She is a stunning wild child of a dog that will do brilliantly in obedience and agility and just really struck me when I met her last night. She is full of beans, but controllable, very alert and attentive to people. She is also a real sweetie that loves cuddles and such (all of this found out in 1/2 hour.... geez i'm good?!). So where is the problem you ask??? Well.... I have a few worries... one being that her ears will stick up - she has 'high set' ears but since I want her for showing that would be a BAD thing to happen, particularly considering I won't be getting another dog for at least another 6 years! Second thing i'm worried about is her age - she seems as an incredibly confident girl and I am told she is fearless and literally bomb-proof....and boy does she seem it! But what if she turns out to be more of a handful than expected???? I trust my breeders opinion and they don't think that she is too much for me but i'm just so worried that i'll get attached, she'll come into my life and then something like pricked ears or psycho puppy will emerge and I won't be able to part with her. What else..... I miss the puppy cuteness!!! LOL! But when I saw her last night, I just looked at her and thought you're it, you're exactly what I want, and how often will you come across a dog well suited for agility, obedience and showing all in one package???? How am I to decide???? I am planning on taking her for a couple of weeks that I took off to care for my pup to see how she fits in instead.... surely by two weeks we'll know whether she is suited to us or not.... I just hope and pray tht I will make the right decision!!!!!
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OH! I remember Lacey from the Specialty!!! I wanna meet her, she sounds like heaps of fun!!!
As far as the ears go here's my thought. Okay, they're high set but Aussie ears are *supposed* to be relatively high set, otherwise they look like hound ears. High set doesn't necessarily mean they'll go prick. How heavy and thick is the ear leather? Where does the ear break? Get 8 week old photos and look at those too. What are the ears like behind her in her vertical and horizontal pedigree; not just show but also pets, as many as you can find. Do they tend to be on the smaller side, lighter ear leather, high breaking? Then prick is a bit more worrying. If not and her lines tend to have nice medium sized, moderate or heavy leather, low-to-medium breaking ears I'd be inclined to figure she's teething or chewing bones excessively and those ligaments are doing funky things.
I think the other thing to consider is to ask yourself very honestly what IF her ears did go prick and you couldn't show her? Would you be okay with keeping her and just doing sports, knowing you wouldn't be able to do conformation for another 6 years? Or is it more important to be sure you can show? If you do take her and her ears go prick can you handle petting her out, giving up the work you've done with her in agility and obediences and go invest yourself physically, training time and emotionally in another puppy? That's a difficult question and one that I imagine will take a lot of soul searching to decide exactly how important this all is to you and if it's a risk you're comfortable to take.
I suppose the other thing you'll have to consider is how long you're willing to wait and when other litters you'd be interested in are likely to be born or available. Or if it's possible to talk to Ben and Ana about the girl they're going to keep to see if there isn't some deal you could work out. If, of course, that sort of thing is something you're open to and that also bears serious consideration! OR if you're willing to consider a male. There were 3 possible males right?
The other thing to keep in mind is that any time you get a show prospect, they're only that - a prospect. An 8 week old puppy comes with no guarantees... it's as decent an indication as you'll get but lovely pups turn out ugly and every breeder has petted out at least one 'pet' they could kick themselves for letting go later on. Plus, they all go through the puppy uglies yk? Hence the old saying to look at them as newborns, as 8 week olds and then not again till they're adults! If you wait and get another one, that one's ears may go prick despite not looking like they would or another problem could come up, or you could play the conformation game and when she's old enough to breed discover a health problem. Or you could come up fine, breed her and loose her and the litter. It's always a gamble.
Now as far as her age... 5 months old hardly means she's set in stone how she's going to be. By age 2-3 yeah... not only would you be dealing with her genetic temperment but then you'd be dealing with habits that had formed and had a decent history of reinforcement which make them more of a challenge. But 5 months? You're probably seeing a bit of genetic temperment, a lot of hyper puppy behaviour and a bit of reinforcment history since I'm sure she's been laughed at for being a cheeky little imp. *G* I know you wanted to get more socialization in, but if she's got a good temperment to start with, Ana and Ben would have to be working pretty hard to screw her up. Pups are resilliant that way. IMO, as far as wildness, if you LIVE with her in a calm manner and reinforce calm and self-control in training, she's going to turn out a fizzy girl who can be calm and self-controled.
I also wanted to say a HUGE CONGRATS to you on being moved up in Leo's agility class and on his fantastic progress with the sits!! Holding them under those conditions is pretty excellent and has come along in a fairly short time. He's such a love and done so well, I'm sure it won't be more proofing for maintaining it even when you don't appear to be paying attention or are out of sight before he's going to be in the top ribbons. Be sure to give him some break time too so he doesn't get burned out practicing it overmuch tho! *G*
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