Post by epitts75 on Jun 21, 2008 17:48:18 GMT -5
I found these dogs on a home school group where I advertised that we are looking for a working farm dog. A family called me to share that they are looking for a home for their dogs. They think they will make great farm dogs. They love to run, hate being confined to postage stamp lot in the city, etc., etc. One is a Border Collie/Lab mix and one is a *gasp* Australian Dingo; both are females 4.5 years old. Given the BC breeding I thought it would be good to try it out, but I was concerned about whether or not they would eat my chickens...I already have 2 lab crosses that I am trying to train not to kill chickens. He agreed to let us take them on trial (I really didn't want the Dingo given the breed characteristics, but Dh said give her a try, you never know what you might discover...it's a trial, right?)
So...he came this morning and dropped of his girls. Here is what we discovered:
CONS - Both of them are obese, need to lose close to 1/2 their body weight. I'm guessing a good 6 months to a year before they could begin to be working dogs.
- Then we noticed they both have some thick bald patches on their elbows. We thought it might be mange so we called our vet friend who said it could be but it's more likely that it's allergy of some kind. Although both of them having it in the same place would seem to indicate mange...but the BC seems to have some kind of dandruff...very flaky skin which would indicate allergy, I think. Vet said allergy is much more of a pain to deal with. Mange is a quick cure.
- They know no basic commands, not even sit. He told me they will steal food from the counters if it is left unguarded...but we just ate dinner and they have great table manners, no begging or anything. I have trained puppies basic commands, but don't really know how to proceed with older dogs. I'm assuming it will be much more labor intensive?
PROS - They are VERY sweet. They're great with kids.
- They are formidable at the front door when someone knocked. They definitely would have intimidated me if I were knocking.
- I guess they could be diamonds in the rough. But I think it will take a while to find out. They have responded very well to some training today. They know sit. I don't know if they'll ever be able to 'come' off leash. don't even know how to begin with that one at this age. I guess that involves un-training. Copper (who was killed the other day) helped train my lgd pups to come. He herded them back if they didn't obey me!
My other option is going tomorrow to buy an English Shepherd pup. I found a litter 3 hours away.
What do you all think?
Ellen
So...he came this morning and dropped of his girls. Here is what we discovered:
CONS - Both of them are obese, need to lose close to 1/2 their body weight. I'm guessing a good 6 months to a year before they could begin to be working dogs.
- Then we noticed they both have some thick bald patches on their elbows. We thought it might be mange so we called our vet friend who said it could be but it's more likely that it's allergy of some kind. Although both of them having it in the same place would seem to indicate mange...but the BC seems to have some kind of dandruff...very flaky skin which would indicate allergy, I think. Vet said allergy is much more of a pain to deal with. Mange is a quick cure.
- They know no basic commands, not even sit. He told me they will steal food from the counters if it is left unguarded...but we just ate dinner and they have great table manners, no begging or anything. I have trained puppies basic commands, but don't really know how to proceed with older dogs. I'm assuming it will be much more labor intensive?
PROS - They are VERY sweet. They're great with kids.
- They are formidable at the front door when someone knocked. They definitely would have intimidated me if I were knocking.
- I guess they could be diamonds in the rough. But I think it will take a while to find out. They have responded very well to some training today. They know sit. I don't know if they'll ever be able to 'come' off leash. don't even know how to begin with that one at this age. I guess that involves un-training. Copper (who was killed the other day) helped train my lgd pups to come. He herded them back if they didn't obey me!
My other option is going tomorrow to buy an English Shepherd pup. I found a litter 3 hours away.
What do you all think?
Ellen