Hello all. I am a SAHM to a beautiful 16 month old girl. We currently live in an apartment but are closing on our new home today. We have been in the home buying process for awhile. We had an accepted offer on the house and we've faced a few issues so it has taken longer than expected. Our landlord had told us previously it would be no problem for us to have a dog, and while we wouldn't have considered it if we planned to stay in a small space long term but since we were buying a house I began researching. I mentioned it to my grandmother and she told me her horse trainer had Australian shepherd puppies for sale. Our original plan was to adopt a shelter pup but DH and I both grew up with aussies and were open to this as well. The puppy came to visit us in our apartment. We wanted to see if she'd be a good fit for us and with DD and she was, well is, just perfect. She's fun and energetic but not overly hyper. She's playful but gentle with DD. She's also smart as can be! We decided we couldn't live without her and she was meant to be a part of our family.
We called the landlord to update and he changed his mind. He had apparently told the other tenants (who are TERRIBLE renters) that they were not allowed to have a dog so he didn't think it would be fair to let us have one even though he would have originally allowed it. So, our puppy has been living at my grandmothers for about 2 months. We miss her terribly and are so excited to have her back with us, where she belongs.
Does anyone have any ideas/tips to help her transition back with us? She sleeps in a kennel on a dog bed at my grandmothers and will sleep with the same stuff at our home. We'll bring her toys, food bowls, keep the same food and a semi-similar routine. It will be different though. My grandma lives in the country and while we have a fenced in back yard, we do live in town. I think leash training will be one of our biggest obstacles since she hasn't had a lot of time on the leash. She is potty trained and can sit on command. She does nibble but when we tell her "no bite, lick" she changes to licking instead. Is there anything else I should consider when making the transition? We're excited for this next step forward and can't wait to make this pup a part of our forever family.
Thanks for taking the time to read this LONG intro For your enjoyment here's some pics of the pup and my cutie girl!
Here she is cuddling with the blanket we gave her.
DD petting the puppy with her gentle hands
Giving the puppy kisses!
ETA: This is probably going to be a post and run but I will be back eventually Thanks again.
ETA: Update at the bottom and also I apparently spelled "about," "aboud."
Re: Intro and question about an Aussie pup UPDATED
How adorable is she! Cute little weebus doggus!
Crate training is essential --- your gma needs to start her on it and you need to pick up the ball when the dog comes to live with you.
She'll also need to learn the essentials of Sit, come, leave it, stay, etc.
I also suggest obedience school and puppy school.
Is there a dog park near you? Find one and bring her there often for exercise.:) A happy dog is a tired dog.
First off, congrats on your new furbaby!
The lovely thing about Aussie Shepards is that they adapt to new situations very well! We have an Aussie Shepard/Blue Heeler mix. She looks like a Heeler, but is all Aussie at heart.
All dogs are different and have their own personalities and way of dealing with things, but from my experience, you're going to want to prepare yourself for a whole lot of barking and a bit of destruction. Especially since you are moving her from a place that has a lot of room to run to a much smaller (but still large, as you'd mentioned) place to run around.
Herding dogs are very energetic/active and need lots of exercise. So, you might want start adding a daily jog or weekly dog park visit with your pup to your schedule. Our dog gets very needy and/or destructive when she hasn't gotten enough exercise. I recommend that you try to find some way of exercising with her right away when you move her to your new home. That way it'll be less stressful on her, you'll get much more bonding time with her and can avoid issues like destruction via boredom and separation anxiety (from your grandma, since I'm sure they've bonded quite a bit). If you don't have time to exercise her on a regular basis, having another puppy buddy for her is always a good idea, if you can handle having two! They keep each other entertained, exercised and get to socialize in their doggy ways, which is all very important.
Another thing, I would recommend puppy obedience classes. It's good behaviors for her to learn, the classes will be mental exercise for her (since she's smart, you'll need a lot of ways to keep her mentally stimulated), you can work on leash-training with a professional trainer and it'll give her an opportunity to socialize with other dogs/puppies, which is very important for dogs. Plus, it's another great opportunity for you to get to bond with your pup as well as help with her transition. If she's busy with visiting new places and getting used to the ones in your new area, she will become very comfortable with your new home and area quickly.
As for the chewing, our Marla chewed off all the rubber siding on the walls in our living room while she was in her puppy-chewing phase. Most of it was due to her being bored and she did it most often when we weren't home and when we had first brought her home. Marla eventually switched to just licking everything instead of chewing all on her own. It sounds like your pup has figured out that she's not supposed to do that from your reinforcements, which is good, but after you move her to the new house she might get a bit worse with the chewing. That could be a sign of anxiety, so try to spend as much time with her as you can after the move, have lots of toys (especially ones that are mentally stimulating and ones solely meant for chewing) and help her understand that this is her home. Try not to yell at her as a form of reinforcement or anything like that as well. That could cause her to become anxious and feel alienated from the rest of the family.
It is a wonderful thing that you already have her crate/kennel trained! Dogs like routine and having a special place that is all their own and having them crate trained gives them both of those things. Since your pup is kennel trained, that will definitely help her with her transition! She'll have her safe spot that will be at the new house, which will make her feel much more comfortable. Having the same kennel and bedding will also help her realize that this is her home due to it having her scent, which is comforting for dogs.
Sorry for such a long post! I hope this is somewhat helpful and good luck with the move and with your new puppy!
Thanks for your kind words and advice. She knows to go to her kennel when she's told and loves it. The thing is insanely HUGE though so it's currently divided. I think we'll probably keep it that way for awhile.
There is a humane society about an hour away that offers obedience classes and I have looked into them a bit. They are only offered a few times a year though so it would be awhile before we could do those. I WISH we had a dog park near us but we don't
Not within a few hours. I live in a pretty rural area with very few modern luxuries :P
As far as jogging with her, I thought you weren't supposed to jog or run with a dog until they were 2 to prevent hip problems. Does anybody know if that's still true? If it's old advice that would be awesome, I would love to jog with her but I don't want to cause her any hip issues later in life.
I will probably be back here with questions after we move and get her
I'm off to meet the carpet cleaner at the new house this morning! Maybe I'll hit up the farm store and grab her a few new toys 
Jumping in. You are correct. You should NOT run with your dog until she is at least two years old to prevent issues with her hips. That does not mean she cannot run chasing a ball etc. It's forced runs that should be avoided. (even though your dog may not seem like she is being "forced" it is just what it is called.). Also when learning to walk on a leash, I keep a treat bag on me at all times and reward good behavior. Randomly, I'll have her sit, shake etc. You want to mix it up to help her brain work and she'll find she has to pay attention to you to know what you want, to get the
PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW CESAR MILAN! His methods are very outdated and and can cause more problems than they help. He has no formal training and a quick google will tell you why his methods can be dangerous and not helpful. Highly recommended is Patricia McConnell. She is a Certified Applied Behaviorist and follows positive reinforcement not dominance training which is not effective.
Other ways to help your puppy "work" can be in the form of games. Food dispensing toys are great as well. With our pointer mix, I fed her food to her using games. The shell game, obedience (sit, shake, down, leave it, etc). Great way to work on obedience and make her use her brain which can be exhausting for a puppy.
Look at following NILIF (you can google it). It is a great way to start out with your new puppy.
How old is the puppy now (how old was she when yo got her)?
Ditto all this. NILIF was the perfect training guide for us with our Boxer puppy. She is the most amazingly well-behaved Boxer I've ever met! And it can absolutely extend to learning to walk on leash. The FAQs at the top of the board page have a wealth of helpful tips on training at home and to walk on leash. I also use an Easy Walk harness to help prevent leash pulling. Teaching the "heel" command (or "walk with me" as I say), also gives some mental exercise while teaching her not to walk ahead of you or pull at the leash. Teaching her to "look" at you or "watch" you during walks when you want to direct her attention away from something potentially over exciting are good to work on as well.
It's great that she's already crate trained and will have that familiar and safe environment when she first transitions to your new house. Just be prepared for accidents at first; dogs don't transfer their knowledge well, so house training in one home might need to be reinforced in the new home.
I also did not take my Boxer on runs until she was 1 1/2 (the recommendation is 1 1/2 to 2 years depending on size; the larger the breed, the longer you want to wait to make sure all their joints are fully developed before putting the strain of a run on them). Daily walks should do the trick just fine; they worked for us with no need to run. If necessary, split the walks into 2 shorter ones if you can't do one long one or the weather isn't cooperating.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
Thanks for all of the advice. Sorry it took me so long to get back, it took a awhile for our internet to get going after we moved. The puppy is doing great so far. She's about 5 months old. She is entirely potty trained and insanely smart. My husband and I have pretty much decided that training her new thing is easy, the hard part is breaking her bad habits that she picked up at my grandmothers.
She jumps. She's already a lot better in less than a week. We turn our back and tell her to sit and the past day or so she has promptly sat down and we shower her with praise. This seems to be working well.
We play fetch SEVERAL times a day. She loves it. DD chases her around the house and she chases DD. They are awesome play pals. We have been walking her every evening when DH gets off of work. She hasn't been around cars or other people a lot so we have to stop and have her sit and calm down several time during the walk but so far she's doing great. We walked over a mile last night and she did really well.
She begs for food. I am sure my grandmother fed her table scraps even though we asked her not to. So far we just send the pup out of the room with a "don't beg" command or if she won't go, put her in the kennel with her favorite toy or a bone or something. She like her kennel a lot.
Training is going well. She has picked up sit quickly. She's doing well with lay down and she's is awesome at leave it. I can put a treat or a toy on the floor in front of her and she won't go for it now unless I prompt her. This dog is smart!
I have been grooming her at least once a day. She is such a shedder! She didn't like it at first but she has been enjoying it lately.
She has a lot of energy. She follows me or DH (or DD) from room to room. She is content to simply sit near my feet as I wash dishes or clean counters or unpack boxes.
As far as jogging goes, I do think we'll hold off until she's closer to two. Right now I know she's getting enough exercise because she totally crashes a little before 10 oclock and is down for the night. Now if only DD would sleep that well we'd be in really good shape