Or the story of my pawrent’s journey selecting a breed and the dream of an Australian shepherd which turned into a working line Border Collie overnight…
Everything started a few years back, just as pawrent was done with her studies and moved into her first home (excuse me, rented home). After becoming a responsible young adult, she was finally able to allow herself everything she desired, including a new family member – a four-legged friend, right? Wrong!
As it seems, living on her own and being strong independeng woman wasn’t so cheap, especially in the second largest city of Lithuania. And what about the start of her career – everything was still so unstable, new, unsafe. Not to mention the rent contract already had a point in big bold letters – “NO ANIMALS ALLOWED”.
Quite small problems, easily solvable, but she took it as a sing – not yet. In the meantime, landlord was kind enough to allow her to keep a hedgehog – after all he’s not gonna climb the walls like a cat, nor cause any dog shenanigans. Once again, she was wrong – the whole experience with Dipsy requires a separate story to be told, so maybe one day.
So, during those 4.5 years until Bozzi (me, hehe) joined the household – pawrent spent all her time researching. Starting from the very basics – general care, behaviors and common issues, obedience and training, nutrition, communication; breeds – history, temperaments, lines, possible activities, common problems; dog forums – struggles, health, real experiences; various tests – what type of dog, what kind of breed would suit you and your lifestyle, etc.
Based on that, she was able to pin-point where her heart was leaning closer and what would have suited her lifestyle more – seemed like top picks were active, mostly working breeds, like retrievers and smaller shepherds. Of course, most if not all were medium complexity type of breeds (at least that’s what the pawrent thought). She was not even looking at serious working breeds, she knew she lacked knowledge and experience. My pawrent no. 2 was very sceptic – as he was a chill guy himself, not so much of an enthusiast of sports and active lifestyle, he tried to suggest the Welsh Corgi Pembroke, with supporting arguments being “much more chill breed, will be able to lay down, chill and do nothing together whenever you’re away“. Let me give you a spoiler alert – my pawrent no. 2 didn’t know at the time that corgis are classified as shepherds and are grouped among other active breeds… So, there was a list of potential breeds with their pros and cons, but no strong attachments were present to any of them yet.
And then – the first ever live encounter with an Australian shepherd happened. Pawrent was on a business trip in Norway and got to experience an aussie hands-on. It was a red tri-color with the biggest and most fluffiest chest ever. Up to this day it’s still not clear whether pawrent suddenly got weak in the knees due to its beauty, or because of displayed contact, or easy communication, eagerness to please? Either way, the previously crafted list of potential breeds just shattered (or at least put all the potential breeds at the bottom of the list). Why? At the time, both in Lithuania and in Europe it was not a popular breed (hello, 2020 was the year everyone was hoping covid will end, nobody was bothered by anything else…), so any information about the breed was either outdated or simply not enough to understand it properly. Not to mention – it was extremely rare to see an Australian shepherd anywhere on the streets, and here out of nowhere in the middle of Norway she saw such a majestic creature!
From that moment on, it was a clear and directed research towards one breed – all information available was reviewed again, all forums double-checked. It was such a deep dive into the specifics of the breed that even without having an aussie yet, pawrent was already able to list possible and common health, behaviour problems. Naturally, whenever she looked for any info about Australian shepherds, something about border collies would come up. She didn’t pay much attention then, skimmed with her eyes through the post or article and thought “ah, yeah, those complex ones, hard challenge…“. From time to time she would compare them, suddenly more often, immediately found big advantages, didn’t understand the cons at the time, they weren’t so scary (maybe because pawrent herself is a bit of a walking two-legged border collie, eh?). She started following both Lithuanian and foreign IG accounts focusing on aussie content, naturally the algorithm would show her border collies as well. So what was left to do – pawrent started a full research on those crazy workaholics too, as she said only out of curiosity and interest. My pawrent no. 2 already knew where this little obsession was heading, but he didn’t say a word, allowed her to come to her senses herself.
And a breakthrough happened, surprise surprise, when pawrent realised that the heart wants what it wants – a border collie, but mind understands that in no way she is able to allow herself that, at best she can handle retrievers and simpler shepherds. And it will be a miracle if somehow a reputable breeder will allow her to take on and care for a breed such as Australian shepherd. Based on her previous experience – small to medium breeds, mostly FCI group 2, were opposites like day and night compared to shepherds or retrievers.
You can’t fight the rational side of my pawrent – she accepted it, set up a goal for herself and dedicated her full focus on aussies. She attended workshops and seminars, took online courses, read books, listened to podcasts and started preparing for either good or bad. She even organised dates with people who already had aussies, went on walks with them to see how they behave, communicate, to hear about their stories – both the good and the bad, about the lessons learned and struggles they had. Everything went pretty smoothly, sometimes she was smiling ear to ear while listening to all amazing stories, but there were times were she was clenching her teeth and trying to breathe slowly while seeing some undesired behaviours or traits. She waved it off as handlers’ issue or dog genetics, temperament. A bit worried she was, but understood that no perfect scenario exists in this world and it’s completely normal for something to go out of hand, not according to the plan – you will have to put in work with something more or less.
For the sake of her mind, before agreeing to take on any puppies from the breeders, pawrent signed up for a 1-on-1 consultation with CrazyFoxes dog school. She wanted to hear a professional opinion from an experienced trainer about the selected breed, their common issues, whether it’s even a suitable breed for her based on her future plans and lifestyle. After all – maybe she missed something in her research? At the moment pawrent was consulted by our best, most amazing and loved trainer Indrė, she told all about the good, and the bad, answered all the questions and at the end of the session out of nowhere innocently dropped the question “so, why not a border collie?“.
If you could only imagine what was happening in my pawrent’s mind after hearing this question… That consultation messed up all the plans because in pawrent’s head there was already a hope and a thought – what if it was really possible and maybe she was truly able to do it? Trainer gave her some encouragement, additional information and video material to watch at home, said – “if it doesn’t scare you away, let me know – we’ll talk more“. After pawrent got home, she immediately went to do her homework. She was thinking afterwards, told everything to the pawrent no. 2, thought about everything again, got mad a little, couldn’t sleep at night, and when she finally did – straight after waking up she was thinking about it all over again.
There was only one tiny problem with this – nothing new nor scary pawrent didn’t find in that new material… It was more like she gained additional knowledge and insights about already known things, she got some confidence for sure, got even more stubbornness and… simply deleted Australian shepherd entry together with other breeds from her list, leaving only a single line – Border Collie.
And the rest – I think you know how it goes.