What are the benefits of more than one Sheltie?

[Tabitha]

When you have only one Sheltie (I did), and that Sheltie dies, you have the additional trauma of silence, and the sudden stoppage of doing doggie chores.

Sorry to be a downer, but that's a legitimate benefit to having more than one Sheltie.

I hate to think of it that way, but I'll be honest, when it was just me and F-kap and I was watching him age so quickly that thought was in my head every day. Plus I wanted him to have a doggie play mate while he still had the energy to play. Now he has more energy than he has in years!

 

[SheepOfBlue]

So now you get to have evening wrestling matches Mom and Dad find it amusing when my guys go for a visit.

 

[Mom2Melli]

That's good to know the murderous critters are not where you are. Glad you liked the train ride. We always have much craziness doing the videos. We have had a camera hit a low tunnel, a locomotive derail with camera on it, a camera car uncouple go on a crazy coaster ride down the hill, ended up in the videos ourselves, had the camera run out of juice and shut off, and once had a garbage truck come up the hill and ruin the shot. I came up with a good system mounting the camera on top of a car at justthe right angle to get most of the best. It's nice to sit up on the deck with munchies and drinks, the dogs, and friends and run the trains on a lovely evening. We do have a lot of comedy like a dinosaur, bigfoot, easter island head, ray brower (dead guy from Stand By Me) just to keep it fun. Enough work to keep us busy forever though.

 

[Laddie's Mom]

So now you get to have evening wrestling matches Mom and Dad find it amusing when my guys go for a visit.

LOL, sounds fun, I bet Laddie will really enjoy that, right now, the poor thing wrestles with himself, it is hilarious.

I am still waiting to hear from Barbara regarding all the questions I asked her, I am a wee bit nervous, but, I am sure all is well.

 

[Laddie's Mom]

That's good to know the murderous critters are not where you are. Glad you liked the train ride. We always have much craziness doing the videos. We have had a camera hit a low tunnel, a locomotive derail with camera on it, a camera car uncouple go on a crazy coaster ride down the hill, ended up in the videos ourselves, had the camera run out of juice and shut off, and once had a garbage truck come up the hill and ruin the shot. I came up with a good system mounting the camera on top of a car at just the right angle to get most of the best. It's nice to sit up on the deck with munchies and drinks, the dogs, and friends and run the trains on a lovely evening. We do have a lot of comedy like a dinosaur, bigfoot, easter island head, ray brower (dead guy from Stand By Me) just to keep it fun. Enough work to keep us busy forever though.

You guys did a lovely job, Steve was saying again today, how professional it all looked. We bookmarked it so we can watch it again.

 

[Laddie's Mom]

I received the following email from the breeder, Barbara, it all sounds great, I really like her, and I like how she thinks. Here it is:

Hi Susie

Yep, your email came thru ok but I haven’t been on line – lots of other things to be doing on a fine day, or it was - raining now which isn’t good for the end of the cricket test!! Have popped in the answers to your questions below -


Hi Barbara~Sounds like your day was busy yesterday, hope all went well. Poor Alice, hope her eye clears up, no fun for her, poor baby.Certainly is no fun for Alice – or me because at the moment she is having “blood” drops hourly in the eye. That’s right – they drew off some of her blood and a drop of that goes in hourly. Never heard of it before so just hope that it helps with the healing.

I am really excited about Brydie (AKA Marilyn) I have been discussing this with Steve, and he is delighted as well. She would definitely have a good home. The fees sound reasonable, would it be possible to put them all down and email them so I know what we will be looking at.The costs would her travel – by the sound of it flying with AirNZ, $115.00 and the spaying fee which is $265 at the Mosgiel vet. I’m really interested to hear that you have a very good vet, Susie. I had no idea that it was that inexpensive to fly to Christchurch, it is a lot less than it cost for gas, if we drove there, it would be at least 200.00 in fuel alone. Steve was a wee bit disappointed that we could not have her for Christmas, he said he wanted her to be my Christmas gift, but, I told him that a lot of folks know they are getting a dog for Christmas, but, they have to wait, and I do not mind at all, I will just print her picture and put it under our tree. January is fine, no worries there. Is she with the NZKC? Yes, she is registered with the NZKC and if she is going to be transferred to your name after spaying, that will cost $28.00I was looking at all the dog's in your kennels that were whelped on that day, I could not tell if she was one or not. Yes, she was one of the last litter. Her registered name is Dinda Dramatic Entry.



Anyway, all exciting news. Steve is all go, Laddie looks forward to seeing his sister, and I am thrilled over it all. Does she have any favorite toys? There are all sorts of bits and pieces of toys, old and new lying around, and they all get picked up and carted around by all of the dogs from time to time. Brydie has a couple of little pieces of drybed that she loves to carry around when it suits her too – they will come with her. Is she leash trained or housebroken? Yes, she is a house dog so is house trained and can walk on a lead – we’ve been taking her to one or two shows. I would guess she would be, but just covering all bases. Does she like other dogs, I would hope so, Susie, she’s living here with six other shelties, so I suspect she would find it strange to go somewhere where there wasn’t another one to be honest. I want her and Laddie to be pals . I would be very surprised if they didn’t get on. Laddie LOVES all dogs, so I am not worried about him. How does she react around others? Do you think she will adapt to a new home OK?I guess you can never tell exactly how they are going to react, Susie, but I would be very surprised if she didn’t settle as she has a great temperament. If there was a problem, about anything, then there would be no question about it and I think you would agree, she would have to come back here. Sorry for all the questions, but, I want everything to be just right when we meet.LOL, I can relate to that.



Regarding the ears. I would LOVE to get the hair away from Lad's ears, to be honest, however, I have no idea how to do it, are they any sites on the Internet that show how to properly take care of it? I want to do all I can to keep him and Brydie healthy. I’m going to see if a friend in Rangiora, Rosemary Richards, could show you how to do it, Susie. Maybe you could take a trip down to their place one day – I’ll have a talk to Rosemary and let you know.



Well, feels like another hot day, at least today, however, there is a nice breeze blowing. Laddie is next to me sleeping, he is so cute, he has learned another new trick, he now "bows", he gets so excited when he catches on, he smiles and dances almost; he is like your MacDuff, nowthat the penny is starting to drop he is catching on fast to new tasks, I am so enjoying working with him. Sounds as if you are doing great things with Laddie, Susie; and about the wee training problems you are having I’ll have to send Brenda Cameron a message on Face Book as I’ve just realised that I don’t have her email. Will get back to you with this.
Best regards,
Barbara

 

[xerospin]

I've been debating this question myself. My husband and I only have one Sheltie -- Callie -- and my daughter and her husband own Callie's sister, Shelby. I've noticed that Callie is much less demanding when Shelby is over playing, but that's usually only once or twice a month.

On the other hand, Callie is jealous enough when I'm holding one of our two new grandsons that I'm not sure how she'd react to another dog that wanted her Mom's attention. We've frequently had two dogs at a time, but it's mostly been one indoor dog and one outdoor dog.

With both of us working full-time I feel guilty about being gone from Callie as much as we are though. That makes me wonder if adding another one is only unfair to another dog that wouldn't have humans home during the day, or if two of them would mean that they could play together while we were gone.

It's a hard decision to make!

Well, I can tell you from my experience they will just sleep separately while you're away. No interactions whatsoever. Lol alfie loves a company, which is why I got Ajax. But Ajax will not play with him 90%of the time. He seems to only "perform" to me when I'm home. They get along fine but they are aprt right now(Ajax is with my bf) and both are doing well without each other. I would say adding a second dog is more for me than for them.

 

[MissyGallant]

This is already a settled deal, but think of it this way, with you and Steve, there are two of you. With two shelties, that is one for each of you. With four, that would be one for each hand. With five, one would get left out. We're okay with five at my house, because there are three of us. So, one for each hand for two of us, and one for the stepson. (Although realistically, all five do not want attention at the same time.)

 

[Laddie's Mom]

I have not heard any more about Brydie, I guess she will let me know when she flies her to us, I sure hate to wait, but, well, she is her dog until we buy her, I have this weird feeling that she may back out. Oh well, so be it, what will be will be.

 

[Chris]

I have not heard any more about Brydie, I guess she will let me know when she flies her to us, I sure hate to wait, but, well, she is her dog until we buy her, I have this weird feeling that she may back out. Oh well, so be it, what will be will be.

Keeping our fingers and toes crossed for you!