New Photos!

Aussie Rescue volunteer Carson came and took some long overdue new photos of Juneau! Hooray! Juneau has been doing well, playing hard at doggie day care when she can go and generally just hanging out and waiting for her people to find her. Looks like she will be spending the holidays in foster care, but we sure hope she finds her new home in the New Year!

Queen of the White Aussies

I apologize to Juneau's fans for the loooooong delay between updates. We have been very busy here trying to help more Aussies like Juneau. As of tonight, she has three other white Aussies to play with! She loves every single dog she meets and can play all day. She continues to be a good girl, showing the new dogs the ropes, enjoying her every-other week days at daycare, and spending time with her foster family. She is really loves water too and has had fun with her baby pool this summer... and the water dishes... and any puddle anywhere!

We are really shocked that she has not found her Forever Home yet. She is super special, the way she is so gentle in spite of being so big, young, active, and athletic. She loves all people and dogs. And we actually think she has probably reached her full-size now- check out how lovely she is!:

A trip to the vet

Juneau (along with Tiramisu) visited our wonderful vet for a follow-up exam. She was such a good girl, waiting patiently for her turn and charming the office staff!

Happy 4th of July!!

Juneau walked in our neighborhood Fourth of July parade this morning and had a great time! We had her decorated in red, white, and blue like everyone else and she actually won the prize for "Best Dressed Dog 2008"!!!

As usual, she was friendly with everyone and not a bit disturbed by all of the commotion-- or even the outfit. She posed with the other 2008 Award Winners ("Dog and Owner Look-a-like", "Best Decorated Two-Wheeler", etc.!) at the end of the parade and will appear in our next neighborhood newsletter.

Alaskan Marmaduke!

Every time we turn around, Juneau has outgrown another crate. She was 35 lbs. when she arrived here a little over 6 weeks ago (and she had grown quite a bit during the weeks she spent in her previous foster home too) and she is WAY over that now. So big we can't weigh her on the home scale anymore, so we will need to run by a vet on our way home from an outing sometime to check. We have her in a 36" crate now.

Anyway, her constant growing and large size (not to mention a-typical appearance) make everyone (including us!) wonder if she is a mix rather than a double-merle Aussie (though she does look a bit like the homozygous merle dog shown here). And we have taken to giving her little nicknames as well. When she is hanging out with our foster dog, Hugo, we like to call them Hugo and Huge-O. And Jason has taken to calling her our "Alaskan Marmaduke". We think she is about 6 months old now, so she is getting closer to being full-grown. Any guesses on what the scale will show this week?

Doggie Day Care

It had been a while since we have taken the dogs to doggie day care for a playdate. Ever since we lost our own deaf Aussie, Luci, shortly before Juneau's arrival we haven't really felt motivated to take them to her favorite places for some fun and exercise. But we could tell that Juneau was the kind of pup who was going to LOVE day care, so we decided to take her and our dogs for some playdates. Turns out, we were right!

Jessica at Romp N' Run said she was a natural and had a total blast playing with the other dogs. And she must have played hard, because she came home and *crashed out*!

She got to play twice last week at Romp N' Run and then went to meet our good friends at Taurus Training today. It is so great for her to keep meeting and playing with other people and dogs, plus she gets some much needed exercise! (Remember: a tired puppy is a good puppy!) And being deaf didn't get in her way AT ALL. She made tons of friends and a lot of fans too.

Bull Creek Park

Ben & I went to meet some friends at Bull Creek and we took Juneau with us for a little R & R away from home and all of the puppies. We had no idea what a wonderful day we had in store for us!!!

Juneau had a blast playing in the water. She ran and galloped and jumped all through it. She wasn't as sure about the swimming part-- but she would wade out to her chest over and over and over.

But the water is only half of the fun at Boggy Creek. All of the other dogs-- big and small, young and old-- were the real attraction for our social butterfly. Plus kids and all kinds of other people to smile and toss a ball or stick for her.

And we had a lovely hike too. It was a magical morning that none of use wanted to end. I know we say it every time, but this is a super special dog!

Big Sister Juneau

Juneau has been the best babysitter and big sister that any foster home could hope for. Since she has been with us no fewer than 15 (!) puppies have marched through here on their way to new homes or new foster homes. And she has loved each and every one. She keeps them in line and well entertained and exercised. She is a doll.

Summer Days

Juneau is really enjoying having Ben and I home more of the time! Great summer days for sure. Check out her photo album for lots more new photos!

Gentle Juneau

Juneau has continued to be a wonderful girl for us. She spent the Memorial Day weekend with some special dog lovers who found her to be a great pup-- and taught her to use a doggy door! Then last weekend she went on a quick run with Flurry's new mama and had a fun morning in the park... proving once again that she loves everyone.

She has grown about 6 pounds since she arrived, we think she will probably be about 50 ponds full-grown. Not too big, not too small.

We plan to start her at puppy playday at Taurus Training this week. And we will continue to work on her hand signs. And we might give her a bit of a try in the kiddie pool this week!

Juneau will be at our group's Meet and Greet this Saturday (06/07) from 11 AM - 2 PM at the Pet Supplies Plus in Northwest Austin. Come meet this very special girl!!!

Bath Day!

We took Juneau to Mud Puppies for a nice bath today. She did a great job in the tub, allowing us to scrub her throughly and dry her with the blow drier. We cleaned her ears and brushed her teeth-- she was a trooper!

Mighty Texas Dog Walk

We took Juneau to the Mighty Texas Dog Walk yesterday and it was a huge success! Juneau was perfect. She walked like a champ on her leash (though it was quite hot and there wasn't much water so I turned her around a mile short of the full walk), and she was incredibly friendly with every single dog she met. She greeted every person and pet with a wag and a kiss. I couldn't have asked for a better experience for her. Many, many people came over to pet and love this unique and lovely girl and she made several new friends, two lovely and huge Great Danes in particular!

Following the Walk we headed to our group's Meet & Greet. These events are always very chaotic and often overwhelming for dogs, especially the first few times. Juneau was fine-- no doubt her deafness an advantage in such a loud environment with dogs barking! She greeted the other rescue workers and kissed all of the pets she met. We also microchipped her while we were there.

We knew she was good with other dogs at home, but these outtings let us know that she is great in all kinds of situations with every size and shape and age of dog. This is all important socialization work, and she is well on her way!

Veterinary Ophthalmologist report

We got some good news on Friday from the vet ophthalmologist: "Juneau can see from both eyes"! He says that her "peripheral vision may be limited" due to some congenital anomalies, and her eyes are consisted with Merle Australian Shepherd Syndrome, so she will need periodic eye exams to make sure everything is ok, but she does not need any treatment right now and he said we should treat her as if she is "completely normal". Yay!

Signs of the week: "Good Girl!" and "Sit"

Once you have trained a dog with hand signs, it is hard to ever go totally back to voice-only commands. Even our hearing dogs are trained using signs for many of the basics since they are so effective.

Juneau is learning our sign for "Good Girl" (a thumbs-up) this week. This is a great lesson, because she learns it by getting treats and a thumbs-up repeatedly until she understands that thumbs-up is like getting a treat and means we are pleased. Once this connection is established, it will be a useful sign for so many other training areas: housebreaking, playing with appropriate toys, going to her crate, following other commands, etc.

We are doing sit in the traditional way, with the treat over the nose, but we give the "sit" sign as well when she is starting to sit and the "Good Girl" when we give her the treat once she has gotten it. Soon we will just make the sign and she will sit, and we will reinforce it eventually with just the thumbs-up.

We will try to post a video of her working on her signs later in the week!

Playful Pup

Welcome, Juneau!

This big, sweet, wonderful Aussie puppy was found wandering the highway alone about 6 weeks ago by a Good Samaritan. She is deaf and visually impaired but also smart, loving, friendly, and devoted. We welcomed her into our Foster Home on Friday and she has gotten along very well with everyone here including multiple other dogs, cats, & kids.

Juneau is crate trained, and we have spent this week working on the other basics: housebreaking, hand signals, etc. She is a super smart girl: it only took one lesson before she learned how to "go to bed" (from outside to the crate in our bedroom).

We recently lost our own double merle deaf Aussie so we know first hand what wonderful pets these dogs can be and and we are excited about helping another sweet girl find her very own Forever Family!