Border Collies, Australian Shepherds, All Herding breeds, Tell Me About Yours

[PirateGirl]

Get your water hose ready yell NO BARK let the water go will they neighbor let you ?

I totally trained my neighbor's dog to stop taking dinosaur sized dumps in my yard with the garden hose. Cleaning up after my own dogs is enough of a project thank you, I do not need more poop piles from a 125 lb. dog whose owner must think it never poops because her yard is miraculously spotless. When we moved into our house the yard was full of dog poop, the previous owner of the house did not even have a dog. We quickly learned it was the neighbor dog and I found the hose to be fairly effective at stopping that routine.


@Kris5902 Oh man, your post reminded me of an incident I will never forget, I have one dog that is a roller in all things gross (the aussie mix) and is a pro at finding an elk leg in the wilderness, and the other, well the other is the eater of all things gross. One day both dogs had wandered off a bit and were not returning when I called. I found them on an elk carcass, one was eating it, maggots and all, the other was rolling on it at the same time. We were living in a camper at the time and I was trying to get off to work and they both got a bath in the stream that was icy spring runoff. I hated them that day, but can't help but laugh (and cringe) about it now.

 

[Folly's place]

Long ago I had that 'Lassie' thing in my head, and wanted a Collie. Then I met a breeder who had a fair number of them, beautiful to look at, but not at all smart. Those narrow heads, tiny often malformed eyeballs, not enough 'upstairs' to be appealing. I got over Lassie, and never went back.
My age is showing, because I got over the whole 'RinTinTin' thing too. Finding a GSD with a sound mind in a sound body was just too difficult!
I've had two high intensity 'perpetual motion machine' dogs, one a smart GSHP that I loved, and a rescue Dalmation, never again.
The Shorthair was very very smart, and very very stubborn. I'm a stubborn German too, so he had a lot of training and was wonderful, finally.
Disney cursed Dalmations with the movies showing them as they aren't. They are guard dogs, and people don't see that, and it was tricky sometimes.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

When my Shorthair was out in the field with me, he would find any dead critter available, and do the same, or better yet, retrieve it on command, so I had to take the rotting carcass from his mouth and praise the retrieve. Smiling!
He might have known how I really felt and was laughing about it too...
Mary

 

[chickens really]

Wilson lives for rolling in coyote poop and horse poop. Dead fish carcasses at the river too. Then he sits back and smiles.
I can't count how many times he's done this..

 

[PirateGirl]

I just wanted to throw this out there... we seem to agree that working/herding dogs are smart (which generally equals trainable) and high energy and/or high strung and bossy. One thing we worked on with the trainer which helped immensely was training the dog to be calm which also included training the dog to look to me to figure out what to do in stressful situations. I can't for sure tell you if inside that brain of my dog she is calm, but she knows how to act calm when she is excited/stressed/etc. She will now very deliberately lay on the floor with her head on her paws (head and ears up is alert, head down is calmer) and stare me down. She is showing me that she is containing her excitement/anxiety and she is looking to me to figure out what I want her to do next. She is not all over the scary stranger guest that just walked in the door and she is not begging for food or playing with toys or looking out the window at whatever made that sound... she is waiting for direction on what to do about whatever it is that has her worked up. Working dogs want to work and they want to please you. If you can teach them to pay attention to you at all times, they will wait for the next set of directions in all situations (ideally). When we are out in the national forest (off leash) and she sees a stranger approaching, another dog, a wild animal (other than a squirrel because we always let her chase squirrels), a parked vehicle, a tent, anything out of the ordinary, the old behavior was a barking charge, the new behavior is that she stops what she is doing, returns to my side, waits for me to clip on her leash and waits for a command. If I see/sense something first, all I have to do is call her name and she stops in her tracks and comes to my side to wait and see what's next. The next command might just be "it's ok, go" and she returns to being a wild dog in the woods, but it might be to just sit and listen for a minute and be calm. Once dogs get used to having direction from you, and once they think you are always watching, they will look to you for direction in future. They can be trained to control their wild side because they tend to want to please you. Plus your next command might be something fun, like fetch, or go jump in the creek, or go get that squirrel/fox/etc., or go greet so and so.

 

[Folly's place]

Bird dogs are also bred to take directions and be very trainable, and still have the energy to do field work. Some are naturally quiet house dogs, too, like my personal favorite, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Another guard breed, definitely not for everyone, and can be miserable if not raised right.
Now I have two rescue pit bull terriers, one quiet, and one very busy, but SHORT HAIRED pleasant house dogs, and when they are barking at the door, people believe them!
Mary

 

[ShrekDawg]

I must admit I am a bit scared of Chesapeakes.

I know not all of them are like that but I once knew a very unstable, protective dog and it almost bit my brother a couple times. Belonged to his friend. It was just aggressive or crazy or something.

And at the dog park one time there was this dog that, to me, looked like a Chessie mix or maybe lab/pit bull, looked a lot like chessie to me though. Either way, it was going after every dog there and the owners did nothing. We don’t go anymore hah

But chessies scare me cause of that.

I know most people don’t like them because of their popularity and overbreeding but I do love a good Golden or Lab. Also love Tollers though and flat coats.

 

[Kris5902]

When my Shorthair was out in the field with me, he would find any dead critter available, and do the same, or better yet, retrieve it on command, so I had to take the rotting carcass from his mouth and praise the retrieve. Smiling!
He might have known how I really felt and was laughing about it too...
Mary

Yes, well on dig up number four of the same lamb... poor Delta knew exactly what the humans thought of it... there wasn’t any praising involved in that conversation! That was when the backhoe, a large pile of rocks and a cross were given to the poor lamb.

@PirateGirl I wish a hose worked with these guys, but they love chasing the water too. When I fill my water jugs (we are also in a camper right now building our house on the family farm) it is like a whistle they can hear from hundreds of feet away, and both boys are there almost instantly waiting to be sprayed liberally, chase the water, and even have it directly in their faces snapping at the stream from the hose.

And yes, they are all generally crazy smart breeds. That’s one of the hardest and most rewarding parts of having them around. They are awesome dogs.

 

[PirateGirl]

My 14 year old golden was quite pleased with the mummified prairie dog she dug up over the summer it doesn't matter if you scold them or praise them... when they find that dead thing, it's a self rewarding behavior, so they will repeat it, for years, just for the reward of having that gross dead thing. It's the same with something like barking at the mail man or garbage man is self rewarding because every time that person is going to leave your property and the home seemingly will have been saved by the barking of the dog just encouraging the dog to bark next time they show up.

 

[chickens really]

My 14 year old golden was quite pleased with the mummified prairie dog she dug up over the summer it doesn't matter if you scold them or praise them... when they find that dead thing, it's a self rewarding behavior, so they will repeat it, for years, just for the reward of having that gross dead thing. It's the same with something like barking at the mail man or garbage man is self rewarding because every time that person is going to leave your property and the home seemingly will have been saved by the barking of the dog just encouraging the dog to bark next time they show up.

So true...Wilson goes nuts at the school bus daily and Finn and Bindi reply but not sure why they are? They keep looking to Wilson for support. I go out and get Wilson and everyone calms down.