Two Little Shelties

Penny (Ag Ch 300 Kieno Penny Lane ADM ADO JDM JDO GD SDM SPDX) 22/03/2012 Rafiki (Wrenmanor Shadow JD SD) 25/03/2015 Shetland Sheepdogs Dog Agility is our jam

[agilitysheltie]

Won’t somebody please throw my ball!

[agilitysheltie]

[agilitysheltie]

These li'l toe beans came into my life 5 years ago and thanks to that I have had opportunities and made amazing friends that I would never have known otherwise so yah I guess you can hog the covers for a few hours Pendog

[agilitysheltie]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/520287694/teddy-food-a-new-way-to-make-homeless-pets-happy

Teddy Food asked me to share this on my cats Instagram but I also thought I would post it here as I know the dogblr community is really great at spreading awareness and I think this crowdfunder is something that needs to be spread.

Teddy food is a service with the purpose of helping homeless pets living in animal shelters. With Teddy Food you can choose a pet from an animal shelter, choose how you help and see that pet online via webcam in the shelter. You can earn points and rankings with each donation to add some incentive to donate. Teddy Food has been running in beta mode in Russia for one year and has helped 255 pets from 7 shelters so far. With a bit of help from the community they can expand to help shelters and the animals in the worldwide.

They have created a kickstarter, and if you pledge you can choose a reward such as featuring on their banners and in the videos, or as part of their mobile app they hope to launch. I have already made a small pledge and would love your help in spreading the word because I think this is a fantastic way to encourage people to help animals in need.

Thanks everyone!

[agilitysheltie]

Talks about introducing mandatory desexing for all pets here and I am so wishing right now that I or someone could come up with an effective and feasible way to stop backyard breeders and accidental litters without mandatory desexing being a thing. You know, other than wiping out the entire population who are too stupid to keep their entire dogs away from bitches in heat. And thinking about all the hoops I am going to have to jump through in the future just to be able to get a puppy that isn't sterilised at 12 weeks old 😕

[agilitysheltie]

So we won a runner up prize in an instagram competition which was a free photo shoot with a free print. So yesterday was the photo shoot, with photographer Helen Black.

The dogs were little superstars. Helen gushed the whole time about how well trained they were and was so excited to get some photos of them with their poly jump!

The gallery will be up on Tuesday and I am so excited to see what photos she got! I already roped my boyfriend and mum into buying me prints for my birthday :) 

[agilitysheltie]

Rafiki you are going to need to stop making that face so I can do anything besides cuddle you!

[agilitysheltie]

Luvs2tug

[pangur-and-grim]

I want to buy a purebred (a Devon Rex to be exact), but everyone keeps telling me to adopt a cat instead. However, I feel like a Devon would fit me better. Do you think I should go through with buying a cat or just adopt one?

if you think a Devon Rex would mesh with you better, buy a Devon Rex!

responsible breeders do not contribute to overpopulation & shelter deaths, which is why I really don’t care for the ‘adopt don’t shop’ movement (this post sums up my thoughts on that)

[artemisbarnowl]

Temperaments vary more within a breed than between breeds, if anon wants a Devon Rex for a certain personality there’s no reason not to try and adopt a cat, as many domestic cats or even other breeds available for adoption are capable of exhibiting the same behaviour in a comfortable home environment. Breeding from closed gene pools will eventually lead to detrimental and irreversible health problems. I don’t doubt there are reasons to chose a breeder over a shelter dog, as dogs are bred to perform certain tasks and very more between breeds than within, but it cats they are much more similar between breeds. Buying a cat from a registered breeder contributes to the perpetuation of inbreeding, which while not obviously and always detrimental in cats (YET) can not ever be beneficial. If anon wants a cat for looks then that’s a different kettle of fish, and there’s no argument against aesthetic except imo it’s a waste?

[pangur-and-grim]

show me a Turkish Angora with the neediness of an Oriental, or a Persian with the activity level of a Bengal. show me a Chartreux that screams like a Siamese. I’m not trying to be rude (for real) but if you don’t think cat breeds have RADICALLY different personalities, then you don’t have a good understanding of the topic.

Orientals (the breed I love the most!) have their gene pools managed quite well. their health & longevity is a result of breeders shipping in fresh blood from different continents & outcrossing to genetically different breeds when necessary (ex. Russian Blues). Orientals also constantly interbreed with Siamese, Javanese, Balinese, and Colourpoint shorthairs, and nobody really cares? the cat world’s more chill about these things.

as well, you have no guarantee a rescued animal will NOT be inbred. hoarding situations, feral colonies, and ‘whoops!’ babies can & will result in mother/son, father/daughter, brother/sister crossings. 

if anon wants a Devon Rex for their personality, fantastic! I bought an Oriental because I needed a loud/loving/active cat to keep me from getting lost in my own head. if anon wants a Devon Rex for their looks - cool! living with a gorgeous animal is super fun?! 

adopting is great. buying from responsible breeders is great. you do you, anon!

[darkwingatlarge]

i’ll admit that i would probably not have this argument with someone in real life… but to say that ‘responsible breeders do not contribute to overpopulation’ is just a downright false statement. it doesn’t matter how thoroughly a breeder vets a customer, every cat sold is one more cat that may end up abandoned. and conversely, every cat bought is a cat left in a shelter.

[fjordfolk]

I know this is nitpicking, but that’s kind of the point of contracts, isn’t it. Imo a breeder that doesn’t include right of first refusal in their contract, doesn’t qualify as responsible.

ROFR gives the breeder top priority if the animal is ever sold or rehomed. Breaking that part of the contract will let the breeder either stop or reverse a sale/purchase (if discovered in time) or sure for damages (if the animal is gone and can’t be obtained). I’ve seen a good handful of breeders put this clause to use, and breeders I’ve bought (dogs) from have made sure I understand this.

It’s true that situations get in the way, and it’s true that some people throw legally binding contracts out the window. But lets at least put the blame on ignorant and irresponsible owners, where it belongs.

[agilitysheltie]

This dog though, she should be a model.

[agilitysheltie]

I took this yesterday but my bed looks like this rn I love my dogs and my large feline dog

[agilitysheltie]

Penny had a tummy bug last week, so I debated whether or not to bring her to yesterday's trial. In the end I decided to run her and scratch if she didn't seem up to rubbing. WELL! She got 6/6 quallies and 1st place in every one, including open agility against 31 other dogs of all heights. That there is 18kg of food, so I don't think my puppers will go hungry for awhile!

[agilitysheltie]

A very large cat, or a very smol pupper?

[agilitysheltie]

The face of a good boy

[agilitysheltie]

Last night a lady from interstate messaged me after seeing the training video I posted of Rafi. She said she loves him and would possibly like to put him to her dog, Fame later next year for her next litter of puppies.

The funniest part was that this lady owns Dylan, who was an amazing agility dog, Rafi’s great uncle, and the reason I got so excited about his pedigree. I totally fan girled for a moment that someone who has a dog like Dylan would admire my little dork that much. She had no idea that Rafi was related to Dylan and to Fame, but it definitely explained why she was attracted to him!

Anyway I doubt anything will come of it because she would prefer a blue merle but I can’t stop thinking how cute little Rafi babies would be and how it would help keep those amazing agility lines going which would be pretty cool.

[agilitysheltie]

I really wish I had someone taking photos of me taking photos of the dogs today because I was rolling on the ground trying to get good angles of Penny while she posed when Rafiki walked up and plonked his duck on my face and I just kept taking pics with this slobbery scrap of fluff resting on my head.

[agilitysheltie]

A video of Rafiki working on a drill from our online course which I had to share because it contains his first ever blind on the flat which I honestly did not expect him to read so YAY for that!! He totally surprised me with how well he did in this drill since it's much more advanced than anything we have done before!