Why You REALLY Don’t Want An Australian Shepherd, or How I Learned to Stop Whining and Love the Breed! Paperback – August 15, 2025

Why You REALLY Don't Want An Australian Shepherd, or How I Learned to Stop Whining and Love the Breed! is a loving, amusing/bemusing memoir in which Cynthia Kennedy comes clean about why you should NOT allow an Aussie into your life! They are hairy, mischievous, hilarious, smart, devilish, destructive, noisy, devoted, too-cute, rascals that DEMAND your time and attention, while filling your heart with joy due to their unlimited capacity for love, devotion and affection. She recounts that in almost 50 years of being owned by Aussies, how they took over her life (and house and bank account), requiring her to seek new adventures in agility, obedience, herding, conformation and more, spending a lifetime indulging them in their every interest (including squirrels and cats). The 15 chapters in this heartwarming, hysterical compendium include the TRUE history of the breed (found in this book for the first time in print!) and how they're not even "Australian" Shepherds. - Introduction or How I Fell Into the Aussie Abyss- Why You Really Don't Want an Australian Shepherd Puppy- Housebreaking, or Here's the Straight Poop!- Socialization, or No Nip Slips!- Living with an Aussie is 90% following each other around, watching each other go potty, and wondering what the other has in their mouth, or "You'll Never Walk Alone" (Apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein)- Traits or Treats?- Snorts, Sneezes, Coughs, Cacks and Groans- Living With Aussies or As Albert Camus said, "Live to the point of tears."- You Don't REALLY Want an Aussie Because First They Steal Your Heart, Then They Steal Your Bed!- Fill in the Blank: "Australian ________" or P.I.T.A.A. = Pain in the Ass Aussie- You REALLY Don't Want an Australian Shepherd—They're "Chewish!"- "Some things are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." (Apologies to Francis Bacon, 1561-1626. Note that "things" was originally "words").- Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow- You Now Have an Aussie and Your Life is No Longer Yours!- You Can't Have Just One! (That's why there's "Australian Shepherd Addicts Anonymous," or "Auss-Anon")- The Biggest Reason You Really Don't Want an Australian ShepherdThis book is almost as funny as an Australian Shepherd's smile (the dearest, most ridiculous sight in all of Dogdom). It will make you laugh and wish you too had a wiggle butt (which of course you can, if you defy this book's warning and get yourself owned by an Aussie). Whether you are dogless, or have a house full of furkids, you will fall in love with the Australian Shepherd and each of Cynthia's "Rarebeasties" whose incredible lives are chronicled in this delightful book. Read more