Mini Australian Shepherd Frisbee Rally (Chopper) 

Marcus I'm doing the same thing constant Aussie vids lmao

They are the most fun dogs ever! Small enough to be inside, sturdy enough to be outside. Mine is 10 years old now, and still running and playing.

me too! I was just thinking the same! My neighborhood had a nice dog park when we moved here but they decided they could make more money bulldozing it & putting in more housing. Everywhere else requires leashes. Oh well.

You've got a small mini just like Chopper! Get him chasing tennis balls for now, but it's a bad idea to have him doing flips and repeated jumps until he's at least a year old. Their spines aren't fully formed until then, so although the dogs are willing and able to do some amazing athletics, one bad jumping twist can cause horrible long term injury. Not worth it. Keep training your little one and add new stuff every month or too. It's so cool watching them excel at new skills, and to be honest, it's one of the only ways to tire them out!

+bertuzzi4ladybing ya. I'll hold off on the twisting. I got him chasing frisbees now. I do video editing. I should have edited your Chopper video for you. Could have made it look real cool.

+Michael M. Right on. As for editing the video, I feel that the look I'm going for is juuuuuust right. And that look, of course, is low def poorly framed and shot by someone having an active seizure. Ha!

+bertuzzi4ladybing Funny. Chopper is amazing though so it don't matter. How long did it take u to train him to jump over your knee?

+Michael M. Within a few minutes. sit flat on the ground and get him to jump over your legs. once he does that you can start getting him to jump over you any way you want. takes a bit of practice but so long as he is driven to get the toy, he'll jump over you. eventually you font even need a toy there and he'll just do it as part of the rally.

Chopper didn't start playing Frisbee until he was about a year and a bit old. You have to be REALLY careful because although Aussies are willing to sprint a marathon at an early age, their spines aren't close to being fully developed. One bad jump/twist/tumble and they could severely injure themselves. Nothing sadder than an Aussie who can't be agile! With that out of the way... just practice! When he gets older, he'll HATE letting the Frisbee touch the ground. That's when he'll start jumping and really laying out for those amazing stretch catches. It just comes with time. Trust me, your dog will get there on his own soon enough!

Thanks so much for that info. I've been trying to learn all I can on Aussies since we got our boy. He is almost 5 months. Have a book but so far have not got to the jumping section . I knew they were energetic, etc but wow. Not a lap dog for sure. Even as a little puppy he could be so wild. Working on controlling him when excited right now. He does learn quickly and just so much personality. I'm 61 and don't recommend for majority of people my age. Have grandkids near by that give him a work out. We play with him as much as you would any baby that age. Have to or he would get so bored.

You can find ChuckIt ZipFlight Frisbee everywhere online and every pet store, but for some reason the price varies between $10 and $20 for the same frisbee so shop around a bit! Also, it's important to know that it isn't a chew toy. We use these discs for play, and then put them away. Chopper will destroy a disc if he's left alone with it to aggressively chew at.

Timely reply from me here! Chopper is about 8 and a half now, and hasn't slowed a bit. Still flying around, doing backflips, and just generally hamming it up for anyone who is watching him at the park. I'm not the biggest video guy, but maybe it's about time we made a new one?

Very patiently, routinely, and with lots of very positive reinforcement (snacks).

Heaven Aden He is VERY small for a mini. He had a health issue in the past which I think disrupted his growth a bit.

Yasmeen Kassam Yep. He's definitely on the small side. He's about 22 lbs, whereas usually a female would be 25-35 lbs and a male in the 30-40lbs range. He's as healthy as can be now, just got stunted when he was young.

bertuzzi4ladybing Im so glad he is okay! I love Mini Aussies with all my heart and I hope to get one soon! Good luck with your cutie! I

+Yasmeen Kassam Dogs that had health issues at a young age can be the biggest joys and the most loyal. I have a mutt who was very antisocial when we rescued her. Now shes a cuddle bug. She had parvo and the wife and I had to nurse her back to health.

Francesca Frampton I did this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-h8f_-1Kjp08.html&feature=gp-n-y&google_comment_id=z13hghwwyxevfth4i04cdbujxwm0upuqh20 Do you mean a video on actual technique? Depending on the type of frisbee and what I'm trying to get him to do, there are plenty of different throws. Honestly, if it flies, he's going to try to catch it (and usually succeed!). Try different stuff... he'll often catch frisbees that I mis-throw and it makes it look even cooler!

Border Collie Chopper doesn't have any real herding instinct. Just frisbees. He does a great job trying to keep our toddler in line though (they tire each other out!)

Thanks for replying! That sounds cute 😍 One more question - would you consider mini Aussies a high energy dog? Chopper looks pretty high energy in this video 😂 but does he need that much exercise every day? I've done a little research on them but I've never actually talked to someone who has one.

The first thing to understand is that a Mini Aussie is really no different from a regular Aussie. They just bred smaller dogs together, but no other breeds (which is common for other breeds of minis). That means that they have the same energy/exercise requirements that their larger brothers have. Essentially, you have all the same drive and energy of the big Aussie, but without the added weight to tire them out. Now, we picked Chopper specifically because of his temperament. He was by far the calmest in the litter. We live in a 950 square foot apartment and he is perfectly happy to chill out there, but he DOES get at least an hour of very high energy exercise, or 1.5 to 2 hours of moderate exercise every day. This breed needs it, or else they'll develop behavioral issues (and to be honest, it's just not fair to the dog). If you've got the time, though, then they're a hell of a dog! I run almost every day, and I'm a fast runner, so hammering out a 10km run with a little bit of frisbee at the end seems to suit him just fine. Otherwise, a long walk with a LOT of rally frisbee tuckers him out too.

Ok, thank you. I live in the suburbs with a medium sized yard and two other dogs that would keep an Aussie company, and a few parks around the corner. The only thing that holds me back from finding a breeder RIGHT NOW is the fact that I am gone 8 hours a day Monday - Friday.

It sounds like you've got a good setup as far as having some other dogs to run around with, as Aussies are pack-dogs for sure. That said, they consider their people to be a big part of that pack (as most dogs do) and so if they're left alone for long periods every day, they can have a tendency to get a bit out of hand. It's not a guarantee by any means, but they are prone to it. Having 2 other dogs can certainly help though!

+debby M Dogs like him vary in price drastically. If he were dumb he would be between 400 and 1500. His intelligence level denote a dog that can be anywhere between free, a rescue, or as high as 1250.

We just got our Mini mix for 350. He's 3/4 mini Aussie and 1/4 Blue Healer.

They LOVE to learn! Train in 10 minute increments every couple of hours. Your dog will learn VERY quickly. Have fun with it. For really acrobatic stuff, though, wait until they're at least a year old to ensure that their spine is fully formed and they're strong enough. A major injury to an Aussie is devastating.

bertuzzi4ladybing aussies respond well to clicker/treat training?

Jason Hussman Definitely. Chopper isn't motivated much by food/treats, but patient clicker training worked well. He is driven by toys, so giving him is toy when he'd do something right worked well also.

How tall and how much does your boy weight?

We prefer the ChuckIt discs. They do break down, but they're nice and soft on the dog's mouth and they float. Still Chopper's favorite! (Yes, at almost 12 years old, he's still playing strong)

Julie Torrisi He's 22lbs, and that's really on the small side for a male mini. You should expect most males to fall in the 30-35 lb range, but there is quite a range.