About Ollie and Jewel

Ollie and Jewel are two miniature Australian Shepherd dogs who we adopted on February 1, 2014.  They were 2 1/2 years old at the time.  It had been 6 months that we had been "dogless" after losing first our dear Rusty in 2012 and then Poppy in 2013.  We swore there would be "no more pets."  Yeah, right.

Seems we just can't help ourselves.  I like to look at dog pictures and have been enamored of the mini-aussies for quite some time.  Not that I wanted to get one, mind you, I just liked to look at the pictures.  As I was perusing one of the breeder sites, I saw a picture of Ollie and Jewel. 

Seems the lady who originally purchased these two from the breeder was seeking to re-home them.  She had a new baby, an older daughter, two cats and a husband that recently got a promotion and was working out of town a lot.  It was just too much for her.

So Sarah brought her babies to meet us.  She truly loved these guys, but with so much on her plate she knew they were not getting the attention they deserved.  One look and we were hooked.  Sarah loved our yard and felt good about us and so the dogs were ours. 

We didn't know exactly what we were getting into and got more than we bargained for.  Ollie especially has been a challenge, but we love him more every day.  He is fear reactive and his training will be life long.  He has come a long way but has a long road ahead of him.  This blog will help us document his progress and what we learn about training along the way.  There will be fun stories, but there will also be honesty and sometimes even sad stories.  Perhaps there will be something here that will help someone else who is trying to help their dog be the best dog they can be.  That is my hope.