We Got a Puppy!!

On Friday July 31, Brandon and I adopted a precious, beautiful, HYPER, ball of fur, named Amora!

Left-5 weeks old
Right-7 Weeks old

Amora is an 8 week old, full bred, blue merle Australian Shepard. We have been wanting a puppy for quite a while now and we fell in love with the aussies. They are smart, beautiful, and FULL of energy. We are so excited to really start training her and watching her learn new commands and tricks. So far, she is getting really good at "sit", she is learning to "fetch", she will lay "down" if there is a treat involved, and sometimes she responds to her name!

We are having so much fun watching Amora run and jump around, learn new commands, and discover new things.

7 weeks old

Now, I knew that having a puppy would be a lot of work and I knew that having a breed as energetic and smart as an Australian Shepard would be even more work...but this little girl can wear me out FAST! Thankfully, after a few nights of sleeping 1 hour at time and howling/barking/screaming to get out of her crate, Amora has progressed to sleeping almost ALL night!! In ways I'm looking forward to her getting a little older, but I'm sure I'll miss her cute puppy stage. 

One of the things that really sold us on the idea of having an Australian Shepard was a therapy dog we met at Dell Children's Hospital when I had scoliosis surgery. One of the very few things I remember about my 7 days in the hospital, is the beautiful aussie that gently crawled up in my bed and laid beside me. According to my mom and Brandon, it was pretty much the only time I smiled during my first week of recovery. Because of this experience, Brandon and I want to work hard at training Amora to be a therapy dog so she can someday spread joy like the one I met after surgery.

If you have any puppy training tips, we would love to know them!! Especially if they are for biting or walking on a lease ;)