Dogster

return to top

What's up with Buck

Sheepies!

Buck loves the sheep. He started herding classes in late April and got his first AKC herding title, the Herding Tested or HT on 4th of July weekend. I decided to skip getting his PT (Pre-trial Tested) the first weekend of September, mainly because he knows his stuff well enough to get it and it's not one you have to have to start the next level. So, we've started practicing for his Started level and will give it a shot next summer, just to practice and hopefully will get a leg or two in the Fall trial next year.

Really, Buck and I enjoy practice more than the trials and since the titles don't mean that much to us (they mean more to pure-bred dogs and those dogs' parents get letters after their names for having awesome kids), we aren't worried about being in a hurry to get them.

I also want to get Buck into a higher level obedi3nce class this winter, and then maybe a beginning agility class. I want to work on a couple things we have issues with, like getting him to focus more on me than on random birds, dogs, etc. I think it's that I'm not giving him good enough reasons to, so having someone else watching us will help I think. Would also like him to be able to ignore another dog when I tell him to instead of thinking every dog in the world wants to be his friend. LOL!

Buck's busy life

Australian Cattle Dogs are high energy and need to have plenty to do unless you want them to get destructive (just ask my two favorite pairs of shoes that I made the mistake of leaving on the floor once), so Buck and I do a lot to keep busy.

He's been going to Doggie Day Care since he was about four months old. Cattle Dogs tend to get protective of their people and can be stand-offish to other dogs, so I wanted to be sure to get Buck socialized from an early age. Since he was so young, he would often be too submissive at the dog park and many of the dogs there didn't have the manners to not dominate a young pup. But after just a couple weeks in day care, his best buddy, Ben gave Buck the confidence to not submit and from then on, Buck has loved to play with any and all dogs.

Buck goes to day care three times a week now so that he gets plenty of exercise. They all love him and were shocked at how easy-going and nice he was to the other dogs- they had seen some Cattle Dogs that weren't great friends with other dogs. The staff there also finds Buck's lack of fear amazing. They have remarked at how Buck will go up to dogs easily five times his size and play rough with them and never back down. After he's been stepped on by Rotties over 100 lbs heavier than him at the dog park, I've been trying to teach him to play with pups that are only three times his size. Heh!

We are halfway through our first obedience class and the only issue we've had is when Buck gets bored with doing the same thing over and over and would rather go play with the dogs doing agility right next to us. He picks things up so fast that you have to really mix it up to keep him interested. We are working on doing things well even with distractions. We'll be starting agility classes in January.

Buck has a very strong herding instinct, so in two weeks we have a private lesson scheduled that will include an instinct test where he's introduced to some sheep that are used to being herded. The instructor will judge how he does and start teaching him some basics. He already herds dogs at the dog park well, so we'll see what he makes of livestock. He's a very gentle herder for a heeler- he doesn't nip at all and will just use his body to check the animals into the direction he wants them to go.

We have quite a few tricks down, and Buck's always eager to learn more since it gives him a chance to earn the really delicious treats. He can fetch and knows 'drop it'. He has sit, down, stay, come, heel, touch(touches his nose to your hand), up, roll over, turn(spins to the right), shake(he's a southpaw), and other paw(shakes with his right paw) down pat. We're currently working on play dead, but he's getting it confused with roll over, so that's taking a bit longer. Hopefully, we'll get that and 'shame' (where he'll cover his face with his paw) and 'bow' (the down facing dog yoga position) down before we go home to my parent's farm for Christmas.