Our Sheltie Daughters

It all started with Mia. When we were first married and moved to Bismarck I was lonely and decided we should have our first dog. We had already had fish, turtles, birds, geckos, guinea pigs – those didn’t work out so a dog was the answer, right?  Chris was gone a lot traveling for work, and when he was home he went hunting and fishing many weekends (shock, I know).  So I figured this gave me the right have the dog of my choice.  We (when I say we, I mean I) looked at many different breads of dogs and since I had grown up with Shelties I figured it was the perfect match.  I also did not want a dog that Chris would be tempted to take with him on his hunting escapades because I was the one stuck at home by myself.  Sure, I remembered that Shelties could have some quirks and that they tended to be “barkers”, but  I convinced myself it was the owners, not the dogs, that were the issue.  I couldn’t have been more wrong….

We made the trip to South Dakota to get Mia from a breeder in Pierre.  She couldn’t have been a sweeter pup. A tiny little black and white fur ball. Potty training came easy to Mia and she fit into our family perfectly. We doted on her every waking minute, and she was even allowed to sleep between us in our bed.

The next spring, we decided we loved Mia soooo much we should have a second pup.  I contacted the breeder and found that Mia’s auntie was expecting a litter soon (scandalous twist – Mia’s auntie was prego with Mia’s dad’s pups.  So they are half sisters and also cousins. Weird) Right around this time I discovered I was pregnant with Wyatt, but I was determined to have this second puppy, so in July, we drove once again to South Dakota to retrieve our “second daughter”.

I should have known we were in trouble when Mia completely dissed Sophie upon their first meeting. She wanted nothing to do with that little fur ball. I guess I can see why – within her first 30 minutes in our house, she managed to pee three times and poop twice on the floor. It’s like she had been saving it up the entire ride home.  Then that night, with Mia tucked snugly into our bed and Sophie in her kennel in the kitchen, the howling began.  Sophie apparently figured out that she was the only one sleeping in the kitchen. (We weren’t doing this to be mean, we just require puppies to be potty trained before they can graduated to sleeping outside the kennel)  We found an easy solution – put Mia in the kitchen with Sophie and the howling stopped. This satisfied us, but royally ticked off our eldest dog. I think this may have been were the resentment started and the weird, neurotic behavior, so typical of Shelties, began.

So here we are, two Shelties, each with their own quirks and bizarre behaviors. I truly believe that Mia thinks she is a human and deserves all the same rights and privileges as the people do.  She is often times aloof, and if she is mad at you, she has been known to sit facing a wall so she doesn’t have to look at you. And every once and a while if she is really mad (mostly at me, she would never turn on Chris) she will simply run away.  I have found her combing the neighborhood, frantically looking for a new home.  This of course has only happened when I have just finished scolding her.  She also has a weird obsession with yelling and hugging. She hates them both.  If Chris answers the phone and yells out to the kitchen to pick up my end, Mia will run back and forth between the two of us jumping and barking the whole time. We don’t even try to have conversations in different rooms anymore. It’s pointless, you can not hear one another over the frantic barking and growling.  We also have stopped hugging when she is in the room, because this sends her into a tizzy as well.

Sophie, on the other hand, is a dog’s dog. She loves to go outside, roll in the mud, snow, rain, you name it.  She could care less about getting dirty, in fact, I think she prefers it.  She would live outside if we would let her (maybe we should?).  She has a thyroid problem which makes her pleasantly plump.  She does not care if we yell in the house, or hug, for that matter. This may be due to the pleasantly plump issue.  She does however, act as the watch dog of the house, barking at every little bump and creak the house makes.  I laugh because when Chris is out of town for the night, Sophie sleeps by the front door I believe watching for intruders. When he is home, she sleeps in our room.  She does make me feel safe in the house – no one’s getting in without her knowing about it.

So this is the story of how we ended up with two Shelties. I know Chris is continuously getting grief from his hunting buddies about his big bad “hunting dogs”, but they seem to fit into our family nicely. And they do keep us quite entertained – and don’t they say laughter is the best medicine for anything?

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