Opari Australian Shepherds

The Australian shepherd breed was developed in the American West in the late 19th century to help cattle and sheep ranchers manage their livestock. Behind them you will find a variety of working breeds, including (but not limited to, I'm sure) Pyreneen shepherds, German tigers, German coolies, Welsh shepherds, English shepherds, American farm collies, English collies and border collies. 

Why Australian and not American shepherd? Nobody is quite sure of the exact reason, and the story varies from old timer to old timer in the breed. But it is known that Basque shepherds brought their little speckled dogs with them when they emigrated from Australia to America to work the sheep ranges in California, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and those dogs were the foundation of the breed. The name was chosen in the early 1950s when the breed type had been firmly established. The founders of the breed had to receive permission from the Australian government to use the name Australian shepherd before they would be accepted in the International English Shepherd Registry, which registered numerous sheep and cattle herding breeds that were not yet accepted by AKC.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, a change took place in the breed. There were several kennels in the western states that were more interested in showing the Australian shepherds in dog shows than using them to work stock. They began to breed to a fancier, flashier looking Aussie for show rings. In 1973, the IESR became the Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA), and the breed standard was largely based on the show style of Aussie, while still encouraging the maintenance of herding instinct and a strong guardian instinct.

Fast forward to 1999. We acquired our first Aussie, Suzie, from my husband's cousin. She was mismarked—so much white is a disqualifying fault--but healthy. She was just going to be a pet, like our other dogs. In March 2000 Suzie's breeder invited us to come watch an Aussie show up in New Jersey, about 90 minutes from us. They were having a sheep trial as well as obedience and conformation. I watched the people and their dogs trying to herd a small group of sheep around a ring--it was so strange and funny. It was raining, so between the mud and the sheep poop, I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to do such a thing!! 

So 13 months later, there I was in a muddy arena with Suzie and a bunch of sheep seeing if she would be interested enough in them to earn her first "leg" in the Herding Certification Test (HCT) offered by the American Herding Breed Association (AHBA), which focuses solely on herding trials. Boy howdy, was she ever interested! And she seemed to know just what to do (although she did it with a bit too much enthusiasm and very little self-discipline). She got her first qualifying ribbon that day, and a few months later at the next trial, she earned her second. We began taking lessons on a regular basis and in the summer of 2002, Suzie got her Started Trial Dog-Sheep (STDs) title from ASCA and her Junior Herding Dog (JHDs) title from AHBA. 

That fall, Suzie and I participated in a cattle herding seminar. She was as enthusiastic with the cattle as she was with sheep. Unfortunately, cattle are bigger than me and weigh considerably more. She was fetching them to me as though they were sheep. We never did come to an understanding about how to move cattle from point A to point B without stampeding the cattle over the handler (me!). It is extremely difficult to find anyone who will let you practice herding with their cattle, and very expensive when you do find someone, so we never did get any titles on cattle.

In early April 2003 we adopted a rescue Aussie we named Vladi. He is mostly black, with just a little white on his chest and back paws. When he got to be 8 months old, I took him for his turn to try for an HCT. He earned the first leg at 8 months and finished it at 11 months. He has phenomenal herding instinct, but has some physical issues from infancy malnutrition that keep him from competing at a higher level. But he sure does love his sheepies. In one of the photos of Vladi, our herding instructor Chris is moving Vladi around during the second part of the HCT test. I had been injured the week before when he pushed the sheep too close to me and I went sheep surfing--where the knock you off your feet and you are riding their backs (on your back) briefly before you fall off and they step on you. Sheep are stupid. I mean really stupid. And they are heavy enough to hurt.

Herding with your dog is a lot of fun. Most areas of the country offer AKC, ASCA and AHBA herding classes and instinct tests. AKC requires that your dog be a purebred from the breeds in the Herding group as well as Norwegian Elkhounds and Chinese Shar Peis. ASCA and AHBA accept all herding breeds, including a number that are not AKC accepted yet, and herding breed mixes.

I know many people are skeptical about people who claim to be able to communicate with animals--Animal Planet has had The Pet Psychic and now there is another show on another channel with a general psychic communicator (people or animals, she isn't picky)--and while they seem genuine, some of the communications are a little vague and general... but some are specific enough to amaze the animal owners. I was skeptical, too, until March 2004, when I was talked into making an appointment to speak with a local animal communicator about Suzie and Vladi at an annual psychic fair held in Reading, Pennsylvania. 

I really needed to find out for sure what was bothering Suzie to the point of a depression that would not lift. And I wanted to help Vladi get past some issues related to his puppyhood before we adopted him. So, what did I have to lose besides $30? I was spending more than that on cigarettes every week (I've since quit).

I was told to take a photo of Suzie and Vladi for reference and to tell Suzie and Vladi to be available at 2:30 p.m. so we could chat (I have no idea if they understood, but they were available at that time). I was also advised to not tell the communicator anything about the dogs but just ask questions and listen to the answers.

I got to the psychic fair early and cruised the other vendors. Oh the interesting products and services available to the psychically inclined. Ear candling? Dream catchers? Pyramids? The variety of aroma therapies was making me sick to my stomach by the time my appointment with the animal communicator came around, so I was glad to get started. 

Beth, the communicator, started with Vladi. The first thing she said was that her hips were feeling a lot of pain, which meant Vladi was feeling pain there. Really? He gave no indication of being in pain, but we would take him to the vet to find out what that was about (turned out he has a severe case of hip dysplasia in both hips!). Then I asked if there was anything besides the pain he would like to tell me about. Oh, boy, did he ever! He was so upset about what happened "three ago." "Three what?" I asked. He just kept repeating "three ago." The communicator couldn't get a clarification from him. 

Then Beth told me there was another very young dog demanding to talk to her... ohhhhh, Ellie... yeah, Ellie had come into our lives three months earlier. The young dog was saying that the communicator should talk to her because she was special and Vladi was mean and no fun. Yes, even at five months old, Ellie had enough 'tude for three dogs! The communicator politely told Ellie to hush, she would get her say when it was her turn. Ellie quieted down, and Vladi got to continue whining about Ellie showing up and not leaving like the other dogs. Vladi asked us not to bring any more dogs home because it was so stressful for him to have to deal with all those other dogs coming and going (we fostered for Aussie Rescue--from whom we acquired him). He just didn't like that. And by the way, when was Ellie leaving? We had to break it to Vladi that Ellie was permanent. Boy, was he ever unhappy about that!

We tried to address some of Vladi's other issues, but he was mainly concerned with getting rid of Ellie. Then Beth moved on to Suzie. I asked Suzie if there was anything she wanted to tell me about why she was so sad. It had been over a year since our Great Pyrenees mix Shiner had died--Suzie adored Shiner and had not gotten over his death. I never mentioned Shiner to Beth, but she told me what Suzie said about him--how big he was, what color he was (creamy gold, like a light yellow lab), and his favorite spot in the yard. Suzie was so sad and depressed not only because she missed Shiner, but because she thought we didn't. We hadn't mourned him with her, we hadn't talked to her about his passing. I felt so bad! I had no idea that it had to do with us not interacting with her about Shiner. Suzie wanted to see and smell his collar and she wanted us to sit with her and tell her we loved and missed Shiner, too. We did that when I got home--I let her smell Shiner's collar and put it around her neck and we sat on the floor and I cried and told her how much I missed Shiner, too. After that she slowly became her lively old self again.

Suzie was also mad that Vladi had taken over her crate and she didn't have a nice pad in the smaller crate she was now in. She wanted a nice blanket in gray or green or brown. Later on, I couldn't find one for her in any store. But a month later, we went to an agility trial associated with the US Australian Shepherd Association national specialty show--and on Aussie Only trial day, Suzie took first place in Novice Jumpers--and won a gray, green and brown blanket with Aussies on it! This is true, I swear! She loves that blanket and sleeps on it every night. She scootches it into a little nest and sleeps like a baby.

Then Ellie finally got her turn to talk, but by then she had moved on and wanted to go out to pee (had to call hubby to let her out). Ellie's only desire was for Greenies (what she called a green chew thing that tasted good). I had never given her a Greenie, so I later asked her breeder if she had. She had to think for a while, but remembered giving little ones to the litter of puppies to clean their teeth before they went to their new homes. 

So how did Beth learn to do this? How could she know about Vladi's pain, his anguish over the foster dogs and Ellie? How could she know about Shiner and the layout of our yard, which Suzie described perfectly? I am a believer now that it is possible to communicate with our pets. A friend, who later helped me help Vladi deal with a couple of problems, loaned me a set of audio tapes that instruct people how to communicate with animals. The only tape player I had was in the car, so on a trip one time, I listened to them and actually got a brief glimpse into Suzie's mind, but I haven't even tried again since then. I'm not sure why--it really isn't a difficult process, but it does require a quiet place and time to relax and set one's mind free to open to the communication. 

If you get a chance to experience an animal communicator with your pet, give it a try. What our pets are thinking and feeling is very interesting and educational!

A chilly, gray, damp morning in late October—how appropriate. The salty wetness of the sand at the Cape May, New Jersey, shore is seeping through her jeans, and the dampness of the air is making her wool fisherman's sweater feel heavy and sodden as she sits at the edge of the water, watching the waves roll in and out. Her soul feels heavy and sodden, too. The salty wet tears only roll out. 

How long do you have to grieve a fifteen-year relationship, she wondered. He loved the ocean from the time he was small. The minute they arrived at a beach and she parked the car and opened the door, he would be out and heading for the water. He would have been ecstatic to live in any of those tiny waterfront beach cottages year-round so he could spend every waking moment in the water. She often referred to him as her golden water baby. The water really didn't have to be an ocean; he was perfectly happy at lakes, ponds and slow moving streams.

And now here she was, staring at the water, hoping to see him come bounding out to check in with her before bounding back. But he wouldn't. All that was left of him she held in a cardboard box in her hand. It only seemed right to return his ashes to the place he loved the best, but letting go was so hard. Oh, so hard.

She thought back to when she first saw him, and smiled as she remembered being smitten from the start at his energy and personality. She thought of their time together as a non-stop dance of unconditional love. How would she ever find that again? Would she have to live her life alone or with a less-than-perfect relationship that would have to measure up to this one. Could she bear that?

She stood up slowly and looked at the box in her hands. Maybe she should just go home and place the ashes in an urn, where she could find comfort in them when she needed to. But no, he was her golden water baby, and deserved to be given back to the water. Her steps heavy, she approached the waves, opened the box and released the remains of her beloved Labrador retriever where the waves would wash them into the Atlantic. When the last of his remains had disappeared in the outgoing tide, she turned away from the water. "Goodbye, my sweet Basil!" she said, "Swim happy."