Here is a video taken a few minutes after meeting the pups for the first time. (You will also see our very popular volunteer, Daniel, in this video. The kids LOVE him.)
The boys finally decided on the name: RITTER for the boy (he's the lighter one). It means KNIGHT in German. Abigail decided on ARABELLE (Beautiful Eagle) for the girl. They are right at about six weeks old.
Check back for more pictures. And below, I've answered a few questions I keep getting. If you have other questions, please let me know.
Abigail with Annabelle -- birthday was March 5, 2016
Sidge with Ritter -- birthday was March 1, 2016
- How do you think Scrubs would have taken to the pups? He would have loved them. We actually hoped to get them before we had to let go of Scrubs so he could help break them in a bit. Scrubs loved ALL dogs -- even the tiniest of puppies. He probably would have gotten annoyed by them, as older dogs do, but he'd be happy having them around.
- Will they be only outside dogs? They will. This bothers some people, but when you live on a farm, it is truly what would be expected. We don't live in the city where we are in our house all day. We are outside ALL THE TIME so they will be with people non-stop. In addition, this breed is a dog that likes the outdoors, and their job will be to protect and take care of our house and family and keep predators (both the human and animal kind) at bay. For city folk, outdoor dogs don't make much sense, and I get that. I wouldn't have an outdoor dog in the city either. But in the country, our life is outside. This is also why we got two dogs. So they will have a buddy. These dogs will not be relegated to a backyard. They will have the run of 120 acres of woods and pasture, and be able to be with our family or the grandparents all the time. In addition, our house is not very large. (The pictures are deceiving.) It is a 3 bedroom and our kids are still little and it feels too small. In addition, we have some wonderful friends in our life with bad dog allergies, and keeping our house pet free will allow them more freedom to visit us.
- Has this helped ease the pain of losing Scrubs? Without a doubt. This was truly the best thing we could have done. Scrubs has left a huge hole in our lives, our farm, and our hearts. He will never be replaced, but we do believe we have a really wonderful and loving home and want to share that love with other animals. Scrubs taught me how wonderful it is to raise a puppy and that while hard work, totally worth it.
- Why Australian shepherds? Why pure bred? As JB and I really discussed what dogs to get, the chief issue for us is all the pasture-raised animals we have here. We have geese, ducks, chicken, pigs, sheep, and guinea fowl that any dog could kill in a second. We needed dogs to be raised with the animals from pups and we wanted to get a breed that usually does very well with these animals. We did not want to get in a situation where we had a dog that wanted to eat our animals, and we had to choose between the dog and our other animals. In addition, we wanted family dogs that would do a good job protecting our property. Everywhere we looked, it become obvious that this was a good breed for us.
- Are they brother and sister? No. They are not. They are from two different litters so we can breed them. They come from a very long line of amazing AKC registered dogs. We will be selling the pups to off-set our costs IF it ends up working out that way. If the dogs are healthy and can breed and do breed, then great. If for any reason we can't, that is okay too. We've already had people interested in buying a pup from us and our pups are still pups. But if you are interested, feel free to contact me!
- Why two dogs? They will be outside so we wanted them to have a buddy. We have four kids and a lot of love to go around. And we want to see if we can breed them.
Any other questions? Please let me know by leaving a comment.
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