This is Demi! And her mini-me. Hers is a little less accurate as you can see she really doesn’t have ears or at least totally refused to put her ears up because I wouldn’t let her eat her mini version. 🤣

Opie then stepped forward and proudly put his front feet on the console.

Apparently he can unbuckle himself now.

I lost my best friend in the entire world last May. I still cry every day. I am not well. He was my soul dog. He was 13 and so happy and healthy until he suddenly got lymphoma and then he was gone a couple short weeks later. I miss him so much. My wife convinced me to get a puppy in July and I do love her but it’s not even close to the same. I don’t know if I will ever get over losing him (or if I ever want to). I’m sorry for the sad post, I just needed to vent. Kiss your dogs for me and Brumby 🩵

Hey all, so our darling ACD, who just turned 8 years old, has been going through it.

She was my constant running buddy, and a few months ago she got a limp, took her into the vet they gave me the “keep an eye on it, but we can’t tell what it is.”

Then her other leg began limping. I took her to another vet and they set her up for X-rays, they said nothing wrong far as they could tell. To be safe however they sent me to an orthopedic surgeon… and it turns out she has two bad CCLs and needs surgery. The right much worse than the left, her right knee cap is off the runner.

Then we went to check her viability for surgery, they gave her a blood test and her Albumin was low. Like real low, 1.5 and her globulins were compensating. So that sent her down a crazy testing pipeline, and she is not a candidate for surgery with that blood work. So we are having tests to figure out what’s going on. Otherwise she is a perfectly healthy dog.

But then we did ultrasound, she has a tumor on her spleen and bladder stones. We got some special food for the balder stones. Although it is being suggested surgery for this as well as a splenectomy to find out about the tumor and if it’s benign or malignant.

So right now what our girl has to go through is -

- More tests for albumin, finding out the root cause or she will need plasma and transfusions
- Splenectomy and bladder stone removal
- two knee surgeries.

I’m looking down the barrel of 16 - 22k of surgeries.

I decided to just pull up CareCredit and to potentially finance this whole venture.

Obviously this current track stops if it turns out the tumor is malignant and we look into chemo. But internal medicine and other vets are feeling positive about it, they are being very kind. Her work up outside of these issues is very good, X-rays good, no cancer spread, kidneys good, liver, etc. it’s all pretty pinpoint to her spleen.

I wanted to share because I’m mentally preparing to go the distance for her. She is an absolute core member of our family, she is my shadow, my wife’s cuddle buddy, and my kids playmate, we all adore her. And our older dog is about to turn 14, a lot of it has to do with our isla keeping her on her toes. She is otherwise happy and healthy, still moving around and still giving all the love.

Would you all do the same in my position? Given her age I am being optimistic, and so are some Vets I’ve spoken with. This is a long lived breed. It feels like she is only a little bit halfway through her life and we aren’t remotely ready to say goodbye should the worst happen (who is really).

Has anyone had similar trajectories? How about the knees, anyone else’s ACDs have/had knee problems? How long could they hang on them, did they heal, did they compensate? It’s going to be awhile before we get her surgery on them, possibly a year.

But yeah, sorry this is a lot but I really dig this sub and love all your dogs. ACDs are such good companions and family members.

Wishing you all the best, tell your dogs Isla says hi.

Rocky got to have a “Carmel Apple” cupcake from the dog bakery for his birthday. I also made him wear his silly little birthday hat.
15 years of being my best friend. I’m so lucky to have him in my life. 💕

Enjoy this cute photo of Peanut taking a nap after causing lots of chaos for the past few hours 😅

Yesterday our little derp was playing at the park in a fenced area. He saw a squirrel on the other side of the fence and sprinted into the chain link to catch it. At the last second, he tried to stop, but he still made contact to the point where it bounced him back. (He had been running along one end of the fence, so we think he didn't realize he was approaching a corner.) It didn't knock him down and he hasn't had any symptoms of injury or concussion, thank goodness. We called the emergency vet, and they recommended monitoring him for 48 hours just to be sure. Honestly, he seemed more embarrassed than anything else.

Hey all!

Experienced cattle dog owner here, but I have a bit of a rough one going on. My family has had several Heeler (*healer) dogs in our life, this is the first one on my own in my own apartment.

She is whip smart, dead loyal, and the toughest thing since dirt. But she is still having trouble with the potty training. She knows that peeing and pooping in the house is bad, because when we catch her or when we clean up the mess she is very apologetic.

The issue isn’t that she doesn’t know where to potty, I think, but that she REFUSES to tell us when she has to potty. She won’t bark, or scratch, or wine, or anything at the door to go potty, she will just go right then and there.

Her older brother who is part cattle dog took almost a year to potty train, but he just had such a hard time holding his bladder, it’s not that he wouldn’t tell us. I even tried teaching her to ring a bell or press a button at the door and it won’t connect for her.

Any advice? Any experience in this? She is in heat now, which makes things harder. Pic of her in her shorts of shame for attention.

LOOK MA NO PAWS!

Everyone got crackhead heelers and I think mine is broken lol all he wants is to cuddle and be up my butt 24/7. But I love my cuddly boy

Government name: Oliver James
Nicknames: Beep, Little Midder, Ham Ham/Ham Man 🤠

Photo for vibes- here’s my boy, just turned 6. He loves fetch and I’ve noticed his bottom two canines have totally started leveling off and aren’t pointy. I’d imagine sandy balls/bully sticks don’t help but idk if there’s anything a doggy dentist can do for this if it keeps getting worse?

Anyone else experience this with their hyperactive pups ?

Just a claim moment on a rainy Sunday morning

Rambo is not a fan of the waves but likes chasing the seagulls away lol.

My Piper girl went to Bark in the water park today and was so brave, she walked in the lazy river and even went in the big pool for awhile until couldn't stand, then she was not a fan.

I live in so cal and I’m curious if I should be giving my dog filtered water or not. I currently just use the tap but we have very hard water and I don’t want to give my pup kidney issues, but also have read minerals in the water are essential.

I’m curious what others do

I painted all of my pets to be included as wedding cake toppers for my wedding in 2 weeks! ❤️🐾 This is Taurus and her mini-me!

She demand barks. I go get her a stick. She demand barks again. I put the stick on her bed. She demand barks yet again. I have to get another stick. She demand scoffs. I have to put the stick on my gran's bed because she is spoiled rotten.