I have always had big dogs. Right now my best friend in the world is my border collie/ newfoundland mix Maximilian. Max has been my constant companion for 12 years, and his job has been to protect me and my family. He does it very well, and takes it very seriously. He's never needed a play-date with a herd of sheep to make me feel like I am a responsible owner, and I've never needed him to do more than lick my face and lie at my feet at night to know I have his unconditional love and loyalty. People need to get a grip....

Forced? Really? I've an Australian Cattle Dog, and although she behaves better when exercised, she's never forced me to take her herding.

This is where I put in a plug for Cesar Milan. I urge any dog owner to watch his show "Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic Channel. One of his techniques for the herding type dogs who misbehave is to give them a job whether it be to carry water bottles in a doggie backpack or to send them to a ranch to herd some animals.

All dogs should be exercised regularly, but there are some dogs who need more than this. If you act as the pack leader and give your dog rules, boundaries and limitations and they still act out, then maybe this technique can be used successfully on your dog.

I work in Boulder, CO, home of the insanely fit. Active dogs like border collies get snapped up at the local humane society about as quickly as they arrive. When your idea of a good time is to hike up a backcountry glacier and then ski down, it's easy to keep a high-energy dog content.

(Our new dog--not a border collie--was at the humane society for a whopping 5 days. She was a transfer from Tulsa. Dogs get adopted so quickly here that I think they send them in from other cities.)

Everyone knows... Beagles are the best :)

Astra - that's so happy! I love to hear when dogs are adopted into good homes!

I don't see a problem with the article. If people want to blow their cash to let their dogs have some fun, why not? I would argue that bringing your herder to a farm isn't the only solution, like AllenS mentions, but sounds like a silly/fun one for the dog.

"All in all, she fits very well into my life. This is not the case with some dogs and their owners."

I disagree that the fact owners bring their dogs to a farm means it doesn't fit into an owner's lifestyle. It's just one option of many to have fun with and entertain the dog. Also, lots of people with bigger, active dogs have a different relationship and lifestyle than those with little, quiet dogs. You wouldn't see Lucy running along beside anyone up a mountain trail - but my Boxer will beat you to the top...my husband and I like to be outside and take her places b/c it's part of our lifestyle with a high energy dog.

It's horrible when a dog owner isn't up to the task of making sure their dog is mentally and physically exercised in a breed-appropriate way. If your dog is a couch potato that's one thing, but to take a high energy dog and not give it something to do is cruel. I'd rather hear of people giving money to local farms to let their dogs run around than hear that a very nice dog bounced between shelters and unprepared owners because it chewed, pissed, barked, and did other anxiety driven behaviors b/c the dog didn't get what s/he needed. It's not the dog's fault.

Pretend sheep herding: win.

Kinda off topic, but I'm sitting here at my desk watching a bald eagle just circling the neighborhood, probably looking for the stray cat...

Kinda off topic, but I'm sitting here at my desk watching a bald eagle just circling the neighborhood, probably looking for the stray cat...

When Lucy was little, I didn't let her out in the yard alone for fear she'd be snatched up by a hawk -- or a hungry sparrow.

About a decade back we had a woman walking her dog on a leash and an eagle swooped down and grabbed it, and the eagle and the woman ended up having a tug of war with the poor dog. From what I remember, the woman won but the dog died.

Apparently eagles have a type of locking mechanism in their talons, and can only release their prey by landing on their talons. Hence, it's not unusual in places like Alaska for an eagle to drown because they caught a fish larger than they can carry off.

"She turns around and backs up like a tiny bus to let you know she wants to be picked up.."
Does she make beeping sounds when she does this?

This brings back memories of our favorite family dog, Ruby (1973 - 1986), a brown-and-tan German Shepherd who was very affectionate and a natural watchdog. Maybe TOO natural at times; she'd lunge at strangers on the street when we lived in Manhattan! Luckily, we're all avid walkers in our family, so Ruby felt right at home walking in parks, or in the more suburban areas of the Riverdale section of the Bronx when we lived there. Keeping Ruby active was the key, but luckily, we didn't have to get a herd of sheep to do so! :-)

Just take your good tempered border collie to the local preschool/day care. Small children can be herded...

I have a herding dog. She is part cattle dog and admittedly - I had no clue what I was getting myself into. So I had two choices, 1) step up or 2) give the dog a new home.

I chose the first option. When she was a pup, I got up and ran her 2 miles each morning on weekdays. Then walked here 2-3 when I got home... When it was raining, this was the issue. So I bought a used treadmill just for her.

After some research (she kept herding me...children...vacuums...etc) I found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Jolly-Pet-14-Push-n-Play-Purple/dp/B000P71BQU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1293554443&sr=8-7

Best toy for herding dogs, hands down. It can be filled with sand or water to weight it down (weighted down option is highly recommended). After 20 minutes herding this in the back yard or open field - she is ready to collapse.

I also have chickens she likes to herd too. I did get them for eggs, but its a big plus too that my lil' one also likes to herd them too, especially when they get out of their coup.

PS. Herding dogs can have herding instincts redirected to things such as search and rescue, agility or fly ball.

Oh another thing (although they are nippy so I had to use a muzzle on "M") - exercise balls - large ones. Find a tennis court no one is using and bring the exercise ball or other large bouncy ball to the enclosure. Put ball down and let dog loose.

There was one woman who stopped her car and parked right by the tennis court I was at with my dog. After 20 minutes, I left and walked to my car only to have this lady tell me that she had pulled over and sat there and watched us the entire time. She said my dog looked like she was having so much fun and it was the most enjoyable entertainment she'd had in weeks. I'd have to agree with her...maybe I should have sold tickets!

> I'm sitting here at my desk watching a
> bald eagle just circling the neighborhood

I saw one just outside the bedroom window a few years ago. Landed on a nearby roof, collected itself and took off again. We think of them as perfectly deft animals, but I'll never forget the four seconds where it rose, without apparent cheer, to its launching stance and started flapping... It looked like the dictionary entry for "laborious". It must be no fun to be an old eagle... All that muscle has a cost in weight.

It was like that back in the scuba days too... In the spots where all the nutritious currents would merge, you'd see thousands of teeming fish and other animals. And then you noticed that they were all bold, horny teenagers... There were no cripples or idiots or seniors.

You couldn't pay me to keep a border collie. I prefer calm dogs with appropriate levels of energy. That means I make the time every day to exercise them and when we are done with that, they have slug-like calm in the house.

My best friend runs agility dogs at the highest level. When she searches for a potential agility dog she looks for the exact opposite type of dog that I prefer. They must be high energy, high drive and very bold. They are very successful agility dogs and they are all total pains in the ass to live with.

No, thank you.

This article has nothing to do with dogs. It's the same thing as going out to the local show farm to pick your own CSA basket, more stuff (middle class) white people like.

Lucy is so adorable.

A new small business! Sheep-rental service! Pick-up and delivery extra of course. The franchise possibilities boggle the mind.

When Lucy was little ...

Hee hee hee. :-)

Goat herding has become a business as well- they bring in as many goats as you need and the goats will devour damn near every plant on the property, no matter how steep or hard to get to the property is. The by product is healthy compost manure and goat's milk!

The guy I bought my German shorthair from said, as I wrote the check and the pup bounced around from fence to tree to picnic table to fence to tree again, "I hope you've got a big back yard."

I said, "A little under 160 acres," and he was satisfied. Still, I regularly kept the pup on a line for the first year to convince him he had to stay reasonably close to me.

All that energy serves us both well when we are hunting pheasants. I just have to make sure he gets exercise on non-hunting days too. The single advantage of the recent 2-foot snowfall is that running in it tires him out sooner, so our walks don't have to be so long. I stay on plowed trails and let him bounce exuberantly through the drifts.

Some random thoughts as I work....
Does anyone see a similarity between this and the helecopter parenting style of making sure your kids have playdates and lessons from 6 am to midnight every day?(ok, I exaggerate, but not by much) I exercise my dogs, but they also have to entertain themselves a good bit. I have a nice fenced in back yard, pool, toys, etc, so the furry kids can run and play. They aren't allowed to bark excessively or they go into "time out" :p but otherwise, when I'm busy, they play nicely.
My big guy Max 'herds' his brothers, and sometimes me when it's dinner time, but other than that I don't think he got the border/herding instinct much. He's more of a water dog, the Newfie in him I guess.
The only little dog I've ever had that I've liked is my boy Sean, he's a poodle/Jack Russel mix that is just a baby doll. Tho I think that if I ever do just have 1 dog it will be a teacup Yorkie, they are just too cute for words. Right now my boys would prolly overwhelm a little girl like Lucy :(

Axman, where do you live? Here in Iowa we've seen the ringnecked pheasant population sadly diminished because the last two winters have been so harsh. This year looks like it will be kinder to us, so maybe a few more of the poor things will survive ... so that we can start shooting at them again!

My dad always did a lot of pheasant and duck hunting with our black lab, Mac. We laughed when we were listening to a talk radio show and some lady called in to complain about how MEAN it was for people to take dogs out and force them to hunt. When Mac saw my dad put on the hunting coat, he would dance around with a big grin on his face until it was time to go. And if the old man wasn't moving fast enough, Mac would grab the front of his coat and try to DRAG him to the truck. He would leap in and out of the back of the truck about fifty times, although that number got smaller over the years, until he had to have his back end lifted up for him. He always loved it more than anything, though.

DH just got a new job with Siemens that is going to involve a lot of nights into perpetuity. We are contemplating a dog, maybe a german shepard. We don't have a huge yard (typical suburban lot), but we do walk to school twice a day. We have a premier dog training facility near us so we are going to go meet with the owner and he's going to interview us, and probably come see our house, and help us find "the" dog. I want it guard dog trained, though, as that is a lot of the point of getting it. Breed is less important, but it has to be sturdy with kids.

I would never buy a dog that required this (we had a australian shepard/st bernard mix that was utterly the cutest dog ever but it had enough energy I would NEVER get the real thing) but people that want to do this, who cares?

Pirate Jo, I live in Wisconsin, too far north into the snowy part for good wild pheasant survival. I hunt birds stocked by the DNR or by hunting clubs.

I prefer hunting grouse. My old dog is a lot better at that than this young bouncy fellow. He'll settle down eventually and get careful enough to handle grouse, but for now he's my pheasant dog. One pheasant he worked a few weeks ago refused to fly, but just ran on the ground. That dog kept on its trail for maybe 80-100 yards, and finally caught it and fetched it. Some hunter earlier in the day had wing-tipped it--that's why it didn't flush.

And yes, both my dogs act just like your dad's black Lab. They love to hunt birds even more than I do.

I've had various dogs over the years.

But the best story -- I had friends that had three kids and and an Australian wolfhound in a small village in Texas. (Half the roads were not seriously paved.) The Mom goes to get a shower in the middle of summer. The neighbors come get her out of the shower after about three minutes.

Turns out the 2 year old had gotten out of the of the house and wandered into an alley across the street. The wolfhound had followed her, knocked her down and was straddling the girl. The dog growled at anyone but her mom (or dad and siblings) that tried to approach her.

That is a perfect dog as far as I'm concerned.

The big thing that pet owners need to understand is their pets instincts and history before choosing them.

Turns out the 2 year old had gotten out of the of the house and wandered into an alley across the street. The wolfhound had followed her, knocked her down and was straddling the girl. The dog growled at anyone but her mom (or dad and siblings) that tried to approach her.
Best.Dog.Ever

I had a great dane when I was a kid just like that, we called her our nana dog because she wouldn't let us out of our yard or let anyone but our parents in unless told it was ok. She had a long-time grudge with our mailman because he thought it was funny to tease her through the door. One day, she decided to take him up on the offer of a little exercise, hit the heavy, '70's aluminum door headfirst, took out the bottom panel and chased him to the street. She stopped when she got to the edge of our yard tho. She knew her boundaries, even if he didn't

@Kat, we called our Australian Shepherd dog "nana" too! Like Border Collies, Aussies have INSANE herding instincts. While I was growing up, all the kids in my rural WI "neighborhood" were pretty nomadic, but she'd always follow us -- and if a kid wandered off from the group, she'd herd him back in.

My parents now have FOUR Aussies. They make wonderful pets -- if you want a dog that's smarter than you are and acts like it's on Four Loko 24/7.

The 11-year-old can still jump 4-foot fences from a standstill. The 9-year-old has figured out the *exact* frequency she can yowl at to trick her electric bark collar. And both can open doors like the volociraptors in Jurassic Park.

My mom gets up (after they wake her up) at 5:30 am for a 2-hour brisk walk. My parents have a HUGE property with a big fenced-in area, where they can run around all day chasing chipmunks. And they get another mile-long walk in the evening. And STILL, they are hyper. At. All. Times. Whenever I see an apartment-dweller with one of these dogs, I feel terrible.

And both can open doors like the volociraptors in Jurassic Park.
My dogs taught my cats to open the doors, so no one was able to keep anyone indoors after the Great Escape of '74. Luckily we lived in the middle of nowhere on the assend of nothing.

Whenever I see an apartment-dweller with one of these dogs, I feel terrible.
This is where being a responsible pet owner kicks in. If you have property, get a big, active dog. If you don't, don't. If you think you maybe might be able to walk him every day and rent him some sheep on the weekends, tough, stick with the pocket monster, because you are still doing your pet a dis-service.

I had a wonderful Weimaraner that was ( as they are) high strung. There is a saying. A tired weim is a good weim. An exhausted weim is a great weim. She also loved to relax. In the summer she liked to go outside and stand next to the chaise lounge. She would wait until you put out a nice fluffy cushion down so she could stretch out in the sun!!!

@ MomOf4 -

Doberman. Yes, I'm biased. But Dobermans protect their people. It's what they were bred for. My Dobe was more than content with a mile a day walk and some backyard time with the laser pointer. And when people see you walking that kind of dog, they cross the street.

But they are the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet. Clingy though. Having a Doberman means never having to go to the bathroom alone!

True Story - Dad was working 3rd shift, came home early one night for whatever reason, and didn't have his keys. Doberman got between Mom and the door, and mom had to go find a yardstick to push the curtains aside so the dog could actually SEE Dad before she'd let mom near the door.

I think the point that Amy is making is this: dogs are working animals. Some have been bred to be guard dogs, some have been bred to be herd dogs. Other breeds - like Lucy - have been bred to be decorative, indoor dogs.

Border collies are cute, but they are not carpet-tacks. The same for huskies, and many other breeds. The important point is to choose a dog whose desires and breeding are appropriate to the lifestyle you are going to offer it. Too many people think buying a dog is like buying a stuffed animal.

momof4: Boxers are very intelligent and natural defenders of your house. They have a bit of energy but two walks a day plus a few short rumbles in the yard with a ball should be fine. Once the Boxer has had it's energy level zapped with exercise they're pretty big couch potatoes and very little will rouse them (including kids poking, prodding, etc - Boxers are VERY patient!) except a person in the yard. Very loyal. Very sweet. Totally goofy and fun. Very protective of "their" babies. EVERYONE NEEDS ONE!

I mean, look how vicious this thing is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whoshotya/1154509156/

Utterly terrifying.

"The important point is to choose a dog whose desires and breeding are appropriate to the lifestyle you are going to offer it."

No, he doesn't:

By going to that rent-a-sheep place, you ARE offering the dog the *ideal* lifestyle. Just because that lifestyle isn't in YOUR BACKYARD doesn't mean the dog is worse off herding sheep on weekends when you're willing to pay for it. Or worse off going on a jog in the park with you and another dog (they'll run behind you and herd you. Instinctual drive: met).

Not offering the dog the right lifestyle would mean keeping it cooped up inside or denying it a form of exercise that provides sufficient outlet for energy + instinct. You'll know when your dog's needs aren't being met b/c the dog will display bad behaviors indicating anxiety (pacing; pissing in the house; barking at nothing, non stop; chasing its tail). Of course the "optimal" life for a dog would be to do exactly what it was bred for at all times - but I would argue the "optimal" life for a cow isn't to be on my dinner plate. YUM. If you have an Aussie and never let it run around with friends that's awful...but whether they're herding a flock or a pack of humans they're still exerting a level of energy that is sufficient.

Another thing for MomOf4, since she's more interested in the security aspect of a dog. Walking to school with the dog is a good way to let the neighbors KNOW that you've got a dog, and you're not afraid to use it. That alone will keep miscreants away.

By going to that rent-a-sheep place, you ARE offering the dog the *ideal* lifestyle.

But I agree! I have nothing against the rent-a-sheep program. The problem is, too many people do not take this sort of step. Or they do it...once a month.

Somone can offer the dog an appropriate lifestyle however works for them. The point is: they must do it, or they are almost guaranteed to have a frustrated, bored, ill-behaved dog.

"The problem is, too many people do not take this sort of step. Or they do it...once a month."

Ok - gotcha! Dog-related topics really get me going!! I don't care how they get the dog what the dog needs, as long as it's done. The sheep thing is rather ingenious.

I am actually looking into a career change where I can have my dog with me all day and...if I can slip my husband enough good drugs into his food...get another Boxer! If I had the know-how (know-how to raise capital, I think I could handle the business element of it) I'd consider opening a laid-back gym with kickboxing/grappling, cardio classes, yoga, normal gym equipment and then a dog unit with open space for running and an agility course (great for those smart dogs with no sheep to bother). So people can work out after a long day in the office and so can their dogs. Then everyone goes home tired and hungry and ready for a good night on the couch (cuddling, if they're into it!).

Only dog I have ever been bitten by was a border collie. I was the second person he had bitten on my cousin's ranch. I was 12 at the time, and it was dark and we were camping in the yard. My cousin's dad, had a two bite rule, and that dog did not last long after that even though he was marvelous cattle dog; Elwood wasn't going to keep a dog around that didn't distinguish between cattle and kids.
When my kids were growing up, we had a female bull terrier. Great dog, really friendly, and smart. The only things she got upset about were strangers coming to the door at night, especially if my husband and I were not home, and also my two kids fighting with each other. They would sometimes wrestle on the floor when they were in their early teens and the dog would get upset because she didn't know which kid to protect so she would usually grab one of them by their shoe or pant leg and try to pull them apart.

Dan Piraro has addressed the dog's life a few times in Bizarro - like this.

To my knowledge, he has not addressed the Advice Doggess.

Yeah, Dan's a real hoot!

Annnd it took some searching, but here is the link I was looking for:

"I used to have children a long time ago (now I have adults), before it became socially acceptable to put them on a leash."

Ahem. Is yours a mutt, too?