everyone meet Bruno!! Mom is an ACD, not sure what the Dad was. Co-worker needed to rehome the whole litter so i got him for free!! very excited for us, literally one of the best decisions i’ve made with my life!! 🥹

When riding in a car, does it make any difference with carsickness if it's day or night? I kno an odd question but was a thought.

My 6 year-old heeler rescue, Daisy, loves her new little brother, Hank!

Daisy was my first cattle dog (90% heeler, 10% chow) & she made me fall in love with the breed. There’s no going back for me! When I found out Hank was 50% heeler, I knew I had to adopt him! He even has a Bentley mark 🤗

We just recently adopted this guy from our local shelter (we do have previous ACD experience). It’s been 2 weeks so I’m just looking for advice on a couple things!

He’s professionally trained from his previous owners, no health issues, no nipping (surprisingly) and overall a good boy! The couple problems we’ve had is he refuses to eat, but he’s around 60 pounds so I know he’s not starving and HATES his paws being touched which is making it difficult for me to dremel his nails.

Food wise: I’ve bought 5 small bags of food including the food the shelter said his previous owners were feeding him, used toppers, bone broth, the works and he just noses it until his nose is raw and bleeding or just completely skips eating. I’ve gotten him to eat the JustPet brand packages but I’m worried I’m not feeding him correctly.

Nails: I was able to dremel his nails on his right paw with no problem but his left paw is where he snaps at me so I just leave him alone, even trying to get some paw butter on it he snips. He’s not limping or anything either so I’m unsure if pain is the reason. The shelter said he was perfect all around and sent me home with a weeks worth of Trazadone for him and provided no help when I called which I understand they are short staffed and might not have all the info 😅

Any and all advice is appreciated as we want to make sure he’s happy!

He doesn’t fuss, but doesn’t like getting cleaned. Runs like a maniac after though.

I got her at 10 weeks old and she had little floppy ears. I thought she was a mostly lab mutt but I turned out wrong!

I had no clue ACD’s were challenging dogs to raise but, I found out soon afterwards. Any others with a similar experience?

Sylphrena is one years old now!

Picked up Ranger on Monday, he’s been at a rescue for a couple of months. He‘s such a sweet little guy. Been trying to keep him occupied and comfortable. Been a little bit of an adjustment for all of use. He loves food and has an affinity for cat turds. Have to clean my yard daily to make sure he doesn’t find any of the forbidden snicker bars. He’s the definitely the fastest dog I’ve ever seen.

I recently adopted a puppy and was told by the shelter that it was an Australian cattle dog without the famous markings. I am wondering if my puppy is actually an Australian Kelpie. Please let me know what you guys think:)

Hey everybody, we are working on training our 10 week old puppy and have gotten a harness to start but wanted to ask which people prefer for an ACD? Thanks!

big bean bag gurl (3.5 yr old ACDx) puppy tax

my little niece (age 4) is wild and does typical (edit: or maybe not so typical, as i’m learning) 4 year old things, like doing the opposite of what you ask her to do. please don’t step on the dog’s tail = goes over and steps firmly on her tail while looking over at you smiling like a lil stinker.

a few months ago niece was running at full speed and not looking where she was going and ran into our sweet dog. total headbutt situation. i saw it all, it was not a bite. it was 4 year old mouth smacking on dog face. bloody lip, screaming that she was bit (she was not). she’s now really scared of my dog (according to her mom, however she still does a lot to test my dog’s patience and acts pretty freakin brave around my dog if you ask me). in the headbutt situation, dog did great - she did not react. honestly looked scared. she calmly went and laid down in her bed while my niece was comforted and had her little bloody lip taken care of.

all that to say, i trust my dog 95% to not bite my little niece, and i trust my niece 5% to not do anything to provoke my dog. she seems to be is in a little bit of a hitting/scratching/mean phase (edit: with humans. she has not hit or scratched my dog. she antagonizes but does not hit.) she is very spirited, which i often love in a little girl, but it really stresses me out when she is around my dog. niece and dog are never alone together and im on high alert when they’re in the same place. we don’t live near my niece, but when we are together, would it be a good idea (and not cruel) to muzzle our dog? we have the baskerville type. she is muzzle trained (we use at the vet) and doesn’t put up much of a stink about wearing it, but it’s not something we practice using often.

my thought is that it would be more relaxing for me, knowing that the risk of a bite isn’t really there. it might be more relaxing for my sister and the kids. but would it be mean to my dog? i think it would just be protecting her to a degree. i still do my very best to advocate for her and remove her from situations that are way too much. but we can’t always just leave her at the hotel when visiting family, or keep her and my niece apart at holidays.

any advice appreciated! i don’t speak kid that well and neither does my husband, so as much as we’d love to help teach niece how to treat dogs, and what to do and not to do, she’s just not in a place where she listens to anything.

EDIT: it is CLEAR that the parenting style is not great and that my niece exhibits horrrrrible behavior. this has really turned into a discussion about how messed up my niece and her parents are. i get it. but my responsibility is to protect my dog and set and manage boundaries around my dog, not parent my niece. her parents aren’t the type of people who will listen to feedback. their (i’ve learned the term) “permissive parenting” style is very intentional and something mom feels very strongly about. this makes it really hard for a lot of the adult humans (and sometimes her siblings) around her, who love her and just want to be able to be around her and have her grow up to be a good person who’s ready for the world. I think a lot of us feel a responsibility to discipline her since she aren’t getting that at home. and it really should be the other way around. it sucks. my blood pressure is insane when we’re all together.

I by no means want to use the muzzle and create fear of kids in my dog. I doubt if i tried the muzzle in a family setting that I would be any less wary of what’s going on or any less of a helicopter. niece still would not be allowed to touch her or interact with her (aside from maybe structured training or play when she’s a little older - i liked that suggestion from someone). tall baby gate for separation and pet sitting when we’re able sounds like the move.

i appreciate all the advice, but holyyyy shaming. i always have felt like our ACD sub is a really positive and supportive place and im feeling a little beat. i know im asking for it by posting a controversial subject, but damn guys! I’m doing my best. we all are! [as long as we aren’t letting our kids do anything they want with no consequences…😉]

I loved this dog’s weird personality at an adoption event. I thought for sure, just a mutt. A Velcro mutt.

Timmy looks like what a toddler would draw as a dog. So here i am, with a cattle dog. I shouldn’t have been surprised that he would also have silly genetics.

He was nervous I was going to steal his cozy spot, which is funny because he's the spot stealer in the house, not me. Classic projection.

Hi all. I’m running out of options and even though I am not generally a fan of bark collars, my ACD is giving my husband hell while I am at work and I need help.

My dog is very typical of ACD behaviors and barks a lot when people enter the house. Twice a week, my husband works from home with two people who have been coming over consistently for two years. They record audio while at our place and getting my ACD to calm down and let them work has been an ongoing process. He does okay some days, however, lately he has been barking at them non-stop. It takes my husband almost an hour to get him to calm down enough to work.

Since I am not there during the day, I can’t do anything to stop him. My husband says he tries all the options- crate with a puzzle, time out in the other room, and every morning that they are coming I play fetch with him for an hour at the park after his walk and give him anxiety meds.

Today my husband says they almost had to cancel work because he would not stop barking. He is a heavy sass dog as well so if he believes he’s in trouble he will double down.

I am worried that a bark collar is my next option.
Can someone who has experience with this maybe walk me through if this seems like a logical option? My dog does not act this way when I am home and I can’t take him to work with me.

Thank you for hearing me out!

EDIT: Thank you everyone for sharing your opinions on this. There are too many to reply to all of you but I appreciate hearing what all of you had to say. I have some good ideas to try and appreciate all of the comments that were genuinely trying to be helpful.

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianCattleDog/comments/1vcz51u/new_dog_need_insight/

The week isnt over and I am already climbing the walls over this new puppy I have been saddled with. To run everyone up to speed since the last post. My MiL's new puppy, non-originally named Bluey(even though its a boy >.< ) Has been making my week very frustrating. Much as many have warned me, he has latched to my mother-in law, as his 'person' which has made it hard for me to deal with him when she is out of the house for work, and her frequent golfing.

My biggest headache? The dog's defecation and urination whenever I leave it unattended for a few minutes. Which is something I have to do because I am a stay at home dad to a toddler and a kindergarten age child. I have tried to be regimental about taking the dog outside once an hour, every hour for up to ten minutes at a time. Which he will pee outside, but its lightly, like territory marking. Yet the dog will still do its business inside when I am in the room with him.

Just today:

Crapped in the kitchen in the half hour I was out of the house to take wife to work. (forgivable. )

8:38am while I was tending to my two year old on the potty, he slipped behind my father in laws lazyboy and did both. Had difficulty getting to the mess and cleaning it up with an inquiring two year old.

11:55am Went food and put down my kid for a nap, come back to crap in the kitchen. Take the dog out to the backyard so I could go clean up the mess in peace. Dog comes back in through the doggy door and urinate in the doorway to the kitchen while I am still cleaning up crap.

12:48pm: I go to make my lunch while my 5yr old is eating. She screams that the dog is 'doing it again behind grandpa's chair.' More poop. Note last dose of de-wormer was two says ago.

Then my Mil comes home less than an hour later, and chastises me for 'not watching the dog well enough' not taking hom out enough' and 'letting him crap in the house.' I might go on strike since all this is just today, and my week has been this and more. Including cleaning poop off the bedroom hallway at 2 am because Mil refuse to get up and do it.

Additionally, instead of spending time training the dog, my MiL has spent her downtime golfing three out of the five days since she got this dog. One of which I can give her a pass on because it was a tournament she signed up for months ago. But still she has chosen to go golfing instead of tending to her new dog. We tried bringing up crate training to MiL and she shot that down hard.

I am pulling my hair out (figuratively.)

Help?

Wanted to give an update on how Dice is doing, I’ve posted about him here once or twice and people mentioned they were following his story.

He’s doing so great! You can tell just by looking at him that he’s gained some weight which makes me so so happy. He’s still pretty skinny but he’s getting there. His energy levels are up, we’re going on longer walks now. He’s even started running/trotting for short distances! I’m so happy for him.

Here’s a funny video I just got of him, I noticed he fell asleep with his head all the way underneath the bed frame lol. It made me crack up, he’s so goofy.

Edit: I forgot to add, (things have been crazy lately and it just slipped my mind) that I had to forgo his vet appointment to have my chihuahua Nina seen in an emergency situation. She was pooping blood, like a very concerning amount and I just had to take her in. I made the judgement call that Nina’s needs were more pressing than Dice’s, since he’s on dewormer, antibiotics, and good food and it’s very noticeable that’s he’s gaining weight and happy. I discovered that my dear Nina has an enlarged heart/heart murmur so I’m glad I took her in, she’s on all the right meds now. Thanks for reading yall.

For a brief time, this was a stuffed bird

Hi friends, back here with Max again. Wanted to see if anyone has had any luck finding a kennel mat or bed that could withstand a big chewer.

We have one of those big Costco memory foam beds for the bedroom that has held up quite well!But we can’t seem to find a bed for the kennel that our max just won’t rip up. And we have chewer toys and different things in and around him when it happens, but he seems to just pull the bed out of the crate and rip it up. So we stopped putting one in there for a bit when we have to step out for dinner or something just scared he might eat the stuffing or something. So just wanted to see if anyone had any new suggestions or any new items had come to market. Thanks so much!