I'd want to get a rescue Aussie, female probably, and in young adulthood. We've fallen in love with Aussies! The name would be agonized over for weeks until we found just the right one...

I still feel guilty about having gotten Eli from a fancy-dancy breeder instead of from a rescue or a shelter, but we had our reasons. Kobie is a shelter-adopted female who's NOT good with other dogs, so we kept hearing advice to get a very young male puppy--maybe she'd feel maternal towards it and not fight constantly. Since finding male Aussie pups in rescue or shelters was impossible during last summer (and we sure tried!), we opted for the breeder. True, we got a wonderful boy who's just what we wanted--frisbee dog extraordinaire, loving and smart and hilarious--but it bothers me that some other Aussie went unadopted or unrescued because of us.

At least we tried to make it as easy as we could on Kobie, and she's adjusted to Eli pretty well. Gotta keep each furkid happy!