Totally Terra
- Breed: Australian Shepherd
- Age: 12 years
- Color: Tri-Split face Blue Merle
- Name Meaning: Earth
- Zodiac Sign: Aries
- Birthday: March 29th, 2011
- Name Meaning: “Earth” in Latin; named after the Teen Titans character Terra
- Nicknames: Tiara, Tiramisu, Ter, Taro, TaroBean, T, FuzzButt
- Favorite Foods: Sojos Beef Treats, Redbarn Rolled Food, Bully Sticks Bulk, Nylabone Healthy Edibles XL, PureBites Chicken Treats, Peanut Butter Coated Sweet Potato Fries, Maddie's Low Protein Treats
- Favorite Activities: Learning Tricks, Agility, Lure Coursing, Chase, Tug, Keep-a-way, herding, running, biking, sunbathing
- Favorite Toys: Crinkle Dog Squeaky Toy, Mammoth Tug Toy, Kong Wobbler, Outward Hound Slow Feeder, SodaPup Honey Pot, Lickimat, Outward Hound Treat Wheel, Outward Hound Kyjen Paw Hide Treat
Titles
- NTD (Novice Trick Dog)
- ITD (Intermediate Trick Dog)
- ATD (Advanced Trick Dog)
- CGC (Canine Good Citizen)
Background
Terra joined our family as a puppy around 8 weeks old. She came from JailHouse Aussies. Her Dam was Scarlet and her Sire was Justin.
My sibling wanted a dog and liked the look of the Australian Shepherd. We met the breeder in Tombstone to meet the pups. She was slated as “Pet Quality,” but came from working companion lines which we later learned means lots of energy and lots of drive-a bit more than was bargained for as a “Pet Home.” There were two girls left-one named Tara and the other named Bella. Tara was chosen by her person and named Ash, because she became part of our family during the Monument Fire. We had had to evacuate our house and her coat color looked like ashes.
I got to interact with Ash a little bit as a puppy, but then Bella and I only saw her every four or five months between visiting home from school in Flagstaff.
She was quite the energetic bouncing puppy with flashing sharp teeth! I remember her grabbing the carpet and tugging it happily and I was happy this little crazy dog wasn’t mine and that I hadn’t chosen her!
Almost at her wit’s end and having suffered multiple bruises with broken skin wounds from the pup’s inappropriate behavior (dewclaws getting caught on papery thin skin), my grandma was going to re-home Ash and find a ranch for her to live on and I wish we had done that then. However, my sibling said though she couldn’t go with him to college for the first year living on campus, he still wanted her. I was asked to take her until after his college was completed and planned to train her for her owner so he would enjoy having her and not have to do any training (since she hadn’t had any up to that first year plus). So she came to Flagstaff with Bella and me in the Fall of 2012.
She joined Bella and me on our adventures-from camping to walks in the forest to Yappy Hours and fostering. Like all of the foster dogs and dogs we watched, she joined us in learning tricks, our photo taking, studio training, practicing Agility with a local club, and a little Frisbee.
I trained her through her Canine Good Citizen and up through a couple of Trick Dog Titles, finding out later that apparently her owner didn’t want me to do any training with her.
Training was still pretty intermittent-especially after Kronos joined the family in the Winter of that same year Ash came up to Flagstaff with Bella and me. And yet she learned so much. She had her first professional photo shoot and traveled across the country for BlogPaws in Tennessee. She achieved her Canine Good Citizen and Advanced Trick Dog Titles. She attended Kyra Sundance’s Do More With Your Dog Trick Training Workshop for socialization and loved working with food-she is extremely food driven and will work with anyone who has food. When it became clear she was staying with us indefinitely, her name was changed to Terra.
This Aussie is a sassy diva-very high prey drive, high energy, very bossy with other dogs (especially females), and an independent girl although she absolutely loves giving people face kisses and having them scratch her butt while she sits on them.
Terra's Portfolio
- 2013 Online Gallery of the Bark-Smiling Dogs
- 2015 Fido Friendly Magazine’s TongueOut Calendar Cover
- 2012 Voted Fan Favorite for HauteDog: Wet Nose Culture Magazine’s August Cover Dog Contest
- 2013 Finalist in the PetHub Summer Adventures Video Contest