Fun with my Aussie

[Chris Padilla]

I thought you might enjoy some action shots of me tossing the frisbee around with my Australian Shepherd, Zeus.

My daughter is the photographer, yours truly the trainer.

Here is a sequence of 8, and they appear to be in order so even better.

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[Chris Padilla]

And here is THE SHOT of that morning. My daughter always says, "Take a 100 photos and 3 will be really good and 1 special."

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

Zeus appears to be enjoying himself!

Our oldest son is on his 4th or 5th miniature Aussie. He loves them and their personalities.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

And here is THE SHOT of that morning. My daughter always says, "Take a 100 photos and 3 will be really good and 1 special."

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In my experience, she's correct.

[daryl moses]

Great photo skills! Love the intent "look" on your pups face. Catching the Frisbee must be one of it's favorite things.

[Wade Lippman]

My toller could chase a Frisbee down, jump up, twist 180*, catch the Frisbee, and land it; about 90% of the time.

Now she is 16. I have to pretend to throw it. She will run out and look around for it. If I then softly throw it right to her, she can catch about 30%. We are all getting old.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Great photos. Your daughter is right when it comes to taking action shots like that! Zeus has that look of "I caught it. I can hardly wait for you to throw it again!"

I could never get mine to figure out a frisbee is fun. I think it's because my original dog was ball-crazy and wasn't into frisbees and he taught all the youngsters "frisbees are not fun" and the generations after him all learned the from the older ones.

Getting old allows us to spend even more quality time with them at a slower pace. I enjoy every minute with my "old girl" and let her know I'm glad she's still happy to be with us.

[Chris Padilla]

Yeah, he really seems to love the Frisbee. We started with a ball to get his fetch and return down and then transitioned to the Frisbee. He is still a young pup at 18 months and outlasts me in the throwing!

[Jim Becker]

Great photos, Chris. When I'm shooting equestrian, I use continuous shot mode all the time and throw out the "less than great" photos...it's a great technique to use when photographing moving people, animals, vehicles or some combination of them. I've also moved to using higher shutter speeds overall and things stay really crisp when you get something like that leap in the "special good" photo above.

[Chris Padilla]

My daughter is the photog and knows all the stuff despite being 14. She got a nice camera and lessons for Christmas 2015. The guy teaching the class was a little reluctant to accept a 13 year old but was quite surprised by her adeptness and enthusiasm. I just train our dog.

[Bruce Page]

Great photos. Your daughter is really talented. I can never keep action shots framed very well.

[Stewie Simpson]

Chris; looks like you got a Border Collie. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/bordercollie.htm

[Wayne Lomman]

Chris, I have never heard of an Australian Shepherd. I thought I might see a kelpie, or a blue heeler. Does she round everything up to control it, like chooks, children, the neighbours sheep etc?! Cheers

[Chris Padilla]

Chris; looks like you got a Border Collie. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/bordercollie.htm

Well since I got Zeus from the breeder, who breeds Australian Shepherds, I'm about 100% sure Zeus is an Aussie. Border Collies are very similar but there are features (like the ears) and their coloring (BCs are typically black and white only) that distinguish the two breeds.

EDIT: http://theaustralianshepherd.net/wor...order-collies/
This site claims that BCs can actually have more color differences than Aussies but that has not been my (limited) experience. The ears are usually the easiest way to tell. Most Aussies have naturally bobbed tails while all BCs have tails.

[Chris Padilla]

Chris, I have never heard of an Australian Shepherd. I thought I might see a kelpie, or a blue heeler. Does she round everything up to control it, like chooks, children, the neighbours sheep etc?! Cheers

The funny thing about the name is that no one really knows how/where/why they are called Australian Shepherds. They are very much an American bred dog but somehow, this name stuck. The shepherd part is pretty obvious when you observe their natural behaviors: nipping at heels and general herding of other dogs when they play.