibble in the folds of the blanket, like crinkle it up. And then he just puts blanket on the floor and she has to figure out where her food is. She loves this game. She thinks this is great. So that makes her think about, oh, I still can smell it. Where is it? Yeah. And hunting for food is a very instinctual thing for them. So yeah, they enjoy that a lot.

17:54
Yep, and she's a sucker. She finds every piece, but there's always one that's buried in the middle somewhere. And she'll stand there and like paw at the blanket and cock her head like, I know it's in there. Where is it? Right. She finds it eventually, but it's very fun to watch her because you can just see the wheels turning in her head. Yeah, I always recommend to people who have wild and crazy, especially young dogs.

18:17
There's a couple toys that you can put kibble in and then they knock it around. The Buster Cube is one that I've had around for years and years. The Dog Pyramid, which is very similar to the Kong Wobbler. But the Kong Wobbler has a bigger hole, so it doesn't take them as long, where the Dog Pyramid has a smaller hole in it. It's like a, it's one of those Weeble Wobbles, like we had when we were kids, that you could put it and it'd pop back up. It's built like that. You put kibble in it. It's a little, you know.

18:46
eight inch tall little toy plastic and then they knock it around and the kibble comes out one or two pieces at a time and so it'll take them like 45 minutes to eat their supper or breakfast out of that instead of you know three and a half seconds to gulp it out of a bowl. So similar to your blanket trick it's just slowing them down making them work making their brain work and it just leads to a more contented dog.

19:12
Yes, and they sleep a lot better at night when their brain is not spinning constantly. Oh my God. Yep. When she was a puppy, she did not sleep well at all. And as she got older and her grown-up teeth came in, she wasn't teething on everything. And she grew into her crazy, I think is how I would put it. Yep. So, yeah. And we were warned. We were warned. Our friends are the owners of Maggie's parents.

19:41
Mrs. Bratz told me, she said, she said, she's a, they're Velcro dogs and your dog is a very licky puppy. And I thought, well, all puppies are licky. That's not news. Well, no, this dog is still a very licky puppy at four years old. So, right. Yeah. So I was warned, but I did not understand. I had no concept of what we were, we were stepping into and that's fine. We love her. We're not getting rid of her.

20:11
So how many dogs do you guys rescue a year do you think? Is it an average? Do you have an average number? Yeah, so 70 to 80. Um, and We're around there. We've done more we've gotten closer to a hundred in some years Um, it really depends on how many foster homes we have because we can only rescue as many as we can put into foster homes and um, I have four dogs of my own and then I try and limit myself to one or two fosters at a time But you know, that doesn't work so well. So right now I have three

20:40
Oh, wow. And so we try not to, you know, put too many, you just can't put too many dogs in one house. You can't take adequate care of them if you do that. So I get to seven and I'm still okay. I get to eight and I'm like, all right, this is too much. And I have acreage to walk the dogs on and I have ways to separate dogs in my house a little bit. Not everyone has that. So most of our foster homes, you know, have the one foster with their own dogs.

21:10
And so yeah, it just depends on how many foster homes. And then, you know, some dogs stay with us for a long time. I've got Marty here, he's on our Facebook and our website, and he has been with us for a year and a half. It'll be two years in March, actually. And, you know, he's just, he came from a hoarding situation. He's very skittish about being touched. And so I've slowly been able to touch him, pet him more and more.

21:38
And so now he's comfortable, very comfortable with me touching his head, his chest, his back. But I still, you know, can't like slide down his leg or, you know, trim his nails or that kind of stuff. It's just been a very slow process because he's just been very, very damaged by his fast. And he probably came out of a puppy mill. And then he went into a hoarding situation and it's, you know, sometimes it takes him a long time to recover from that.

22:08
Other dogs, we just had a dog last couple weeks ago named Mac, came in, delightful dog, friendly. The only reason he was being turned in was because his owner was moving out of his country home and into a small apartment in town. Physically, couldn't take care of the dog anymore. So we got him in and he was adopted. We had an approved application that was already waiting for a dog.

22:35
And we asked, are you interested in this dog? And they said, yes. And he was with us for only five days and then off he went to his new home. So it really depends on the dog and what kind of work they need, what kind of vet work they need. Some of them need a lot of recovery if they come in in poor condition before we even list them. So we have a couple of dogs sitting in foster right now that we don't even have listed yet because they need more training or more recovery time before they're listed.

23:05
Yeah, so last year we did 80 dogs. That's one of the things that I love about what you guys are doing is that you aren't just getting a dog in, getting them up to date on their vaccinations, making sure that they're physically okay and then sending them out the door. You are actually taking the time to get them prepared to go be with another family. Yes. Well, we want to get to know them.

23:31
We want to know that the family that we're placing them with is a good match, both for the dog and for the person in the family, because we don't believe that a family should, you know, change their entire life around a dog. You should place a dog in that family that fits with their lifestyle. So if the, you know, one of the people like to run marathons and they want to take the dog on a four or five mile run every day, we're not going to place, you know, a couch potato.

24:01
dog with them. And if we have a person that likes to come home from work and curl up on the couch and watch Netflix, then we're going to put the couch potato dog with them. So getting to know them is key so that we can make those good matches. Awesome. So we got all messed up on timing here because your phone got messed up. So we have like, I'd guess maybe eight more minutes to make this a 30 minute interview. So

24:29
I had questions and I just said all that and now they're gone. So does it have to be an Aussie breed dog for you guys to take it in or just have like part Aussie? So we do take Aussie mixes. People are very visual. We're a very visual species ourselves. So we try and get the dogs if they're an Aussie mix that look like an Aussie a little bit.

24:54
at least. Some of the times they come in and they probably do have some Aussie in them, but if they don't look Aussie, they tend to linger people. When people come looking to us, they're looking for something that looks like an Aussie. And so it's not that we don't take them. It's just that we recognize they're going to be with us longer because we're looking for that certain person that doesn't care what the dog looks like, which is more rare than you would think. And so...

25:20
Even though we try and tell everyone, you know, as you're living with the dog's temperament and the personality more than you are, what they look like, that's just a human trait, you know? So we do take, you know, obviously Aussies and then Aussie mixes. And that leads into, I know the minis and what people call the toys are getting more common. You know, we try and educate people that those are not Aussies. Some of them have a little bit of Aussie in them, but they're definitely mixes.

25:48
The breed doesn't have a size difference like, you know, like for instance, poodles. They have different size poodles and schnauzers, they have different size, but they actually don't in Aussies. The breed is an Aussie. And then when people are making the small ones, they're mixing them with small other breeds to make those. And so we would just list them as mixes, but we also take them.

26:13
But we do have a under 20 pound rule that I try and stand by. Once in a while, we get one that's smaller than that anyway. We're suckers. That's why we're in this business. And so we take the dog that needs help. But we've genetic tested enough of them to know that they generally don't even have any Aussie in them. We had one little guy. He was so cute. He was black tri. He had his tail docked just like an Aussie.

26:41
And he was a toy Aussie supposedly, he was like 16 pounds. And we had him genetic tested and he had like three different kinds of terrier and a couple spaniels in him. He was all little dog breeds and he didn't have any herding dogs in him at all, any breeds in him at all. So, you know, but you see a picture of him, you're like, oh yeah, he looks like an Aussie because his coloring was right and his tail was docked. So there's a lot of scamming going on by puppy mills, that kind of thing. So I guess, you know.

27:10
The big thing to tell people is get a puppy from a reputable breeder who does genetic testing, does hips, elbows, and eyes, and get a rescue dog from a reputable rescue that's willing to take their dog back if it doesn't work out. And that they're there for the purpose of placing dogs in good homes and helping the dogs and not there for the money because there are disreputable rescues just like there are

27:39
reputable breeders. And so yeah, we are also willing to help people with that aspect of it. If people are looking for a dog and we don't have the dog that they want, we refer them to other rescues that we trust and we work with. And we'll help them find a good breeder too. We are 100% supported by our breeders in the area. They do fundraisers for us. A couple of them do grooming

28:09
dog that needs to come in to rescue right now and we don't have a spot for it. We've used them and they don't even charge us. So yeah, we are very lucky that the local Aussie breeders are behind us and helping us and we're actually gonna have a big fundraiser put on by the Upper Midwest Australian Shepherd Club, which is a lot of breeders are part of that. They do a big raffle for us in March. That's one of our big fundraisers for the year.

28:38
We are very, very lucky how supported we are by the quality breeders we have in this area. That's fabulous. I love that. I didn't know that you guys were supported by the breeders too. Yup, yup. So if anyone wanted to donate to you guys, is there a thing on your website that they can just, I don't know, send money? They do, yeah. Yup, we have our address for if you have, we wanna send a check or else we have PayPal on our website and that's www.ossierescuemn, as in Minnesota,.com.

29:09
And then obviously our Facebook is pretty active. We try and share if someone's adopted from us We always encourage them to send in pictures and updates and we share that and we always have our adoption photos and our new dogs That are coming in that are available for adoption On our Facebook Yes, I was I was actually looking at your page yesterday evening And I showed my husband a couple pictures of the dogs that are available and he was like we are not getting another dog One is enough

29:39
I said, oh, but honey, honey, I want that one and I want that one and I want that one. And he said, no, no, no. And I'm like, okay, fine. But they are very- Aussies are like potato chips. You can't have just one. Yeah, we're trying to buck that. We really are good with one. She definitely takes up our time and our energy. The last thing that I would say regarding these dogs is that if you get one, be prepared to lose your heart. It'll be gone.

30:08
I swear to you, had no idea, but it will be gone. It's like having kids, you know, they say that having children is like taking your heart out of your chest and letting it walk around in the world without you. And I swear it's the same with these dogs too. Yeah. Like I said, they're more of a partnership than a pet ownership. Yeah. You don't own an Aussie and Aussie owns you. And I think that's pretty much it. I just...

30:37
The reason I wanted to talk to you is because Aussies tend to be farm dogs and my podcast is about homesteading and stuff. So I was like, there's a tie in there. It's okay. Yup. They're great dogs. They're great dogs for farms. They're great dogs as pets. They're just all around. They're a good dog. But like you said, they all have very different personalities. So if you...

31:01
If you want a couch potato, you kind of need to know that it's a couch potato. It can't be a dog that wants to go herd sheep and you don't have sheep. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, mine are spend a lot of time with my, I have sheep and so I rotationally graze and so I move my sheep from spot to spot. And so I have two of my four that I own that are trained to move the sheep and put them where I want them. And they're very calm in the house, but they're emotionally.

31:30
mentally and physically satisfied dogs too. So that's always the difference. They have a job and they do their job. And then they come in and they're like, I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap now. Yep. Uh-huh. And the other thing I was gonna mention is you were saying that you kind of like the dogs that you guys take in to look like Aussies. The biggest thing that I have seen with looking like an Aussie is a border collie. My parents have one.

31:59
And she's like four years older than our dog, I think. And she's a black tri border collie. She has the pretty brown markings. Yep, yep. That an Aussie would have, a classic black tri. And when we got our dog, my dad was like, you got the same dog as we have. And I said, no, yours is a border collie and mine's an Aussie. And he's like, they're the same damn dog. And I was like, I don't think they are. No, they're not.

32:29
And he said, okay, well, they look very much like they could be border litter mates. And I was like, yes, yes, they look a lot alike, but they're not the same breed. Yeah. We got into kind of a, I don't want to say piss and match about it, but we got into kind of a little debate about it. So, yeah. So, and they act different. I have a half border collie, half Aussie foster right now, Nico. I'm about to post him actually. He's been with me about a month and a half because he needed some.

32:57
needed some training before we could post him. Probably still need some more, but we're going to try and find the home that can help finish that training. And he, they act different. So when when they come in, even if they look like an Aussie, my husband will say that one acts really border collie. And I'll be like, yeah, he kind of does. And you start watching them move. So they move different definitely. When the two breeds heard, they heard very different. The Aussie is

33:27
So they don't do that direct border collie stare. Most of them, there is some of that in there. And that, you know, there's probably common ancestries, maybe some breeding of border collie into the Aussie at some point in their lineage. You know, we don't know for sure. Back then people were breeding the good cowdog to the good cowdog to get more good cowdogs, right? They weren't really concerned about papers or there weren't any papers back then when they were developing it. And so,

33:56
There's, you know, all breeds came from somewhere. But the, and the, you know, the border collie was developed over in northern Europe and the Australian shepherd's parentage, well, that's not the right word, ancestry came from like Spain and that area. So those aren't too far away. So there was probably some intersection back there somewhere also.

34:22
But definitely the border collie when they heard you can see the difference. They're more crouchy That's not the right term, but they crouch down and and they have this very intense lots of eye contact with the sheep Controlling with a lot of presence And then the Aussie is more up close and personal They'll go in and do more close-up work, and that's what they were bred to do Also, they were bred to be in the chutes and the corrals at the ranch

34:49
and do a lot of the close work where the border collie was bred to be out in big open fields with the sheep. And there's plenty of people that use border collies now on cattle also, but those are very different looking border collies than the ones you'll see working sheep. Even in the breed, you'll see the differences. So it's very interesting. Yeah. And I mean, this is going to sound dumb, but...

35:12
What you were just saying is all very accurate. I did some research. I believe everything you're saying. I sent the research to my dad and he was like, okay, fine. Yes, they're different. But the other thing I've really noticed is that with my parents' dog, when she barks, when she's on alert, she sounds like an 80 pound German shepherd. When my dog barks, she has that high pitch yipe that the Aussies have. Okay. And, and, um,

35:41
I was saying to my dad something a while ago about how big his dog is. And he's like, she only weighs like 35 pounds. I said, oh, I thought she weighed like 60. He said, no, she's not a German Shepherd. And I said, she's the same size as our dog. I said, and our dog goes, hi, hi. And your dog goes woof, woof. And he was like, yeah. He said, you said they're not the same dog. He said, I believe you now. They are not the same dog.

36:11
I was like, okay, good, and she's barking right now. God love you, Maggie, you're a good girl. All right, so anyway, I think we're good. Laura, thank you for talking with me about your rescue because, well, it's not your rescue, but the rescue, because I worry about my dog. If anything happened to us, I would want her to go to somebody like you. Yep, that's what we do. I hope we give people peace of mind.

36:39
when life goes horrible and they don't have any other choices because we get a lot of that. And I hope we give them peace of mind that we will, you know, we'll follow that dog for the rest of their lives and make sure that they're safe. I think you will. And I think you're doing a fabulous thing. Thank you so much, Laura. Have a great day. Thank you. All right. Bye.

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Today I'm talking with Laura at Aussie Rescue of Minnesota. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Laura at Aussie Rescue of Minnesota. Good morning, Laura, how are you? Good morning, I'm good, how are you? I'm good, it's a really grody day in Minnesota this morning. It is. For anyone who doesn't live in our area,

00:29
It is very, very gray and the fog in LaSour is like pea soup. I don't know what it's like where you are, Laura. It's raining here, which is always miserable in the winter.

00:41
Yeah, it's really weird. I'm not loving this winter so far because it reminds me an awful lot of last year. Yup. All right, so tell me about yourself and about what you do. So I joined Aussie Rescue of Minnesota in 2012 because I had heard such great things about Nancy and the organization, Nancy Anderson, and the organization that she had started with another person like 30 years ago.

01:09
And so she had started, she saw the need for Aussies to find Aussie appropriate homes, because Australian Shepherds can be special. They can be high energy, definitely, but also they're very smart. So sometimes smart isn't easy to live with, because they find lots of things to get into and to do, and if you don't give them a job, they find their own job, which is generally something you didn't want them to do.

01:36
And so she saw a lot of Aussies being re-homed because of that. She saw a lot of Aussies being re-homed because people, maybe their lives had changed. The dog didn't get along with a new baby or they'd lost their home or, I mean, there's so many reasons that people's lives can kind of go topsy turvy. So she started rescuing and a few years later made it into a formal nonprofit.

02:04
and she's been sailing this ship ever since. And I was looking for a way I could help and had heard so many good things about the reputation of Aussie Rescue of Minnesota. So I got on board and kind of got sucked in pretty heavy. I went from just fostering one dog to fostering multiple dogs, to being on the board, to adding roles as I went. So...

02:34
Aussie Rescue of Minnesota has been around for a long time, 30 years. And they pride, we pride ourselves on good matches with people, not just finding a good home for the dog, but finding a dog that really fits that family. And then we are with our dogs for the rest of their lives. So if anything happens, they come back to us. If the new owners have

03:00
behavioral issues or, you know, vet issues or anything like that, we're there to help them or assist them in any way we can. So that's what we pride ourselves on is the long relationship and the quality of our adoptions. Wow. Okay. This is why I wanted to talk to you because I need to know more. Number one,

03:30
because sirens were the mermaids that would suck the sailors in to basically dying. And Aussies suck you in. There's something about her little faces that you're just like, oh, I am yours forever now. I am your human. You are not my dog. And I know this because we have one and we've had her for a little over four years and I love her to pieces. And I've talked about her endlessly on the podcast. So.

03:58
I may throw in a couple things about Maggie today, but I want to know more about the process here because as you said, Aussies are a very special breed and they will get into trouble and they do need a job. And they also bond really, really tightly with their owners. So it must be incredibly hard when they're surrendered to you guys. Yeah, it can be. Although, you know, dogs live in the moment.

04:26
So as much as we'd like to believe that our dogs would shine away for us forever, if given up, they do tend to just bond with the next person, unfortunately for our egos. They really live in the moment and they're looking for that bond, like you said. Having an Aussie is more like having a partnership than having a pet. And I work with my dogs a lot, my own personal dogs.

04:53
I do a lot of competitions with herding and agility and obedience. And so that bond becomes even stronger since we spend so much time training together. But even a dog coming in that's just met me within a couple days, they'll pick the person in the house and it might be myself, it might be my husband, it might be one of my kids. But they actually have an opinion on that. They don't, you know, you can't get an Aussie and say, well, this one's going to be my dog because it's really up to them. They pick their person.

05:23
and you can't change their minds. So yeah, that bond is very strong. Yes, and they will pick the person that is not at home all the time. I am at home all the time. My husband works seven days, well, not seven days a week, five days a week, and he leaves the house about 7.15 and he gets home anywhere between four and 5.30. And Maggie is very sad by four o'clock if he's not here yet. She thinks that he's her person,

05:53
when he's been out of town for more than a day or two, she pouts on the back of the couch looking out the window for him. And then within a day or two, she's right back, to mom, will you feed me? Mom, will you play with me? Mom, I love you. So, so yeah, they are very much, they very much want to be with a human, but as long as the human they're with is kind of them, they adapt pretty quick. Yeah, and the breed was bred to be very adaptable, right? The breed was developed in the Western United States.

06:23
and they were used for like everything you needed on a farm. So they were sheep dogs, they were cow dogs, they were, you know, the dog that was supposed to get rid of the rodents on the farm. They were playing with the kids, they were, you know, jumping in the truck to go to town to protect the trucks so nobody could approach it. So they were a little bit of guard dogs, so we see some of that guardy behavior in them sometimes.

06:49
They were really the all-purpose dog on the ranch out west. And so there's good things and bad things to that also. I mean, when a breed has been developed for certain tasks like that, sometimes putting them in suburbia doesn't work if they have some of those strong instincts. Sometimes it does. You know, the aloof with strangers is right in their breed standard. And we see a lot of that.

07:17
but we just adopted a dog named Boone up to a YMCA camp in Northern Minnesota where he's going to greet, you know, hundreds of people every summer. And he will love that because he was a little bit more golden retriever in an Aussie body type of dog, which isn't something we see a lot, but that was him. So he is adopted to a home that is perfect for him.

07:45
Yeah, they're incredibly smart. I just got Maggie to learn shake. I've been trying to get her to do shake, shake her paw for four years. And the other day she was trying to get me to pet her and I took her paw because she was pawing at me. And she let me hang onto her paw for the first time ever without pulling it away. And I was like, shake, good job. And she put her paw down and that was it. And the next day she came over to me and she wanted me to pet her

08:14
pawing at my arm and I didn't touch her, I just said shake and she picked her paw up and let me take it and I was like oh so it took four years for you to learn shake but you learned everything else really fast. Right. Had to be her idea. Yep and now if we can just find her off switch for barking when people pull in our driveway that would be great. Yeah yeah I'd love to give you that off switch but I don't have it myself. Yes and on that note these dogs.

08:43
I would love an Aussie that was actually friendly with strangers. We did not get one. She must make her opinion known that there is someone she does not know on the property or in our house for at least five minutes. And then all of a sudden she's like, well, maybe I'll go sniff them and see if they pass the sniff test. And then if they do, she's fine. She's their best friend the entire time they're here. And so...

09:11
One of the things that I would tell people who are considering getting one of these dogs, whether it's a toy or a mini or a standard or whatever size you want, you really have to commit to this. You do with any dog, but these dogs are really a lot. I mean, she's wonderful. We love our Aussie, but they have things that are also important to note, like they can be prone to epilepsy.

09:41
And the flea and tick and heart guard, or not heart guard, heartworm medicines can cause them to have seizures too. So there's a gene that these dogs can have that makes them prone to having seizures. And that's no fun. Our dog didn't get it, thank God, because I would be heartbroken. Yeah, and so it's called the MDR1 mutation. And so all dogs have the genes. There's two genes.

10:09
But Aussies tend to have a mutation that's passed down genetically in one or both of the genes. So if it's a fairly simple genetic transmission, so if one of the parents has both mutations on both, a mutation on both genes, then they will for sure pass one down to the puppy. And if the other parent is clear, we call it clear if they don't have the mutation, then

10:38
that puppy will have one mutation on the two genes. And so if they have one mutation, they can have reactions to certain drugs. And those are drugs that would enter, that would cross the blood brain barrier. So they get into the brain tissue. And the dog, because of the mutation, has trouble clearing that drug back out. So that same drug in a different dog, say a lab, would still cross the blood brain barrier. Sorry, that's hard to say.

11:06
And would, but then the dog would be able to clear that drug out of the brain easily because of those two genes. And in the Aussie, they can't, so it builds up. And that's why they have not necessarily seizures, but neurological issues when those certain drugs, ivermectin being a common one that we see a lot build up in that dog. It's...

11:30
Fairly easily managed. There's a list of drugs on the University of Washington State on their website and they were the ones that discovered it and described it and they have a list, very complete list of drugs that you would avoid with dogs that have that mutation. They also have a blood test. It also is in all the genetic testing that a good quality breeder would do anyway on a dog.

11:56
And so you know whether your dog has it or not if you buy from a quality breeder. Um, so, you know, cause oh, I have, um, you know, multiple Aussies in my house. They're clear. I can treat them like any other dog. They can have the same drugs as any other dog because they don't have those mutations. Yeah. Maggie does not either. Thank goodness. I swear to you, Laura, if anything was wrong with my dog, I would be heartbroken. Like she.

12:22
She was out playing frisbee with my husband yesterday, the day before, and she got a snoot full of snow. Like she must have inhaled a whole bunch. Yeah. And she was coughing and coughing and coughing. And I was like, please don't let her get pneumonia. Please don't let her get pneumonia because that happens when you inhale water or food into your lungs. It can make you sick. And so I watched her like a hawk all day yesterday. My husband got home. He was like, did she cough today? I was like, not a peep. She's good. He's like, you look...

12:50
He said, you look so relieved. I said, honey, I said, I'm telling you, anything happens to this dog, I'm gonna be a disaster for a month. I love her so much. So that's how sick I am about this dog. We never should have gotten her, it's terrible. Yeah, I hear that a lot. And I know, I've had other breeds too, but yeah, there's something about the bond between an Aussie and their owner that's just so strong. It's ridiculous.

13:17
If anyone had told me I would be this obsessed with her, I would have just laughed myself stupid. And now I just laugh myself stupid because I am this obsessed with her. So the other thing I was gonna say about getting any dog is that you can't just go get a dog and do nothing. You have to really want to take care of a dog to be a good dog owner. And right now, the care for dogs or cats or any animal is exceedingly expensive.

13:47
We just took her for her well checkup thing back in October and it ran us almost $260 just for the checkup and her shots. And I was like, it was $160 a year ago and the vet tech was like, yeah, inflation hit us too. And I was like, wow, okay. Everything is more expensive. And also, pet medicine has become more like human medicine and that we have access to

14:14
ultrasounds and MRI machines and all the, you know, which is all great. I mean, I've used some of that stuff, right? And when you have a dog that you're looking for what's wrong with them, to be able to have access to all those tools is awesome. But it's also increased the cost, just like human medicine, because they have access to all that stuff. So you have to pay for it. Yeah. So what I'm, what I'm getting at is that these days, if you want a pet, it's like adopting a child.

14:41
because you are going to have to do the things to take care of that pet. Almost like you are adopting a child. It's not cheap, guys. It's money. And if you're not in a position to have a kid, you're not in a position to have a pet, is my take on it. Yeah. Well, I see a lot of young couples getting a dog or something, you know. And you know, I love those adoptions because they have all the time in the world for that dog, right? They don't have...

15:09
kids to run to school or to soccer practice or whatever. And, you know, I mean, we can all look back in our early years and think, oh my gosh, look at all the free time I had and I didn't even realize it, you know. Yeah. So, yeah, I have a, you know, so we adopt two apartments. If the dog is suitable, obviously, if you have a big barker who doesn't like people walking by in the hallway outside, that might not be the best for that dog.

15:36
But if it's suitable for the dog that we're adapting, we adapt to apartments. We just make sure that, yeah, they're getting adequate physical exercise and even more so mental. So a lot of people when they have an Aussie who's out of control and crazy like this new little foster I just brought in last week, she's just exploding with energy. She's young, she's been in a kennel at an animal, local animal control, and she's just exploding with energy.

16:06
And she gets adequate exercise, but mostly what she needs is mental stimulation because that's what she's been missing. And so we're doing things like stuffing Kongs for her. So when she's in her crate, she has a Kong that she can, you know, unstuff and get all the goodies out of. We're letting her play with other dogs, which is great mental stimulation while they figure out the social aspect of it, which she's not that great at. So I've got her with one of my own dogs.

16:35
loose in the house together so that they can, she can learn a few social niceties and the other dog can teach her that they can play without her getting offended by, you know, whatever the dog just did. And so when we go on walks, I put her on a long line, she gets to sniff. So sniffing is a great mental stimulation. So instead of just, you know, if you're a runner, maybe running a dog miles.

17:00
They'll actually be more tired if you take a slower walk and let them sniff a lot because that uses so much of their brain. So anything you can do, like you were talking teaching tricks with your dog earlier, that's a great mental stimulation and it's fun for the dog and for the owner. Yes, and one of the things you can do is, my husband does this all the time in the evening for her dinner time. He will take her kibble and we have a blanket that is just hers.

17:30
and he will toss the kibble in the folds of the blanket, like crinkle it up. And then he just puts blanket on the floor and she has to figure out where her food is. She loves this game. She thinks this is great. So that makes her think about, oh, I still can smell it. Where is it? Yeah. And hunting for food is a very instinctual thing for them. So yeah, they enjoy that a lot.

17:54
Yep, and she's a sucker. She finds every piece, but there's always one that's buried in the middle somewhere. And she'll stand there and like paw at the blanket and cock her head like, I know it's in there. Where is it? Right. She finds it eventually, but it's very fun to watch her because you can just see the wheels turning in her head. Yeah, I always recommend to people who have wild and crazy, especially young dogs.

18:17
There's a couple toys that you can put kibble in and then they knock it around. The Buster Cube is one that I've had around for years and years. The Dog Pyramid, which is very similar to the Kong Wobbler. But the Kong Wobbler has a bigger hole, so it doesn't take them as long, where the Dog Pyramid has a smaller hole in it. It's like a, it's one of those Weeble Wobbles, like we had when we were kids, that you could put it and it'd pop back up. It's built like that. You put kibble in it. It's a little, you know.

18:46
eight inch tall little toy plastic and then they knock it around and the kibble comes out one or two pieces at a time and so it'll take them like 45 minutes to eat their supper or breakfast out of that instead of you know three and a half seconds to gulp it out of a bowl. So similar to your blanket trick it's just slowing them down making them work making their brain work and it just leads to a more contented dog.

19:12
Yes, and they sleep a lot better at night when their brain is not spinning constantly. Oh my God. Yep. When she was a puppy, she did not sleep well at all. And as she got older and her grown-up teeth came in, she wasn't teething on everything. And she grew into her crazy, I think is how I would put it. Yep. So, yeah. And we were warned. We were warned. Our friends are the owners of Maggie's parents.

19:41
Mrs. Bratz told me, she said, she said, she's a, they're Velcro dogs and your dog is a very licky puppy. And I thought, well, all puppies are licky. That's not news. Well, no, this dog is still a very licky puppy at four years old. So, right. Yeah. So I was warned, but I did not understand. I had no concept of what we were, we were stepping into and that's fine. We love her. We're not getting rid of her.

20:11
So how many dogs do you guys rescue a year do you think? Is it an average? Do you have an average number? Yeah, so 70 to 80. Um, and We're around there. We've done more we've gotten closer to a hundred in some years Um, it really depends on how many foster homes we have because we can only rescue as many as we can put into foster homes and um, I have four dogs of my own and then I try and limit myself to one or two fosters at a time But you know, that doesn't work so well. So right now I have three

20:40
Oh, wow. And so we try not to, you know, put too many, you just can't put too many dogs in one house. You can't take adequate care of them if you do that. So I get to seven and I'm still okay. I get to eight and I'm like, all right, this is too much. And I have acreage to walk the dogs on and I have ways to separate dogs in my house a little bit. Not everyone has that. So most of our foster homes, you know, have the one foster with their own dogs.

21:10
And so yeah, it just depends on how many foster homes. And then, you know, some dogs stay with us for a long time. I've got Marty here, he's on our Facebook and our website, and he has been with us for a year and a half. It'll be two years in March, actually. And, you know, he's just, he came from a hoarding situation. He's very skittish about being touched. And so I've slowly been able to touch him, pet him more and more.

21:38
And so now he's comfortable, very comfortable with me touching his head, his chest, his back. But I still, you know, can't like slide down his leg or, you know, trim his nails or that kind of stuff. It's just been a very slow process because he's just been very, very damaged by his fast. And he probably came out of a puppy mill. And then he went into a hoarding situation and it's, you know, sometimes it takes him a long time to recover from that.

22:08
Other dogs, we just had a dog last couple weeks ago named Mac, came in, delightful dog, friendly. The only reason he was being turned in was because his owner was moving out of his country home and into a small apartment in town. Physically, couldn't take care of the dog anymore. So we got him in and he was adopted. We had an approved application that was already waiting for a dog.

22:35
And we asked, are you interested in this dog? And they said, yes. And he was with us for only five days and then off he went to his new home. So it really depends on the dog and what kind of work they need, what kind of vet work they need. Some of them need a lot of recovery if they come in in poor condition before we even list them. So we have a couple of dogs sitting in foster right now that we don't even have listed yet because they need more training or more recovery time before they're listed.

23:05
Yeah, so last year we did 80 dogs. That's one of the things that I love about what you guys are doing is that you aren't just getting a dog in, getting them up to date on their vaccinations, making sure that they're physically okay and then sending them out the door. You are actually taking the time to get them prepared to go be with another family. Yes. Well, we want to get to know them.

23:31
We want to know that the family that we're placing them with is a good match, both for the dog and for the person in the family, because we don't believe that a family should, you know, change their entire life around a dog. You should place a dog in that family that fits with their lifestyle. So if the, you know, one of the people like to run marathons and they want to take the dog on a four or five mile run every day, we're not going to place, you know, a couch potato.

24:01
dog with them. And if we have a person that likes to come home from work and curl up on the couch and watch Netflix, then we're going to put the couch potato dog with them. So getting to know them is key so that we can make those good matches. Awesome. So we got all messed up on timing here because your phone got messed up. So we have like, I'd guess maybe eight more minutes to make this a 30 minute interview. So

24:29
I had questions and I just said all that and now they're gone. So does it have to be an Aussie breed dog for you guys to take it in or just have like part Aussie? So we do take Aussie mixes. People are very visual. We're a very visual species ourselves. So we try and get the dogs if they're an Aussie mix that look like an Aussie a little bit.

24:54
at least. Some of the times they come in and they probably do have some Aussie in them, but if they don't look Aussie, they tend to linger people. When people come looking to us, they're looking for something that looks like an Aussie. And so it's not that we don't take them. It's just that we recognize they're going to be with us longer because we're looking for that certain person that doesn't care what the dog looks like, which is more rare than you would think. And so...

25:20
Even though we try and tell everyone, you know, as you're living with the dog's temperament and the personality more than you are, what they look like, that's just a human trait, you know? So we do take, you know, obviously Aussies and then Aussie mixes. And that leads into, I know the minis and what people call the toys are getting more common. You know, we try and educate people that those are not Aussies. Some of them have a little bit of Aussie in them, but they're definitely mixes.

25:48
The breed doesn't have a size difference like, you know, like for instance, poodles. They have different size poodles and schnauzers, they have different size, but they actually don't in Aussies. The breed is an Aussie. And then when people are making the small ones, they're mixing them with small other breeds to make those. And so we would just list them as mixes, but we also take them.

26:13
But we do have a under 20 pound rule that I try and stand by. Once in a while, we get one that's smaller than that anyway. We're suckers. That's why we're in this business. And so we take the dog that needs help. But we've genetic tested enough of them to know that they generally don't even have any Aussie in them. We had one little guy. He was so cute. He was black tri. He had his tail docked just like an Aussie.

26:41
And he was a toy Aussie supposedly, he was like 16 pounds. And we had him genetic tested and he had like three different kinds of terrier and a couple spaniels in him. He was all little dog breeds and he didn't have any herding dogs in him at all, any breeds in him at all. So, you know, but you see a picture of him, you're like, oh yeah, he looks like an Aussie because his coloring was right and his tail was docked. So there's a lot of scamming going on by puppy mills, that kind of thing. So I guess, you know.

27:10
The big thing to tell people is get a puppy from a reputable breeder who does genetic testing, does hips, elbows, and eyes, and get a rescue dog from a reputable rescue that's willing to take their dog back if it doesn't work out. And that they're there for the purpose of placing dogs in good homes and helping the dogs and not there for the money because there are disreputable rescues just like there are

27:39
reputable breeders. And so yeah, we are also willing to help people with that aspect of it. If people are looking for a dog and we don't have the dog that they want, we refer them to other rescues that we trust and we work with. And we'll help them find a good breeder too. We are 100% supported by our breeders in the area. They do fundraisers for us. A couple of them do grooming

28:09
dog that needs to come in to rescue right now and we don't have a spot for it. We've used them and they don't even charge us. So yeah, we are very lucky that the local Aussie breeders are behind us and helping us and we're actually gonna have a big fundraiser put on by the Upper Midwest Australian Shepherd Club, which is a lot of breeders are part of that. They do a big raffle for us in March. That's one of our big fundraisers for the year.

28:38
We are very, very lucky how supported we are by the quality breeders we have in this area. That's fabulous. I love that. I didn't know that you guys were supported by the breeders too. Yup, yup. So if anyone wanted to donate to you guys, is there a thing on your website that they can just, I don't know, send money? They do, yeah. Yup, we have our address for if you have, we wanna send a check or else we have PayPal on our website and that's www.ossierescuemn, as in Minnesota,.com.

29:09
And then obviously our Facebook is pretty active. We try and share if someone's adopted from us We always encourage them to send in pictures and updates and we share that and we always have our adoption photos and our new dogs That are coming in that are available for adoption On our Facebook Yes, I was I was actually looking at your page yesterday evening And I showed my husband a couple pictures of the dogs that are available and he was like we are not getting another dog One is enough

29:39
I said, oh, but honey, honey, I want that one and I want that one and I want that one. And he said, no, no, no. And I'm like, okay, fine. But they are very- Aussies are like potato chips. You can't have just one. Yeah, we're trying to buck that. We really are good with one. She definitely takes up our time and our energy. The last thing that I would say regarding these dogs is that if you get one, be prepared to lose your heart. It'll be gone.

30:08
I swear to you, had no idea, but it will be gone. It's like having kids, you know, they say that having children is like taking your heart out of your chest and letting it walk around in the world without you. And I swear it's the same with these dogs too. Yeah. Like I said, they're more of a partnership than a pet ownership. Yeah. You don't own an Aussie and Aussie owns you. And I think that's pretty much it. I just...

30:37
The reason I wanted to talk to you is because Aussies tend to be farm dogs and my podcast is about homesteading and stuff. So I was like, there's a tie in there. It's okay. Yup. They're great dogs. They're great dogs for farms. They're great dogs as pets. They're just all around. They're a good dog. But like you said, they all have very different personalities. So if you...

31:01
If you want a couch potato, you kind of need to know that it's a couch potato. It can't be a dog that wants to go herd sheep and you don't have sheep. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, mine are spend a lot of time with my, I have sheep and so I rotationally graze and so I move my sheep from spot to spot. And so I have two of my four that I own that are trained to move the sheep and put them where I want them. And they're very calm in the house, but they're emotionally.

31:30
mentally and physically satisfied dogs too. So that's always the difference. They have a job and they do their job. And then they come in and they're like, I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap now. Yep. Uh-huh. And the other thing I was gonna mention is you were saying that you kind of like the dogs that you guys take in to look like Aussies. The biggest thing that I have seen with looking like an Aussie is a border collie. My parents have one.

31:59
And she's like four years older than our dog, I think. And she's a black tri border collie. She has the pretty brown markings. Yep, yep. That an Aussie would have, a classic black tri. And when we got our dog, my dad was like, you got the same dog as we have. And I said, no, yours is a border collie and mine's an Aussie. And he's like, they're the same damn dog. And I was like, I don't think they are. No, they're not.

32:29
And he said, okay, well, they look very much like they could be border litter mates. And I was like, yes, yes, they look a lot alike, but they're not the same breed. Yeah. We got into kind of a, I don't want to say piss and match about it, but we got into kind of a little debate about it. So, yeah. So, and they act different. I have a half border collie, half Aussie foster right now, Nico. I'm about to post him actually. He's been with me about a month and a half because he needed some.

32:57
needed some training before we could post him. Probably still need some more, but we're going to try and find the home that can help finish that training. And he, they act different. So when when they come in, even if they look like an Aussie, my husband will say that one acts really border collie. And I'll be like, yeah, he kind of does. And you start watching them move. So they move different definitely. When the two breeds heard, they heard very different. The Aussie is

33:27
So they don't do that direct border collie stare. Most of them, there is some of that in there. And that, you know, there's probably common ancestries, maybe some breeding of border collie into the Aussie at some point in their lineage. You know, we don't know for sure. Back then people were breeding the good cowdog to the good cowdog to get more good cowdogs, right? They weren't really concerned about papers or there weren't any papers back then when they were developing it. And so,

33:56
There's, you know, all breeds came from somewhere. But the, and the, you know, the border collie was developed over in northern Europe and the Australian shepherd's parentage, well, that's not the right word, ancestry came from like Spain and that area. So those aren't too far away. So there was probably some intersection back there somewhere also.

34:22
But definitely the border collie when they heard you can see the difference. They're more crouchy That's not the right term, but they crouch down and and they have this very intense lots of eye contact with the sheep Controlling with a lot of presence And then the Aussie is more up close and personal They'll go in and do more close-up work, and that's what they were bred to do Also, they were bred to be in the chutes and the corrals at the ranch

34:49
and do a lot of the close work where the border collie was bred to be out in big open fields with the sheep. And there's plenty of people that use border collies now on cattle also, but those are very different looking border collies than the ones you'll see working sheep. Even in the breed, you'll see the differences. So it's very interesting. Yeah. And I mean, this is going to sound dumb, but...

35:12
What you were just saying is all very accurate. I did some research. I believe everything you're saying. I sent the research to my dad and he was like, okay, fine. Yes, they're different. But the other thing I've really noticed is that with my parents' dog, when she barks, when she's on alert, she sounds like an 80 pound German shepherd. When my dog barks, she has that high pitch yipe that the Aussies have. Okay. And, and, um,

35:41
I was saying to my dad something a while ago about how big his dog is. And he's like, she only weighs like 35 pounds. I said, oh, I thought she weighed like 60. He said, no, she's not a German Shepherd. And I said, she's the same size as our dog. I said, and our dog goes, hi, hi. And your dog goes woof, woof. And he was like, yeah. He said, you said they're not the same dog. He said, I believe you now. They are not the same dog.

36:11
I was like, okay, good, and she's barking right now. God love you, Maggie, you're a good girl. All right, so anyway, I think we're good. Laura, thank you for talking with me about your rescue because, well, it's not your rescue, but the rescue, because I worry about my dog. If anything happened to us, I would want her to go to somebody like you. Yep, that's what we do. I hope we give people peace of mind.

36:39
when life goes horrible and they don't have any other choices because we get a lot of that. And I hope we give them peace of mind that we will, you know, we'll follow that dog for the rest of their lives and make sure that they're safe. I think you will. And I think you're doing a fabulous thing. Thank you so much, Laura. Have a great day. Thank you. All right. Bye.

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