As you will have read on the home page, Maggie and Smudge are both rescues from Courageous Canines.

Maggie is a Belgian Malinois cross who came to us in February of 2022 at age 11 months. She had a lot of challenges and as we say, she’s a ‘lot of dog’. Being a working breed she needs a lot of mental and physical stimulation – as a cross she doesn’t need as much as a pure-breed (phew!!).

She has a strong prey drive of any animals in the vicinity, be they squirrels or birds or other dogs. She also reacts to bikes and scooters and runners – especially ones that come across us without warning from behind. She is very agile and loves to jump over park benches or other obstacles. This is great as it challenges her mentally as well as physically. She is a very athletic dog and is very toned. We’ve tried several times to tire her out with long long hikes but have never succeeded – which is actually a good thing as when we’re dead on our feet she can pull us home. Her behaviour is getting better over the months but she lulls us into a false sense of security and they catches us off-guard (shame on us!) . She’s a darling though and is gradually becoming more cuddly.

Smudge came to us in early March of 2023 at 10 weeks old when he and his 2 brothers and Mom were rescued. His Mom is a Husky cross and his dad is unknown. One of his bothers is pure white but with brown eyes, The other is multi coloured with brown and black being the dominant ones. Smudge has beautiful blue husky eyes and at first we thought his ears would never stand up but eventually they started behaving. He’s extremely vocal – he howls like a husky but some folks think he looks like a border collie due to his colouring. He wasn’t called Smudge when we got him but we didn’t like the name and he has a dark smudge in the white fur right between his eyes so ….. We expected him to grow a bit more but we think he’s topping out now at just under 50lb at nine months.

Together, Maggie and Smudge make our household very … well, let’s just say its not a quiet place. The two of them have always wrestled a lot – even when Smudge was a tiny pup. They have competitions with wide open mouths to see who can keep their jowls or the scruff of their neck away from the other while grabbing those same parts on their sibling. Maggie is also quite jealous. She was used to being an only child for a year and now she has to compete with Smudge for attention. If we call him or throw a ball for him she always tries to get there first so we have to send Maggie in one way and Smudge in the other. As I said, it’s never quiet with these two.

For more of our antics and fun please go to our Posts Page.