Reply #39: A few things about Cattle Dogs [View All]

[auburngrad82]

They are very high energy. Petey played frisbee every day until he was almost 11 years old. He got to where he couldn't catch up to the frisbee so we switched to a ball.

They can be quite standoffish with strangers. This is a mixed blessing. They don't often jump up on strangers but then they may snap if a strange dog gets in their face. We have to be extra vigilent when we take one of our cattle dogs to the farmer's market etc.

They tend to be very intelligent. Again, this can be a mixed blessing. We have found that they tend to to well for the first 15 minutes of a training session but get bored after that and will frequently refuse to follow commands at that point. And once they learn something they don't always see the point of repeating it ad nauseum so they sometimes refuse to do what you ask. "Been there, done that" attitude.

But they are great dogs and a lot of fun. We take our youngest one to herding days in our Cattle Dog club and she does well. They always want to play and they are great fun to snuggle as well.