Maintaining an Auggie dog is about as easy as maintaining any other dog. Brush its fur every day — it sheds a fair bit, and you don’t want its hair to get matted — and regularly brush its teeth and inspect its ears for anything untoward.
As this is a breed that’s particularly prone to infections of the eye, you will also need to be looking at its eye regularly, making sure that you quickly act on anything worrying.
As far as exercise is concerned, the Auggie is a pretty active breed but not one with extraordinary activity expectations. Make sure you’re giving it a daily walk and, if you can, give it room in the house to really stretch its legs. (Having said that, it’s absolutely not out of the question that this breed could be an apartment dog, so don’t feel like your building is holding you back. This isn’t a massive dog.)
Auggie health risks
The typical Auggie lifespan is 12 to 15 years but we hope you will have at least 15 years with your beloved pupper. As you know, however, no dog has an entirely illness-free life. In Auggies, as well as relatively common ailments like hip dysplasia, the following conditions are a little more prevalent than others, so do your utmost to keep an eye out for:
Progressive retinal atrophy
An Auggie affected by progressive retinal atrophy will gradually go blind because of the death of the rod cells in their retinas. Luckily, because the progression of the condition is so slow, your dog may not even let on that anything is wrong; they may adapt to life with increasingly poor eyesight.
You will know eventually, of course. Your dog’s eyes will begin to succumb to cataracts, for example, and it will behave more tentatively as it begins to lose its day vision (the loss of night vision comes first). Be on the lookout at the early stages for bumping into walls, dilated pupils, and the eyes taking on a gray color.
As with any progressive condition, treatment here is about managing the problem. Your dog may be perfectly comfortable and happy if you make accommodations and slight changes around the house, so there is no need to feel sad about their declining eyesight. Antioxidants may help slow down the progression of the illness.
Generally, although a vet might be able to remove a dog’s cataracts, they may be reluctant to in this scenario because the removal may cause more issues than it solves.
Intervertebral or degenerative disc disease
If you notice that your dog is suffering from back pain, they may be experiencing something called intervertebral or degenerative disc disease, a condition that often affects older dogs but is certainly common in some breeds at a younger age as well.
If it’s suffering from disc problems, your Auggie dog may not be comfortable bending down to eat or drink from its bowl, and you may notice that he or she is struggling to turn its head in one particular direction.
If the discs between your dog’s spinal vertebrae begin to calcify, your dog’s flexibility will be reduced and it may experience pain and discomfort in the back, or the neck, or a combination of the two. In worst-case scenarios your dog can become incontinent, unable to use its rear legs, or paralyzed.
A vet who diagnoses this condition may prescribe muscle relaxants or pain medication, or may simply recommend that your Australian Shepherd Corgi mix take it a bit easy.
More serious cases, however, might require surgery — a recommendation that should always be acted upon as quickly as possible. The surgeon will remove some bone in the spine; removing the calcified disc material can relieve the pressure on the spinal cord.
Cataracts
Cataracts are an extremely common occurrence in dogs. If your dog has cataracts it’s possible they may exhibit one of the following symptoms: their eye may be cloudy in appearance; its eye may reflect light abnormally; and there may be some abnormal coloration of the eye, often of the light blue or gray variety.
This is a condition defined by the clouding of the lens in the eye. As a result of this clouding, the retina struggles to receive light and create an image. With cataracts will come some vision loss, which will be identifiable if you notice your little Auggie bumping into things, being extra-clumsy, or walking around more cautiously than normal.
If left unattended to, cataracts can lead to problems like glaucoma (to which the Auggie is also prone) and even blindness.
In order to treat cataracts, a vet will want to perform surgery, which in the case of this condition has a fantastic 90+% success rate.
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Feeding an Auggie — what’s the best diet?
Experts recommend getting around 2,500 calories into your Auggie every day. It ought to go without saying that these calories should be in the form of high-quality, nutrient-rich food full of animal proteins that will keep your dog healthy and full of energy.
Do your research and avoid harmful ingredients and things like fillers and E numbers. If you can afford it, favor dog food brands that are transparent about how they source their ingredients and what goes into each packet. Try, if possible, to avoid giving your Auggie scraps from your plates — food tailored to dogs will always be preferable.
And, if you want comprehensive information about the best dog foods out there, check out our friends at Dog Food Advisor — they have in-depth brand reviews that include ingredient analysis, so you know exactly what you’re feeding your pet.
