• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Ameego

Help Support Ranchers.net:

katrina

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
8,773
Reaction score
2
Location
East north east of Soapweed
Ameego is our lab-dalmation dog. The other day the mailman told me he was such a good dog. I asked him why and he said because when your not home he won't let me get to the house. Ameego goes everyehere I do.
He sleeps on the floor in our bedroom by my side of the bed. This morning again he saved me from having cows get mixed up by watching the gate. He only goes far enough that he can see me at all times. If I need a gate watched I call him and he goes to work. He goes to the head of the cow, gets there attention then goes to the back and herds them. He is loving and faithful to my family. He has scolded each of us by the look on his face. He loves to ride in the pickup. If you do not shift the gears and the motor is roaring he will stare at the shifter.. He know words like STINK, Go check the cows, ice cream.
Thank you dear Lord for my dog...
 
What a neat doggie!!! Love all the stories posted on here about them!!!! Better than fighting on Bull Sesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssions. :wink:
 
Hanta Yo....a hearty 110% agreement from this side of montana!! we have 3 dogs ourselves.....one 11 year old border collie/blue heeler/katahula (??spelling :oops: )/australian sheppard mix named Janie. She is a damned good cow dog, but 6 years back she disappeared for 2 days...not like her at all...fishermen found her caught in a coyote trap about 3 miles from the house....she was barely alive and when i saw the damage to her, i BEGGED jesse to have her put down....well, he simply refused to lose her, shot her full of penicillin and she lived...she is missing her right front paw and it has slowed her down, but she still has the heart!! the other dog is border collie/blue heeler 6 month old female named jill...flakey, but she'll learn! then there is the daughter's 9 month old jack russell terrier....only about 6 inches off the ground, but the darned thing thinks he is a rottweiler!! :shock: heart of a champion, brain of a bird :wink:
 
ranchwife said:
Hanta Yo....a hearty 110% agreement from this side of montana!! we have 3 dogs ourselves.....one 11 year old border collie/blue heeler/katahula (??spelling :oops: )/australian sheppard mix named Janie. She is a damned good cow dog, but 6 years back she disappeared for 2 days...not like her at all...fishermen found her caught in a coyote trap about 3 miles from the house....she was barely alive and when i saw the damage to her, i BEGGED jesse to have her put down....well, he simply refused to lose her, shot her full of penicillin and she lived...she is missing her right front paw and it has slowed her down, but she still has the heart!! the other dog is border collie/blue heeler 6 month old female named jill...flakey, but she'll learn! then there is the daughter's 9 month old jack russell terrier....only about 6 inches off the ground, but the darned thing thinks he is a rottweiler!! :shock: heart of a champion, brain of a bird :wink:

What can I say about GOOD dogs...
 
How do you train the dog to be a good herder if you don't have an older one to show it the ropes? It would seem impossible when you're up on a horse. Just curious, if anyone has time to explain.

We had a smart dog once who was taught lots of things but simply refused to EVER fetch anything except playing tennis ball catch. We tried and tried teaching her to pick up a newspaper to no avail. She'd look at us sad;u like we'd asked her to kill herself.
 
Hi, nr. I will try to answer your question. Then we'll hopefully see what others have to say.

First of all, a dog has to have natural instinct. Blue Heelers, heel. Border Collies work cattle differently than heelers. Aussies tend to heel. Catahoulas are HEAD dogs. You must understand how the natural instinct works in a dog. Some people cross Border Collies and Australian Shepherds, but as a breed they work differently. Not saying the cross isn't good, understand. I think it is extremely difficult to teach a dog to heel that is not a natural heeler. Blue Heelers don't want to work very far from you. Border Collies and Aussies will go where you send them. They will go after cattle quite aways away. I think good dogs check back with you to see if they are to continue on or return. Seems like every good dog we have had has this common characteristic.

It is said that Border Collies are the smartest of all dogs. We have found, for us, Border Collies are a bit too hyper and probably too smart. They really like to have something to do most all the time, or they will find something to keep busy. Border Collies make excellent trial dogs and obstacle course dogs. I feel there are perhaps two types of Border Collies. Trial dogs and ranch dogs. I could be wrong, though.

Personally, we like dogs that heel. Maybe it is because we are more familiar with how they tend to work. Our big dog, Aussie and Blue Heeler cross, is very quiet and mellow. He will work up the side of cattle when moving them to keep them together--he goes back and forth making sure he gets them all. Our old yellow dog was a heeler, but if a cow wanted to make a pass at her and not go where whe was supposed to be headed, the dog stood her ground and turned the cow around. This dog tended to stay after that one cow a little more than she should. But she was tough and smart. She saved my husband many, many steps. Like someone posted earlier, when you are by yourself, a dog can make working cattle a whole lot easier.

After instinct, comes minding. If a dog doesn't mind, he is merely a pet and a poor one at that. My husband instills minding very early and he never has a problem with his dogs. We can be riding along and the dogs range further out than he likes and he can say to me, very softly, "those dogs better get back here." BAM, thier butt goes in the dirt, they turn and come right back and get in behind the horses. (This isn't when cattle are present, but going or coming from a job.) No one has raised their voice, they are just listening~"tuned in", if you will.

My husband doesn't pretend to be a dog trainer. He loves 'em, he spends time with them, they understand what he wants and they mind. Some people can teach dogs a lot more than he can, but he is satisfied with how they work for him. It takes time and patience and he gives it early on so it is never an issue later. He never uses violence or pain to train a dog. NEVER.

When we lived on a creek, my husband could tell the dogs, "See Birds?" They would run to a tree and look up in the tree. He could say, "See Fish" and they would run to the creek and look in it. One dog (part Catahoula) even jumped in and caught a fish!! (TRUE STORY!!) He could say, "See Rats" and they would run to a wood pile and not only look for rats (we had pack rats in that country), they would proceed to move the boards with thier mouths to find the 'rats.' It was so funny and illustrates how much the dogs understood. As you can see, my husband uses his dogs for help, companionship and entertainment.

Another place we lived, the barn had a haymow. The cats stayed in the barn. We had three blue heelers or blue heeler crosses. As a breed, they hate cats. They devised a plan in that two dogs would go up in the haymow and run the cats down. One dog would set at the bottom of the stairs to get the cats that ran down. Good idea, but it never worked. The cats would go part ways down the stairs then jump over to a shelf under a window and then get away. The dog waiting at the foot of the stairs never figured out to go partways up to intercept the cat. Of course, we wouldn't let them kill a cat if we could help it. This was so funny to watch, we let them have their fun. The cats always won anyway.

So the answer would be a combination of things. You do need to have a dog that is bred to work. However, as in anything, that is not always true. Dogs can always suprise you. Another thing we have learned is that it takes some dogs longer to mature than others. Pete, our older dog, was over a year old before he showed any inclination to work. I had given up on him. Then one day he just started paying attention. (I think it had to do with him being a male~). Dixie, on the other hand, is already wanting to do things. We don't want her to get hurt, so she has to stay back, but she is SO interested at only four months of age.

Hopefully, this shed a little light on it for you. I will be interested in what others have to say.

Jinglebob, loved your poem. Did you just come up with that off the top of your head? AMAZING!! And there probably are instances where the dog is better than his owner. (Ouch!!!) LOL!!!!
 
We have one of the top Border Collie trainers in the nation for a neighbor and he got some of us started on them.

These are my opinionions only and should not be misconstrued to mean any more than that. These are general rules and as always, there is an exception to every rule.

Border Collies live to work, so you only let them work when they are doing things right. When they mess up they are removed from the stock and put in their kennel for a spell. They are taken back out and worked on again after a matter of an hour or so and if/when they mess up they are kenneled back up again. Kind of a time for them to think. They do not mind going to their kennel any more than most people mind going into their house.

You as the master are the Alpha male/female. Their instinct is to bring the stock to you just as in the wolf kingdom where the alpha is in charge.

Good trainers never use shock collers or things like that.

Aussie's work for the master. They are not as bad as the Border Colies to always be looking for something to work or harrass. They seem to mature a little more slowly, but seem to have more grit and can as a rule take more punishment.

Border Collies instincts are to go to the front of a bunch of stock and bring them to the handler. The biggest problem for most people is learnng to go in the lead and let the dog or dogs bring the stock along behind. Once the stock is dog broke, one person and a dog or two can move and/or work a lot of cattle by themselves.

Back when I had a couple of real good of dogs, I could move 400 yearlings by myself with help from the dog or dogs. People who cuss cowdogs have never had a good one and of course like everything else, it takes time and mistakes happen. Don't suppose anyone reading this ever made a mistake while doing a job.

Dogs and cows with young calves usually don't work too good, but there are exceptions. I was taught to get my dog to lie down some distance away from a cow whose calf needed tagged and the cow would worry more about the dog than me and leave me alone to tend to the calf. But it takes a well trained dog to make this work.

In Scotland, when the sheep herders sent a dog who they knew had the ability, up on a mountain to get a ewe and if the dog came back without the ewe, the herder would kill the dog, as the dog should have been able to accomplish the job. So therefor only the best dogs were bred to the best and they came up with a very capable and useful breed of dogs. We in America tend to get sentimental and if a mare is too broncy to ride we raise colts out of her! Or we say, "Well, she's kinda got some faults, but she sure is a good ol' cow/mare/dog/etc. etc."

Dogs are like horses. And cowboys. Good breeding shows.

Good instincts can be bred in. They need training and are a useful tool in the proper hands.

Funny how you have to be smarter than the student in order to teach it something!
 
I don't raise my voice with our dog and I point to where I want him to go. He always watches me for instruction and voice command. It's not always the words, it's the tone as to how active he is.
What's really funny is to wiggle your finger in the dirt and say Meego Mouse... He'll dig for an hour looking for a mouse. He is a hoot...
 
Aren't dogs great entertainment. Mine also hunts mice and has the most fun in the snow. She'll put her nose down and follow the trails under the snow.

Being part husky she also likes to pull, when I'm away the neighbor girls let her pull them on the rollerblades. What surprises me is that one of the girls probably weighs 130, and she'll pull her around for hours.
 
No kidding. I often wonder about other dogs, If their owners understand them and if the dogs have the oppertunity grow spiritualy(now I've just weirded myself out). I still wonder.....
 
Katrina I have a question for you ok? If Ameego goes every where you go then how can he be home to stop the post man if you are not home? :D Go ahead just tell me to get lost lol
 
a lab-dal cross :!: that's about scary :!: i would LOVE to see a pic! do you ever get ANY rest??!! the main thing i dislike about this forum is threads get too diconnected, i.e., see my "discourse" on "corgi owners". BTW, i think corgi's are cool, especially the tri-colored guys/girls. Pembrokes are better-looking too...
 
Katrina...Ok i was just checking :D Sounds like you have a good dog there.
 
All of those dog-training postings were so interesting. Especially Faster Horses that your husband could state something really low and the dogs would pick up on it from afar. Aren't they amazing.

I'd like to have a border collie mix dog again sometime even though we don't have a herd for it to work. Maybe if it was mixed with a less hyper breed it would be content and like our last one who was very smart and interested in what was going on, never glazed over, and only tried to herd the little old lady next door. If it is possible to believe, that dog had a sense of humor.

Will have to see what breed our friends are interested in whom we'll dog-share with if we can reach some rational arrangement.
Ha! Maybe we should write up a list of jobs for the dog to do. Taking out the garbage would be good...
 

Latest posts

Top