My Siberian Husky is a year old, great friend, intelligent, active, and is surprisingly like a human being. Although I work from home, I have to neglect my dog for 8-10 hours a day. She'll come up to me once in a while to say hi while I'm doing my work. I absolutely love that about her. She can be like a room mate sometimes and take care of herself without having me constantly worrying about her. She'll go to the yard, wander the house, terrorize the cats during the day. In between my work, I take her to the doggie park where she gets a full 1.5 - 2 hours of exercise with OTHER dogs. That is ALL the exercise that she gets in a day, 7 days a week rain or shine. While I feel bad for her sometimes, she doesn't seem like she needs more exercise than that.

My question is, how well will an Australian Shepherd do with this daily routine of mine if I were to get one as a companion for Okami, my husky? We are going to get a rescue. I'm pretty sure that they will physically wear each other out the whole day, with the addition of going to the park. But I really have no clue about Australian Shepherds even though I've been researching this breed. What about mental stimulation? Would an Aussie need more of that than what I'm already giving my husky, who seems satisfied? Google search gives me results about exercise and mental stimulation for the ONE Aussie dog in the household, but not about 2 different breed dogs in the household. So none of it accounts for the companion of other animals. And plus, I have 2 cats in the house... I've read mixed reviews about how well Aussies would do with cats.

Anyone who has an opinion, or has experience, has some cats, have... anything they want to say, please feel free to drop in your 2 cents! I'd really appreciate it!

Aussies are fantastic dogs! They are very intelligent and a lot of fun. They are bred to work and I think they do need a job to do, even if that 'job' is playing fetch at the park. If you want to do lots of training or do agility or something like that, then an aussie is perfect. To be honest I am not sure if the exercise on its own would be enough - but if you're able to play fetch or frisbee at the dog park then it would be fine. So I would think about how you would manage that - would you also try and interest Okami in fetch or something? Or would you be able to fit in a short training session at some point in the day?

Our aussie is great with the cats. We got him as a rescue and he had previously lived with cats. I guess that's something to check with a rescue, if that's what you're getting; or a puppy would be fine because it would grow up with the cats.

I think Ghost is right. Aussies aren't my herding breed of choice (I'm a Border Collie girl!), but I have a lot of Disc friends with them. A lot of those people have a similar schedule to what you have described and as long as they get the dog out daily for exercise they do really well.

Personally I feel Aussies mesh better with a Husky person rather than a BC... I've had 4 come through here, one of which is a personal dog of mine. I love my Aussies. He loves playing with Rodeo and is a nice fit for us.

As long as you can take a break and provide some fun mental games... They are a good fit and my Ewe loves to just hang out with me.

However- Aussies do have a natura guard instinct and either can be bouncing bundles of giddy... Or they can be quite wary of strangers. My Ewe is very reactive towards people and other dogs while on leash. It's taken about 6 solid months of training daily to get to the point where we are today, and he still does require management. My Aussie has been fine with the cats from about 2 weeks in, my first foster Aussie now lives with a best friend cat, and my newest current foster is learning to live with my cats.

Because of how quick they can be- I would certainly suggest a cat tested Aussie and one that ISN'T from working lines (if such information is available.)

we have an aussie in the family. he currently lives with an akita, 2 bichons, and 2 shibas but no cats. i feel he isn't as intense as the bcs i've been around, and he settles more easily. he does have some same sex aggression, which isn't that rare in the breed, so keep that in mind. like kristina said they can be reactive, cooper has gotten better, but he tends to be more shy and wary than my crazy huskies.
my only reservation is that the aussie can be trusted off lead and my huskies can't. kinda makes me feel a little bad when we are outside and cooper can just run and play as he pleases, but the huskies have to remain tied out.

Maybe I am bias but I would pick a border collie before an Aussie.

I dunno, I mean my friends had Aussies but my border collies to me were better to be around.

Herding dogs are way different in their energy then huskies. Just an FYI.

Maybe this is just me but I would adopt before I get one from a breeder etc. There are so many aussies and BC's in rescues because a lot of people can't handle their energy. All my BC's and we had a bc/aussie mix we all rescued.

Bodhi's girlfriend is an Aussie.
They have similar energy levels and love to play "chase."

Thank you everyone for your input. I have put aside time for my husky for a little training and such after the doggy park, if I forgot to mention. But not a lot. I just hope it will be enough for an Australian shepherd. I know their energy levels aren't the same, but just hoped it'd be similar.

Cute pic, by the way! .

Thanks again everyone.

Okami loses interest in fetching games too quickly. But I am always playing with other dogs at the park. I can definitely pick up fetch with an Australian shepherd .