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Picking a pup

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Ronniewil

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Hello-a newbie to the forum here. I'm picking a pup from a hanging tree female and have been getting lots of advice. A recurring bit of info is to always pick the runt if it's a female... But nobody can tell me why. Thoughts? Ron
 
I don't have a clue, I have been getting males for years but I think if I was starting with out a male here I might switch to females.
Good luck on the Hanging Tree pup. Way back when we had a Aussie, Hanging Tree Holly. She was mostly a house pet but she had the instinct to work.
 
We always pick the female runt if possible. I don't know why.....they had to fight to get what they wanted, I guess, so would GRIT be the answer? We have had some fine dogs in the past. In the aggressive breeds like heelers, hanging tree dogs, etc. the females seem to be not-so-hard-headed. Anyway, that is what we have found. We have had only one male in the past 40-45 years and he was a nice dog, but that was about all. Didn't have much tough to him, and being blue-heeler Aussie cross, he was a bit hard headed. Mr. FH has a great way with dogs, so that helps a lot. He could control 3 working dogs and never raise his voice.

Good luck with your Hanging Tree pup! Lets see a picture when you get her/him.
 
Faster horses said:
We always pick the female runt if possible. I don't know why.....they had to fight to get what they wanted, I guess, so would GRIT be the answer? We have had some fine dogs in the past. In the aggressive breeds like heelers, hanging tree dogs, etc. the females seem to be not-so-hard-headed. Anyway, that is what we have found. We have had only one male in the past 40-45 years and he was a nice dog, but that was about all. Didn't have much tough to him, and being blue-heeler Aussie cross, he was a bit hard headed. Mr. FH has a great way with dogs, so that helps a lot. He could control 3 working dogs and never raise his voice.

Good luck with your Hanging Tree pup! Lets see a picture when you get her/him.

Thanks for the info! Grit probably would be it. Would more drive equal harder to train?
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
You can slow a dog down but a slow /lazy dog is hard to speed up

I'll second that. Our last and only male dog was so laid back. He wouldn't hurt a soul and liked everyone. Great friend,
but not great on working cattle. He was better than zero....sometimes.

I don't think GRIT means harder to train necessarily. Our best dog trained herself, outside of Mr. FH teaching her to mind.
He always starts early. When the puppy tries to follow him away from the house and he doesn't want them to go, he just
claps his hands and says "Back" (he is walking toward them slowly when he does this)and makes them go back, repeating it until they go back to the house, or barn or where ever they want to follow from. This teaches them the rest of their life that "Back" means "leave where you are now and go back where you belong." That is the very first thing he works on. He also doesn't allow puppies to get in situations where they might get hurt. Once they are hurt they become scared and that is when barking and bad behavior often starts. Seems like most of the professional stock dog trainers won't let their dogs work cattle until a year of age.
I know that letting them in a corral with livestock too soon, and they get hurt can change them for the rest of their life.
 
My brother in law turns them upside down in his hand. If they fight him - that's not good. I just play with them and find a personality I like
 
look at mill iron s ranch out of Idaho for some goo border collies,,,, have 2 females of my own
 

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