My Poor Aussie

My poor Australian Shepard, he's the bravest little man I've ever seen (second to our ACD), but he gets scared when the big weather comes in. He'll go lay outside in a raging snowstorm and love it, but when the big wind picks up, or the thunder comes in, he just gets really skeered. He just doesn't understand and he gets all needy.

Right now, as I type this, he's curled up under my desk, and if I pull my feet out from under him he starts shaking and whimpering.

He's the most protective dog we've ever owned, and I think he'd stare down a rhinoceros if it was attacking us, but the weather just scares this guy, especially when the house shakes (like it is tonight from the 65mph winds). I would think he'd get used to it after a while, but he doesn't.

So here I sit with a 55 lb. Aussie on top of my feet. Poor little guy. At least he's content now...with my left foot on his rump, and my right foot under his chest. Every time he starts shaking I just wiggle my toes, tell him it's okay and he sighs and goes back to sleep.

He's asleep now...so I dare not move. [

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Try a Thundershirt! My ACD and my little dog are both terrified of thunder, firecrackers etc but after a time wearing the shirt during these events I no longer have to Woofie (dope) them for their safety(yeah it was that bad)! Temple Grandin invented them, being a cattleman I'd assume you know her and if you don't look her up. It works on the same premise as a cattle squeeze chute!

There was a movie made about her too. Caveat tho they either really work well or not at all and if it does they calm right away but it seems cumulative, they will get better the more you use it when they are scared.

a reply to: Lilroanie

Yes, I know Temple Grandin well (even met her several times), and yes, I'm aware of the Thundershirts.

I might have to try one.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

They work really good (if they work). I'm in high desert and we get pretty gnarly thunderstorms infrequently, and gnarly wind storms all year. They both come to me and act weird when the weather is changing and get all excited when i get their shirts out. You can find em cheap on Amazon if you get a discontinued color. My Queensland's(I hate ACD lol it's Queensland Heeler dang nabbit!) is pink lol. He's a old school squatty with a tail, but diluted blue so he's black and white.

a reply to: Lilroanie

That's a NICE lookin' boy right there!!

Our ACD is a red (and grey of course), but your picture is the quintessential ACD look! That's a straight-up ACD!!! There's only one dog on Earth that can give that look. Just love these dogs!

Our Aussie is a merle, so he's got the 'blue-eye' going on. That damn blue eye scares the cows more than anything, and he uses it! We say...."he's givin' 'em the Blue Eye!". The cows will just take off; they don't want any part of him. BUT, when it comes time to round everyone up, or sort cows out, we can just put him out in the pasture and point him in a direction and BOOM!...instant cow sorting.

Love the ACD picture though!

Our ACD is fearless around the animals too, but strangely, he won't mess with the cows at all, but the bulls...he has no fear at ALL! Our 2,300 lb herd-bull is terrified of him, because that's the first animal the ACD sets his sights on (the biggest, meanest, animal in the pasture).

Now, I don't know about your ACD, but ours is the fastest dog I've ever seen! He can run down a jackrabbit on a dead run, and those suckers are FAST! I actually watched Cisco run right OVER a jackrabbit one time, no kidding. Both the rabbit and he were looking around like "What just happened???" The rabbit was flipping through the dirt, end over end, and Cisco had the brakes on, looking around. The damn ACD threw up a rooster tail of dirt and came back around before the rabbit could even get up and run, and jumped on him. Him and the Aussie had a pretty good snack that day, I let them.

Fastest dog I've ever seen!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

LOL mines always been a little 'off" he belonged to my brother in law who died when he was a puppy and my sister in law couldn't deal with 4 kids and a puppy and her husband gone and her mom dying too, so I took him. He's actually a scardy cat BUT god help anyone that ever ever ever looks at his people wrong. He'd tear em up, realllll quiet like! My BIL picked him because he was so calm and quiet and it turned out he's fearful. He's a good boy though we all love him My husky has blue eyes and yeah it can be eerie when she stares lol.

Excuse the scruff she was blowing her coat lol
ETA: Operation Mindcrime made my avatars and all 3 of my dogs are always in them hehe

a reply to: Lilroanie

Great pics!

ACD's are one of the most athletic dogs I've ever seen. For many years I bred, raised and trained Labrador Retrievers (hunting dogs). At one point we wanted to get a cattle dog, so we looked into ACD's. Some ACD owner's are crazy, and we went through some of that. They all want your first born as a guarantee you'll take care of them (and they can be a handful). Well, we have lots of land and they can run for miles. I have to say, in retrospect, I now understand why some of the breeders are so protective of these dogs. People say Border Collies have a ton of energy, and well, those people have NEVER owned an ACD!! The energy level of our Cisco (the ACD) is 10x that of any Border Collie! This dog can run for 10 miles and not even break a sweat. BUT, here, we can let him out and he can run 10 miles before his breakfast, and do it four more times after that. So, he gets plenty of exercise (again the fastest dog I've ever known).

And jump??? Oh man! This dog can jump up onto a 7 foot tall hay stack in one bound. When I bring hay in on the trailer, Cisco will jump from the ground onto the top of the hay (over 12 feet) and ride the trailer up to where we unload. It's crazy! He scratches up the last couple feet or so, but he gets up there! And then he's on the top of the World! He's KING...and he loves that. Proudest dog I ever knew, prancing around on top of all that hay. And when I unload the bales with the skidsteer he'll ride them down, and as soon as I set the bale down, he'll run back over and jump back up on top again, and ride the next one down again. It's like it's his job. He's the supervisor.

I have to say, I always worry about that dog because he's just tireless and fearless. He's the only dog I've ever known who gets hurt because of something he's doing. I've spent probably $1,000 dollars at the vet with him breaking nails (deep). The dang dog is walking wounded more times than I can count, but that doesn't stop him. Shoot, he broke a toe one time and had a cast on his foot, and he was still bolting around catching rabbits. He turned the cast to putty, and it fell off. He's got a crooked toe now, but he thinks it's cool...character, I guess.

For anyone who ever thinks about getting an ACD, wow, these dogs need space. They need to be able to run, and run FAR!

I joke with Cisco and the wife, saying we're going to move to an apartment in the city, and Cisco is going to have to live in a crate! He knows exactly what a crate is, because his brother, the Aussie, had to live in one for 3 months (hip surgery)

If we tell Cisco to "Crate Up", his ears go back and he'll slink into the crate and look all broken hearted. He'll go, but he's not happy about it. Then when we call him out (a few minutes later, after his time out) he'll come out like a fireball and go find some socks to steal (his favorite thing). Then he'll parade his theft prize in front of you, doing that sideways run ACD's do, with his tail wagging 100mph until you tell him he's a "Sock THIEF!" and ask him to give your socks back, then it's snuggle and nap time.

Absolutely wonderful dogs, but they definitely need their space.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yeah I grew up at Horse Shows and barns with them and Aussies. I think the universe knows I'm getting old and not in great shape anymore cause I managed to find a Couchus Potatous Huskus and a Couchus Potatous Queenus lol! Mine are perfectly fine running the acre out back and doing laps a few times a week! As for jumping, yeah mine can jump 3 feet straight up from a sit , I know this because of the gate on my door and his back legs are even with the top when he says hi to my nephew, he jumps up to kiss him lol.

Is yours a stumpy or an American made one?

a reply to: Lilroanie

The ACD? He's the real deal, and yes he's docked. I probably wouldn't have done that, but the breeder had all the pups docked right after they were born.

He's got a full Bentley too. Second generation, right out of the bush.

My Jack Russell hates fireworks and hides under the sofa shivering. Odd that the sound of the nearly army artillery firing range has no effect whatsoever.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Cool OK how bizarre, I'm having a Mandela affect lol. Last year my sister and I were trying to define what the "Old Original" style dog, that I grew up with and my boy is, looked like. Thick body, long, thick tail set low etc. When we searched we found old pics just like mine but here in America they were called "stumpy's" now on Wiki it says the stumpy is "Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog" which is the exact opposite of what it was last year lol. Stumpy was in reference to it's body shape not it's tail.. mind boggled.

OK so what I mean by Stumpy is what I said above. American made is the much smaller, leaner, no tail (either natural or docked) and MUCH more high energy and faster etc. They were "perfected" in USA (Texas specifically hence Texas Blue/Red Heeler was also a nickname for them) for agility trials etc is what was said in the then Wikis and breed descriptions across the web. Nothing at all about ASTCD, THOSE were the Texas Blue or Red heeler. The style I'm talking about are the "cattle" style. Does that make sense? Heavier body, lower to the ground, rudder-like tail all for the better working of cattle. And not that the smaller ones aren't great cattle dogs, just that the original was hardier, built like a tank to deal with cattle better.

God this is sooo weird. Now on the wiki it says there's 2 "distinct" breeds that diverged in the 'late 20th century', the Queensland Heeler and Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog. OK so I have the Queensland, body wise is your guy smaller or chunky like mine? The Stumpy tail still isn't completely recognized by breed assoc worldwide including the AKC. Even the pics on AKC website are now my dogs style! Last year it was the no tail, smaller style WTF!?!?@? errg!

Here's the wiki link that has a perfect pic of what my dog should look like color wise and does look like build wise and what was the common look 40+ years ago and still is apparently although I rarely ever see my dogs style. It's always the no tail smaller ones.

Here's The Stumpy tail cattle dog.

Errg I'm so freaked, I literally spent a day and a half looking this sh*t up and this is NOT what the stumpy definition was and 90% of the pics were the smaller short tail type when I searched "Australian Cattle dog or Queensland Heeler". It took me forever to just find a single pic of my guys body type, almost all the pics were the smaller/short tail type as they are more popular in the US, again my mind is blown /shiver

On my dog his 'blue' gene is diluted so it's white. Hence the black and white making him totally NOT breed standard. Altho I guess it was more common in the old days. This has never happened to me like this, a current memory changed beyond recognition in the space of 1 year! I'm so freaked out right now.

When my sis wakes up, I'm going to blow her mind because we looked it all up together! Also she gave me the clues/history from the man she got the dog from who is an old time breeder (60+ years!) and knew the breed inside out! OK I need to see what has changed, because I bookmarked all the info I found, but it was a lot of info, but our adult kids are still here visiting for Thanksgiving from out of town/state so I can't really dig in till later.

God I feel like I'm losing my mind, this is the most f****d up # ever! LOL

a reply to: Lilroanie

Here's the wiki link that has a perfect pic of what my dog should look like color wise and does look like build wise and what was the common look 40+ years ago and still is apparently although I rarely ever see my dogs style. It's always the no tail smaller ones.

The 4th picture down on this page is exactly what Cisco looks like. That dog could pass for his body double. Seriously. Exact same color, same mask, same bentley, same expression. Just identical.