Farm dogs, registered or unregistered

[FarmDogMamma]

I was just wondering if most ranchers preferred purebreeds or a mix when it comes to thier working dogs on thier ranches. Personally I have never been able to afford a high dollar registered cattle dog, and would hate for a very expensive dog to get injured as well as any other dog.

[kolanuraven]

Some are reg'd some are not. I take in the Aussie/Blue Heelers/Border Collies that our " city slicker move in's" buy and then can't handle.

So all my dogs are hand-me downs and they come with and without papers. To me it doesn't matter as I don't breed them. I just take them in from a bad or mis understood situation and give them a job, nice house w/ a yard and 2 meals a day. THEY LOVE IT and turn around and shake their bad habits within weeks if not days of coming to me.

[Mrs.Greg]

Greg and I are purebred border collies all the way,we are in the process of getting a new working dog.....YIKES at the prices,but to us very worth it.We have no need for a full time hired man and a good trained dog can do the work of an extra person.JMHO

[alabama]

I have done it several times. Take a misfit dog and let him run with my dogs for a few weeks. They will turn around and try to fit in and get over bad habits quick. The first week the dog only gets loving. I try to stop every time I see the new dog and pet him up real good and in a few days he starts to feel welcome but I don’t try to correct him unless he barks at the cattle. The next week he will start trying to please you and a lack of petting when he does wrong is all the training he needs.
The key to training a dog is to tell him to do what he wants to do. Like if he wants to come to you call him.

[kolanuraven]

My dogs are whistle trained. Sure saves on the voice! Everytime they come to the whistle..I keep a bunch of dog cookies in my pocket. They will now run up and line up in a row in front of me for a cookie for being a " good dog".

Works wonders and a whistle can be heard much better by a dog than a vocal shout...esp if distances are involved.

[Mrs.Greg]

Right you are K,about the whistle,Greg always uses a whistle then again a large part of a dogs work on our place is on a River pasture,lots of hills and trees.

[FarmDogMamma]

TY for the realllllly fast replies!!!, I have been trying to upload a photo, but for some reason its not working, oh wellllll one of these days I will figger it out...lol.

[kolanuraven]

I think the photo gallery suffers from PMS some days!! Don't feel like the Lone Ranger!!

[FarmDogMamma]

Glad to hear its not just me then..lol, i just wanted to use my photo of my babies as an avitar, and also make a photo album. I have 1 aussie, and 2 aussie/heeler mix, and a littler of aussie/heeler mix due at any time!!! I am sooo excited

[theHiredMansWife]

Most folks I know don't care so much about registration as they do about ability of the parents.

Our McNab is actually a cross. His mama is pure McNab, his daddy a heeler/BC cross but a working fool.
When we went to get our pup, he was the last of the litter and she actually had a waiting list for the next litter. (But then not only have the bitch and sire proven themselves, so have previous litters)

[Jinglebob]

The best dog I've ever had was a regestered Border collie. I spent what seemed like a lot of money on him as a pup, but he was worth it and i made it all back in stud fees off from him also.

Too bad he got old and died.

I've never found as good of one yet, but then I put a lot of training into him also and here lately it just hasn't been worth it to put in that much work. Thats why I got an Aussie this time. They seem to be more of a "working to please you" type of dog and less of a "working to please themselves" type, like the BC's I've been around are.

I don't care what the breed is, if they are good. But there sure are "tendencies" between the breeds.

[FarmDogMamma]

You are exactly right jinglebob, I have found that the aussie breed does tend to please the owner more than themselves, I have never had easier dogs to train that an aussie. We have not had alot of trouble with the heeler breed either altho they do tend to want to work the cattle a bit rougher than the aussies. The only reason we decided to breed unregistered dogs is for an FFA project for one of the kids, but beginning to think that we may need to invest in "registered" aussie's instead of just plain ole loveable, cow chasin, couch potato at night, part of the family, think they are the rulers of the roost, aussie/heeler that we have now.