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Future cow dog?? Trial dog?? Both???

Have a 10 week old female with close to the same markings. blue eye on the left, black eye on the right!
 
GM88 said:
Right now on stock she is showing a nice amount of eye and reads her stock well. She lacks confidence so Im leaving her till we loose some snow. Ive got lots of other dogs to work and do chores so I will leave her till spring. I have a line bred Elvin Kopps Jill x Craig I like quite a bit He has a little more eye than I like but has not been a problem yet. He also goes back to Gonnets Moss. I also have a Ligons Nick X with Macraes Nell I like but she does not have as much eye as I would like so maybe I will have to cross the 2. Probably get nothing I want then.
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WITH OUT CONFIDENCE YOU HAVE VIRTUALLY NOTHING, so a good call to let her mature a bit more until working conditions improve. If I had to choose I would prefer a loose eyed dog over one with to much eye, for cattle that is. That being said though my bench who is a very loose eyed dog uses more eye then she use to but only once she has respect.
The breeding roulette wheel, you never know until you try! :)
 
The eye depends completely on the stock I am working. If I am working pairs with little calves I like a dog with a bit more eye . A loose eyed dog works better when I move my grassers or cows without calves.
 
GM88 said:
The eye depends completely on the stock I am working. If I am working pairs with little calves I like a dog with a bit more eye . A loose eyed dog works better when I move my grassers or cows without calves.
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I agree. I have had dogs in the past who eyes only and in situations with cattle that are not dog broke and or bulls or drys that totally diregard eye makes a dog basically worthless. Of course the ideal dog are those that learn to work appropriately in all the different situations. In my experience it is easier to dial a dog down then dial one up that doesn,t have any thing left on the dial. :)
 
GM88 said:
I too agree it is easier to dial one down as long as it is for the right reason. Some dogs seem overly aggresive and strong because they are in survival mode. Get the stock before it gets me type thing. When I used to custom train too many people came to me and wanted a dog that would go in the brush and rip and tear cattle they caused to brush up. I train my dogs to work naturally and use thier heads. I want them to prevent wrecks , and on a good day maybe they have never used thier teeth at all. Cattle that have been properly dog broke will flow off pressure and I find a real loose eyed dog will have a hard time finding that pressure point. A dog with too much eye will never get to that pressure point. The right dog is out there but some breeders are loosing sight of the work dog.
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Well said, on all points.
 

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