r/AussieDoodle

My wife and I recently rescued a 5-month female Aussiedoodle (Muna) and showered her with as much love, care, training, and fulfillment as we could. Unfortunately, my wife received some bad news that she will need to undergo a severe surgery that will cause limits to her activity level, which is something we have been battling for the last year. With my wife having her physical limitations, most of Muna’s exercise, training, and play time was left to me. While we both cherished the time we had with her, we found it incompatible with our full-time schedules, mixed with the medical news, to continue providing for her full needs. Muna was rehomed to a family that was prepared for her energy and excited for the challenge/satisfaction of caring for a working breed!

All that to say, my wife and I are utterly heartbroken, and are eagerly awaiting the time we are able to invite another dog into our family. Before that time arises, we plan to research a breed that more closely reflects our lifestyle.

So now the question to you, what breeds have you come across that might fit our desires? We loved the excitement and affection that we received from our Aussiedoodle, but found with our working schedules, her energy and mental needs required too much time. Being able to engage in formal training was a thrill, and we hope to do it again with our next dog. We enjoyed taking Muna out for walks/runs/park, but also found it discouraging to not be able to come home and relax/cuddle with her while watching a show/reading/etc. Muna was a medium size, which is our desire. Lastly, my wife and I are both allergic, so hypoallergenic breeds are a preference, but we are also open to any tips for managing allergies with non-hypoallergenic breeds. We’d love to know what you all think!

Long story short, I lost my sweet aussiedoodle Sammy in June to bone cancer. He was a big boy (75lbs for most of his adult life, but gained weight the last two yrs and was about 90-95, I tried to help him lose weight but not much helped, got back down to about 85 before he passed, but he'd had a leg amputated at that point). I know bone cancer is more prone to happen the bigger a dog is. Anyway, it's made me terrified of ever owning an aussiedoodle again even though I loved him and his little personality so so much. My cousin's friends had an aussiedoodle they were trying to rehome not long after my pup was gone and it was just too soon. But it's been two months now, and I'm just beginning to look at getting a pup again, and so we reached out to her just to make sure they found a home for that pup. We wanted to make sure she was okay and thought of taking her now that I'm more ready to get a pup again. Well, she's been rehomed but one of her babies needs a home. He's 3 months old and a f1b (Sammy was a f1, at least as far as we were told). He's precious and my heart went out to him as soon as I saw his little face, but then all of that fear came flooding back.

Is this a health issue that's common for aussiedoodles? I don't think I could go through that again, though, part of me also knows every dog will likely develop some kind of health issue at the end of their life and need to be let go at the appropriate time. Sammy was my soul pup and the first dog that was ever truly just mine, so losing him at any time was going to ruin me, but it just felt like Sammy's life was cut so short, he was only 9. And it is still very fresh on my mind and in my heart, I know that's part of it. I hear so many people say caring for another pup helps them heal from the loss of their other dog. I don't know if I should be worried to own another of the same breed, if this fear is valid at all, or if everything's so fresh that I'm going to worry about any breed of dog I could bring home.

Hey all, have a 7 year old mini aussie doodle. She's super sweet. Has been minimally reactive her entire life. As a puppy we made sure to play with her ears and feet etc so she's always been super comfortable being touchedby anyone. She always used to get a little shaky before a vet visit but used to be very chill being examined, and even getting blood drawn she would barely flinch.

About 3 months ago she had her anal glands expressed and it was horrible. She ignored the cheese lick thing they gave her and kept snarling and trying to bite them and eventually had to be muzzled.

Today she went to get blood taken (she needs a root canal after cracking a tooth but I won't get into that). And she was a nightmare... she showed a lot of fear even when the vet was just trying to do the checkup and touch her. And when the vet tried to feel her back legs she bared her teeth and snarled. For the blood draw they muzzled her - we ended up with 3 vet technicians trying to hold her steady but as soon as the needle even grazed her she'd contort and writhe and they couldn't get the needle in. Nobody wanted to keep trying, least of all her... So I'm going back Monday and she'll be taking gabapentin/trazadone to try and calm her down. I know that the muzzle and the people holding her contribute to the anxiety but I also understand that the vets don't want to risk a bite...

I'm still a bit worried that the adrenaline is going to outweigh the effect of the sedatives.. but more concerned about future vet visits and her getting more reactive with strangers generally (or for example, is she going to give the groomer a hard time now). To me, the vets seemed like they were approaching it right - baby talking her, giving her tons of treats, approaching slowly and letting her sniff and lick them before they touched her. But she was NOT fucking having it.

Any suggestions or advice from people with similar issues?

Our 5 year old Aussie has become lazy. Is this normal? These guys are supposed to be high energy and need lots of exercise, which he did when he was a pup. I find now he has gotten lazy to the point he often only wants ego out to pee and then back home. I have to cajole and encourage and give a good tug on his harness some days just to get him to start an outing. I am in an area where he can run off leash for a bit and he seems to like it once he gets going. His recall is very good so it’s fine. I’m just concerned about his seeming lack of desire for activity. Has anyone else experienced this?

Looking to alert the moderators for this sub? There is a high number of live ama spam bots popping in high frequency. It’s all casino nonsense.

Our 3 month old Aussiedoodle is doing amazingly well in all ways but one…leash training lol. She’s comfortable with her collar since we’ve opted to keep it on her at all times now, but when we clip on the leash to practice walking indoors, she starts biting the lead. It’s obvious she thinks it’s a game of tug of war so we’re conscious about not pulling back or engaging in play. We’ve tried just having her walk around with the leash dragging behind her to see if she gets desensitized to it (doesn’t work), we’ve tried gentle tugs up while saying “No” to apply some pressure (doesn’t work), and we’ve tried saying “Leave it” and rewarding with a treat once she drops the leash from her month, which works momentarily until she starts up again. Any advice?? We’ve been at this for a few days (slowly adding more and more time of leash work), but I’m starting to get kinda worried! We want to make sure she doesn’t do this when we get the all clear from her vet in a few weeks to go on walks outside. Just trying to prepare ahead of time. Apart from the leash stuff she’s a superstar in everything else, so we’re stumped lol! Any tips are soooo appreciated!!!