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Post by icygirlie on Jun 3, 2005 9:45:19 GMT -5
This is my baby -circa 4.5 and 5 months old... her ears are fully pricked now and she's grown into them big time, though she is no more than 30 lbs. My independent pet store is quite certain she is NOT a GSD mix (and judging strictly by size, I agree) but an Australian Cattle Dog mix. I've researched pictures and personality and they all fit Zoe to a T. She gets regular exercise, if not a walk, then the chance to merrily run circles around the yard with a frisbee in her mouth. She chases things well, she doesn't return them very well. In fact, I think she enjoys leading us around the yard.... I suppose I'm looking for confirmation of my guesses and people's experiences with the breed. I know she's a mixed breed, but the cattle dog seems to be a dominant mix in her. She yodels, she talks, she'll walk around the kitchen, barking at things, then looking at us, trying to spell it out for us, she'll sit and stare at us and when we look, look at the thing she wants. She's a speed demon on crack and NOTHING gets past her. I don't even think my baby sleeps, she always has one eye open. Our last dog was bred to be a bear hunting dog and we didn't handle him correctly, so I want to learn from that mistake and give her the best I can offer her. Thank you!
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Post by Aussienot on Jun 3, 2005 19:18:25 GMT -5
Cattle Dogs are heel nippers and they herd from the rear. (The nickname 'blue heelers' for the black ones is literal.) She has the coloration and general shape of a Cattle Dog, although she looks a bit too dark and too tall and thin in the photos. What really defines the breed to me would be the type of herding behaviors.
The running in circles fits. When she plays, does she tend to nip you from behind? If she acts this way, then there's probably a good deal of ACD.
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Post by icygirlie on Jun 3, 2005 21:31:32 GMT -5
Her height and color might be from her other mixes, Momma was a definite lab/shepherd dog mix.
No, no nipping yet, but at the vet today, another person who saw her went "That's an Australian Cattle Dog!" The no nipping might also have to do with extreme work we did when she was a six week old baby to get her to focus her play attention on her toys. When she starts grabbing at my hands now when we play, she stops, turns, grabs a toy.
She nipped alot as a baby, especially the lower ranked pack members (never me or my mother), until my father accidently landed on her tail. Now her dodge and weave between our feet has been perfected and she doesn't even trip up my mother who has a busted foot. I do remember a couple colorful words coming from my younger brother one night because she got his ankle good. But... like I said, that seems to have gone the way of her training.
She's not a purebred so she also might not have all the traits. In fact, her father is an unknown, I adopted her from a rescue.
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Post by kaos on Sept 13, 2006 21:04:11 GMT -5
Hi Icygirlie, I have an ACD x rescue too. Mine has quite similar markings and is crossed with we think border collie or a mixed farm dog type. I must post a photo of my dogs soon...
Mine shows his 'heeling' instinct when he is playing with my other dog. Kofi (labxGSD) will fetch the stick or ball and Kaos will run round behind him nipping his heels or bum as he knows Kofi can't retaliate without dropping the stick which he definitely isn't about to do. He has also shown quite willing to 'help' me with the horses if I am trying to direct them loose in the paddock, and once took it upon himself to quietly and cleanly move a huge cow out of our path when I was riding at the forest. He is super intelligent, even more so that the pure border collie I had, and very trainable, a right character.
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