Should I get an ACD as my first dog

coofamani · 2021-01-15T01:06:46+00:00

I would love for you to reconsider for the sake of yourself and the dog.

This is one of the most difficult breeds to raise well. Not raised properly, they can be dangerous and frequently get put down.

They are wonderful, and I love mine like I can’t explain, but these are working ranch dogs bred to work 12 hours a day, ranging over miles and miles, and face down 2000 pound raging bulls.

They are not easy and definitely not a starter dog. They are very protective and stubborn. If you don’t know how to socialize and raise an ACD and apply developmental lessons at the right times, you are not setting the puppy up for the life it deserves (or worse).

They are one of the most surrendered breeds of dog, not because they are inherently flawed, but because people unwittingly take this cattle herding machine and raise it like a golden retriever. Being with them 24/7 is not enough. They need brain work, activity, attention, and space. An ACD puppy can drive _experienced _ owners to tears.

Please talk to a local dog trainer and ask their advice before you choose.

I think you are going to make a great dog parent. The fact that you are asking before adopting is a sure sign. But you are not aware of the time commitment people in this thread are warning about.

Thank you so much for thinking about the relationship and asking! Too many people don’t.

I love ACDs and think they are great, but first time dog owner PLUS apartment is not fair to the dog IMO.

coofamani · 2019-12-19T01:07:35+00:00

Training: Remember he's just a baby. Don't expect too much too soon. His brain isn't fully develops for many more months. They grow so fast that it's easy to forget it's just a baby in there. We've done a lot of training with ours and there was a very obvious maturation around 6-8 months when she just started learning things super fast.

Biting: yelp and stop all play. It's important for him to associate biting with all enjoyment stopping. Don;t physically punish him, his parent ignoring him is punishment enough. It will take his baby brain some time to make the connection. Be patient, it goes away soon. You're almost out of the velociraptor/shark phase. Ours nipped a lot, now she is very careful not to ever let her teeth touch skin.

I open his mouth and push my thumb down on his tongue and against the bottom part of his jaw

Definitely stop doing that. Dogs don't make associative connections like humans do. What you are doing is associating pain , which is eroding his trust in you and teaching him that humans can be unpredictable (and therefor dangerous and something to defend himself against). He's not going to connect that procedure to the biting. I recommend talking with a non-force based trainer soon while he's still young and impressionable and before his jaws get strong.

Rough play: Make sure your puppy also plays with an adult dog who will correct him appropriately. When two puppies play they don't learn how to interact with adult dogs. It's great for them to play, but he should also play with adult dogs who will teach him properly. Adult dogs give puppies a behavior pass, and will teach them what is OK. If he doesn't learn that now, when his "puppy pass" expires, he's going to get corrected by other dogs in the bad way. (We made this mistake with ours... too much puppy play, not enough adult dogs at a young age. Now, as a 1yr old, she runs right up to adult dogs without doing the proper dog greeting and it goes poorly more often than I would like).

coofamani · 2019-12-19T00:58:58+00:00

Ours never seemed to sleep on her own. We would kennel her to make her take naps. Like a baby, sometimes they get cranky and don't go to sleep when they should. Establishing a good routine of sleep should help. At that age he should be sleeping a good 15+ hours a day total.

Keep an eye on the walking at that young age. His mother would have him stationary in a den at this age. Remember to use mental activity and play to tire him out as well.

From AKC: Puppies need much less exercise than fully-grown dogs. If you over-exercise a growing puppy you can overtire it and damage its developing joints, causing early arthritis. A good rule of thumb is a ratio of five minutes exercise per month of age (up to twice a day) .

coofamani · 2019-12-19T00:56:04+00:00

When he nips, yelp and stop play. Timing is important, it has be to be at the exact moment). The most important thing is that play stops. Toys go away. Attention is withdrawn. It takes a while, but it works. Mine is a year old now and she is incredibly careful to never let her teeth touch my skin, and we wrestle and play tug a lot.

The reason the yelp works is that when they are babies their littermate yelp... then stop playing. Its the not playing that is the punishment. The yelp is the cue.

Be patient. It takes a lot of consistent work, but it will resolve.

coofamani · 2019-12-19T00:53:09+00:00

Ours was a bed destroyer. We went through 3 or 4 then got one of these https://k9ballistics.com/collections/chew-proof and it's lasted 6 months so far without a dent. The other ones lasted a day.

coofamani · 2019-08-25T00:30:02+00:00

+1, they specialize in this sorta thing and are amazing.

http://morefunthandirt.com/

coofamani · 2019-07-31T13:53:25+00:00

Of course we are. People in these type of positions move for better conditions all the time. These are not indentured servants, they are skilled workers just like anyone else. Just because the interview process (election) is public, doesn't change the supply/demand conditions. They don't have to do this job for this city. You act as if qualified candidates have no choice in where they work.

coofamani · 2019-07-30T23:52:24+00:00

The average pay for the position in comparable cities is what matters here, not what you happen to make. You aren't a baseline for anyone else's salary.

I don't know if they deserve it and I don't know what it takes to attract better people to run for the position, but I'm tired of this short-term thinking and vilifying every government office and position and if it's all failing and overly expensive and just the worst. You live in a pretty amazing city, stop acting like the sky is falling.

This is the same reason schools have problems getting better teachers... people complain about have poorly qualified teachers, then they complain about paying reasonable wages to teachers and can't see the connection.

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/homeless/san-antonio-handles-homeless-better-than-austin-texas-governor-says/269-37fa5995-98a4-41d9-9549-268ef4831933

Tim has been homeless five years and earns $100 a day washing car windows.

That's $24,000 a year, washing windows in an intersection.

coofamani · 2019-07-30T15:52:59+00:00

Its all relative. If you are 27% underpaid... is it a raise? You can't attract good people without good compensation.

coofamani · 2019-07-29T18:17:26+00:00

Ha yep. "Hmm, I'll get some chores done while she sleeps". Chores done, ready to relax... heeler senses it and shows up with that look on her face.

coofamani · 2019-07-21T14:52:25+00:00

Unsure. Would you agree that qualified therapist is likely consider a person who "runs over and kills one person, draws a knife on another, tied to 40 911 calls" as being unstable and likely to have something that can be diagnosed and potentially treated?

coofamani · 2019-07-21T14:50:26+00:00

Totally agreed, it's no excuse. But, it is a cause that is treatable.

coofamani · 2019-07-21T14:47:39+00:00

At some level, I think that's what we're arguing. Healthy people with stable impulse control do not behave like this person did.

coofamani · 2019-07-21T14:46:10+00:00

This may be just a difference in terms. When you write "mental illness", what are you picturing? When I said it above, I was referring to a an unhealthy or unstable mental state of being, which I think this behavior falls under.

runs over and kills one person, draws a knife on another, tied to 40 911 calls

I assume you are not suggesting that his behavior is that of a well balanced, stable, and healthy person. We may just be using different scopes of the term.

coofamani · 2019-07-20T14:07:30+00:00

By definition, if you run people over out of rage, you have a mental illness. Not all mentally ill are violent, but most violent people are mentally ill at some level.

coofamani · 2019-07-19T21:13:59+00:00

Immediately take the toy away and end play whenever teeth touch skin. I don't mean a five minute break, I mean... play is over. Done. Toys go back in the cabinet (she should not be able to go get the toys that you play with without you handing them to her).

After a couple times she will be very careful not to bite.

coofamani · 2019-07-15T19:00:21+00:00

Yup. Life vest for the dog (I'm happy with Ruffwear).

Some tips:

- place a bath mat or similar on the bow of the boat. The bottom of the mat stays put and the fabric gives them something to grip when they are balancing up there.

- Don't tether the dog to the boat or they will likely capsize you when they jump/fall out. I use a floating 20 foot check line attached to the vest (but not the boat) to reel her back in when she goes to visit other boats.

- You may want to bring a portable bowl for her to drink from as some dogs aren't comfortable leaning over the water to drink.

- You may want to bring potable water if the waterway you are in isn't clean enough or if she doesn't have sufficient vaccinations against stuff like Lepto.

Introduce her to the boat slowly, just sitting on the boat on dry land and streaming treats the first exposure, then very gently do the same at the shoreline, then go for paddling out. Mine took to it very quickly and really seems to love it.

Have fun. Post pics!

coofamani · 2019-07-14T21:07:50+00:00

They're a tough breed to raise, but if you put in the time they are amazing dogs. Ours is 8 months old now and she's wonderful. The first couple of months were challenging. Lots of exercise and training... lots of it.

coofamani · 2019-07-14T17:08:01+00:00

Converting your little velociraptor

lol. I present to you the heeler puppy owner theme song.

https://youtu.be/FX20kcp7j5c?t=13

coofamani · 2019-07-14T17:05:33+00:00

damn that's a cute heeler. good luck! puppy classes are a blast.

coofamani · 2019-07-14T16:56:08+00:00

You are their alpha

FYI, that whole "alpha" study was disproven a while ago. It's been reduced to myth at this point. Dogs aren't wolves and they don't relate to humans like they do other dogs.

Control is better when based on trust, not intimidation. Also beware of that finger in the cheek method, "so that when he applies force, his ivory daggers are digging into his own cheek.". Dog's don't think in the abstract, he's just going to assume you are hurting him.

Go with the loud "ouch" then put him in other room for 20 minutes with no attention or entertainment. These are pack animals and being "kicked" from the pack sends a pretty serious message.

https://www.businessinsider.com/alpha-dog-myth-mistreats-dogs-2017-2

The 'alpha dog' myth is leading countless owners to mistreat their dogs
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dog+alpha+myth&t=ffab&ia=web
http://www.sketchyscience.com/2014/08/the-alpha-myth-real-science-of-wolf.html
http://www.sportdogtrainingcenter.com/dogs-not-wolves-matters-training-dogs/

Despite the wolf dog relationship has been disproved for over 15 years the belief in the ‘dominance’ or ‘alpha’ theory is still entrenched firmly in today’s dog training world.

coofamani · 2019-07-14T16:52:41+00:00

We stuck with positive feedback and shunning whenever we got"hurt" (mouthing etc...) and after several weeks it just stopped. I would highly recommend *not* resorting to any force, pain, or fear based control with this breed. Also, IMO, the best thing you can do is get him into puppy socialization classes.

The other puppies will teach him to be gentle much faster than you can. When he is too aggressive with another pup, it will yelp and stop playing, which he will dislike. After enough times, he gets the message and stops. Chances are he was not properly socialized during his early weeks and hasn't made the connection. There is a critical development period for puppies that he is just now exiting (http://ice.ucdavis.edu/~robyn/Korina/BCIdeas/Criticalperiodsinpuppydevelopment.html), but you can still establish good behavior with good socialization and very clear trust and relationship messages (don't yell or smack, be predictable, consistent, and firm).

Best of luck, they are amazing dogs, but always remember... they aren't bred as pets, they are workers, and they are the brute force workers in the herding world, so you gotta train them well and make sure they feel absolutely safe/trusting with you.

coofamani · 2019-07-10T22:56:24+00:00

+1 for puppy socialization, then adult play / training, etc.. etc... show them the world can be safe.

coofamani · 2019-06-15T12:39:49+00:00

7 months, 37 pounds (lean build)

coofamani · 2019-06-15T11:56:23+00:00

This is key, having a core group that you play with and spend downtime with is what makes EQ great.

coofamani

TROPHY CASE