We checked out our Humane Society website and came across him. We read up on his history and temperament and decided we definitely have to meet this little one! Well after meeting him, we knew this was the 'one'!
When we got him, he wasn't yet neutered. The Humane Society advised us that whoever dropped him off had told them he is 'too aggressive.' I have never heard of such hogwash and balogna. He is the sweetest little dog, wonderful temperament and so affectionate, just sometimes a little excitable or unsure. He is growing to love his pack leaders and trust them, and we are already full-blown in love with our little guy. The Humane Society advised us that the previous owners kept him outside in a kennel all the time, but that his body type is more suited to indoors. Well, I am sure any dog would be hard to control if they were left alone all the time with no exercise and nothing to do and not neutered.
He is already very well-trained now when it comes to food manners. Although he is curious and wants to smell, he will sit a couple of feet away while we eat our food. We have trained him not to jump up on our couches unless we invite him to. We also tell our friends to feel free to point to his bed and tell him to sit or lie down when they are occupying the couch. He waits in the livingroom watching us in the kitchen when we prepare his dogfood, and when we are done he will sit until we tell him he can eat.
Cooozy...
Chew chew! Um num num num num...
Bruiser loves chewing!
These are later photos (above) of when we got Bruiser his new bed.
These are earlier pictures of the first week we got him... He still has Kennel Cough from when we brought him home from the Humane Society. He is a little unsure right now, but he is a fast learner.
We love that adorable underbite!
Waggle Snaggle! You can see the interesting features of an Australian Shepherd's merle coat and the blue speck in his brown eye!
When we got our little Bruiser from the Humane Society, he had kennel cough for over a month. It didn't help that his appetite was barely there for about 8 days... Believe me, we experimented with mixing the dogfood with beef broth and hot water and gravy and whatever we could think of to get him to eat. We tried giving him a vet-approved dose of Benylin DM but he could barely tolerate the stuff even with a syringe mixed with honey. He was also licking his paws a lot and appeared to have a bit of skin irritation so our vet (Dr. Kim at the Albert North Vet Clinic) gave us Codeine and an antibiotic. It helped us all sleep! Poor little beast.... He also hacked up a lot of phlegm and threw up food for a while because of all the coughing: we went through probably about 10 of those wipies containers. Poor thing couldn't even pee properly sometimes because of all the coughing so he had a couple of baths. We tried to keep up his spirits and bought him a little bed & a crate which he immediately took to, as well as bones to chew. In the video above you can still hear him hacking a bit, but he's not as bad in this video as he was previously.
Here is an example of him still with kennel cough, but at least his energy levels are going up and he loves his little monster-squeaky toy. We also occasionally will take the little green monster with us and hide in a closet somewhere and then squeak it until Bruiser finds us. lol He loves it!
Bruiser likes the challenge of getting his toys or chew-chews out of a brown paper bag. So whenever we order from Triple 8 we get this big brown grocery bags... And then we put his things in there and scrunch up the bag. Sometimes it will occupy him for a good 15 - 20 minutes. It's fun for the whole family!
Nick names for Bruiser:
Bean
Peanut
Legume
Mr. B
Snaggle-Wags
Boo-Boo
Shnorky
Little Man
Goose
Pickle
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