Re. ACD's- jobs for them and age stuff

[Guest Anonymous]

Okay, if anyone has time here is another question. I keep reading all the posts regarding ACDs and ACD mixes. I have one and I agree completly with what all of you have said about their being working dogs and not for just anyone or for families etc. They really can be the devil and it takes a heck of a lot of determination and commitment to stick through their hell stages. However, I keep seeing this "give them a job to do" line and I can't think of what kind of jobs to teach her and how to teach her to do them.........Can anyone give me some ideas?

Also, does anyone here know if there is a certain age where ACDs all of a sudden start to act semi sane and start responding to corrections ? I have been working with Dresden for almost FOUR months now (she's almost eight months old) and just this week she got nicer again (her niceness seems to appear in stages every so often) and yesterday she stole something and when I told her she was bad she put her ears back and dropped it when I told her to and then she gave me the kiss up apologetic look for the first time ever. I was so shocked I almost passed out, not quite but it was very encouraging. I was just wondering because I read somewhere once that people who train them to work cattle generally wait till ten months to a year to do intensive training with them. Watch one of her evil stages come over her again right after I post this........

Hobbit, I will take some pictures and post them as soon as the sun comes out here, if it ever does, she is really pretty. I gave the two crazies that Diamond dog food and I've never seen them eat so fast.

[ShadyLady]

Marble ,
I dont have ACDs but I do have a working breed and yes a lot of people dont start working dogs till they are 12months old sometimes this is to do with the safety of the dog (getting attacked by livestock) and sometimes it just a maturity thing .With trialing a lot of people dont start a dog (compete that is ) until they are two years old because they learn to take advantage of the fact they are in public and can get away with bad habits !! Dont forget also and I am sure a lot of people will agree 5 -12 weeks is the optimuim training time to get a pup started with basic obedience and they seem to click off and on till about 9 -10 months old and then all of a sudden they hit the terrible teenage Ive found it to be about 12 -18 months they start not listening to commands that they had done perfectly for the past 12 months but so long as you recognize this for what it is and dont put to much training pressure on them at this time it will pass Personally Ive found it tends to settle down at around 2yrs old but this really depends on the dog .You said your dog showed the apologetic look this is probably a future example of her mature nature so dont give up hope its coming!! :lol:

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[quote name='Marble']

Also, does anyone here know if there is a certain age where ACDs all of a sudden start to act semi sane and start responding to corrections ?[/quote]

They don't. LOL!! Well, they will never be semi sane. BK is 7, almost 71/2, he is crazy and full of energy, I too waited for him to "settle down" and I'm still waiting. :roll:

If you were a member I could PM you... :wink:
Ok this is not an ad!! Have you thought about joining an ACD internet group? ACD-L (from cattledog.com) have some great advice. There are people there who have ACDs aged 9-13 who are still hyperactive.

[Guest Anonymous]

oh good grief, for some reason i forgot the stuff i'd read about the bad stages after a twelve months and was just thinking she was going to keep getting better.......she was a lot worse.......but she could probably get a lot worse than that too...and i've been hoping she is going to get a whole lot better. i don't mind the hyper part, it's the biting (hard biting), stealing, jumping, not listening, no attention span, bad attitude, provocative stuff that i thought was going to be over sometime soon......

do you all have any jobs to teach dogs that you've taught your dogs ? i keep thinking all her intelligence has to be useful for something productive but i don't have sheeps or cattle.........

[ShadyLady]

If you cant get involved in a club or something why not tricks :o Something that uses up all that mental power ! If not try setting up a bit of agility course in your backyard (assuming of course you have a backyard ) My first dog when I left home was a kelpie x and I used to take her to the kiddies playground and take her over the equipment I taught her to climb the ladders and go down the slide It also gave me a chance to work on sits and stays . I'd be inclinde to work on the biting habit first though as that is something that can get really out of control there are some great posts on the subject :lol:

[Hobbit]

[quote name='marble']oh good grief, for some reason i forgot the stuff i'd read about the bad stages after a twelve months and was just thinking she was going to keep getting better.......she was a lot worse.......but she could probably get a lot worse than that too...and i've been hoping she is going to get a whole lot better. [b]i don't mind the hyper part, it's the biting (hard biting), stealing, jumping, not listening, no attention span, bad attitude, provocative stuff that i thought was going to be over sometime soon[/b]......

[/quote]


Oh my, I didn't know that you knew my daughter!! You must, because you just DESCRIBED HER!! :lol:

[Hobbit]

[quote name='working koolie']My first dog when I left home was a kelpie x and I used to take her to the kiddies playground and take her over the equipment I taught her to climb the ladders and go down the slide It also gave me a chance to work on sits and stays . [/quote]


Koolie --- excellent. I thought I was the only person that done things like that. That is an excellent way to train a herding dog. They learn many different commands while playing and it's lots of fun.

The dog learns: go under, get on top, go thru, go around, go between, etc....it makes it so easy when you start putting them on stock (not that you will Marble, but you never know :wink: ).

Marble, this is really fun for the dog. It is challenging and a great game, especially if you can find a playground that has fence with no one there. Turn the dog loose and play all day!! Be sure to talk to her the entire time, like --- tell her what you want her to do and then show her how to do it (if she doesn't catch on).

[Hobbit]

.......oh, the biting thing. She views you as her playmate and that's how playmates play. Keep working with her by giving her toys or redirecting her attention. You will probably have to re-establish your alpha status everyday.

She is just playing and you're the playmate! My opinion, get a firm grip on this now.

Another good game --- we play lots of hide-n-seek. And "spider hand", yep --- I'll catch Hobbit laying down and start crawling my hand towards him. The closer I get, the hard his tail wags and the more he squeals! Then I grab and tickle him. We laugh so hard, I can hardly breathe. Probably wouldn't work with your girl, because she'd want to bite you!

I also tie a 100 ft light weight rope onto a liter pop bottle and pull it around. They'll chase it all day. Then I take the rope off and let them play with bottle. They bounce it all over the yard, push it, throw it and have a great time.