I am so proud of my little red Cattle dog.

[Tony Smith]

In spite of signs clearly stating they are not welcome, callers of religious persuasion continue to front up at our front gate.

Their last warning is a sign on the actual gate that says "Inside is an apparently friendly, but utterly untrustworthy dog" (which was admittedly obtained 6 or 7 dogs ago, but you'd think most people would get the warning ).


Anyway the Jehovas minced up the driveway unconcerned, after all God is on their side. Rosie the red cattle dog, in accordance with her nature waited silently under the car until they were well inside and then launched herself with all the ferocity a cattle dog can muster (which believe me is quite terrifying, you get the distinct impression that the dog is going to hand you your lungs).

By the time the Jehovas had reached the footpath Rosie was having a drink from her bucket  ready to go back to sleep.

It's a right of passage that all dogs must go through - claiming their first JWs.

[skippyc]

  [smiley=Oscar.gif] [smiley=Oscar.gif]

[clonmore1]

I have a friend who is a 'postie' who has been off work for almost 3 months now after somebody allowed or didn't control their dog when it attacked her.

She has panic attacks, is struggling to sleep and has a very nasty scar developing on the wound the dog inflicted, it's doubtful she will want to wear a bikini on the beach with the size of the scar and its location, she is in her late 20's

I hope the owner is 'proud' of their dog...

If you don't want JW's to call on you, just tell them, they don't respond to signs. No need to set the dog on them surely?

[Tony Smith]

I have a friend who is a 'postie' who has been off work for almost 3 months now after somebody allowed or didn't control their dog when it attacked her.

She has panic attacks, is struggling to sleep and has a very nasty scar developing on the wound the dog inflicted, it's doubtful she will want to wear a bikini on the beach with the size of the scar and its location, she is in her late 20's

I hope the owner is 'proud' of their dog...

If you don't want JW's to call on you, just tell them, they don't respond to signs. No need to set the dog on them surely?

The dog is behind two gates, both have warnings not to enter and to use the intercom, the second gate is locked from the inside.


The JWs decided to ignore the signs and came to the second gate, the dog, whilst still on the house side of the second gate, "ambushed" them and scared the crap out of them.


Sympathy and care factor is exactly zero as they chose to come through a gate clearly stating there is a dog on the premises (but again note, the dog is still confined within by the inner locked gate).

Lastly, and I honestly thought it was clear from my original post, the JWs were never in any danger as even if the gate had been open the dog would not have attacked unless they entered the second gate, she is trained to raise the alarm and will only attack a human if told to.


But scaring the hell out of them is her job, and she does it well.


lastly, my sympathies for your friend and to explain the difference between a mongrel owner and an untrained dog - our dog does not bark at postmen or electricty meter readers - they are on her list of "allowed' intruders.

[clonmore1]

No probs Tony,

If I misread your post, I am sorry.

I heard of another dog attack today this time with a German shepherd who attacked and mauled a young woman who will now need extensive surgery on a shoulder injury who was calling on friends and the next door dog jumped a short fence to attack her!

Anybody with a potentially dangerous dog needs to ensure they can't hurt anybody, sounds like your dog did her job well.

[Tony Smith]

Chris


I cannot agree with you more. Wife and I have had cattle dogs for near 30 years. The thing about a cattle dog ( the appealing bit) is that they are like a mini with a V8 engine, their strength and "heart" vastly exceeds what you would expect from a small to medium sized dog. They are also very intelligent, fiercely loyal, implacable guard dogs and, to top it all off, they are as cute as a button.

But (and this is the unappealing or down side) they are working dogs, and if they do no thave work, they get up to mischief, they are also stubborn as little pigs and given half a chance they "bully" their human owners to become head dog in the pack. Lastly as a by-product of their breeding they can be more than a little OCD and you have to be ruthless in extinguishing OCD behaviour. Let's face it, their "job" in real life is to run into mobs of wild cattle and nip, bite and bark to control them, and to do it all day every day on low maintainence, they are tough little buggers.

For all the stuff in the second paragraph they are not appropriate dogs for 99% of people, you have to have time to "work" them, give the lots of play time and most of all you have to spend time training them. There was a fad in this country a few years back and Blue/Red cattle dogs were the affluent pet of choice - lots of dog attacks, lots of people scared of cattle dogs.

Our opinion is that they are only just capable of being kept in a "standard" suburban lot and then only with lots of training, lots of exercise and very strong limit setting.


Here is a really good example of strongly enforced limits.

(The caption in this when I originally posted it was "We were wolves once, wild and wary, stealth and cunning. Then we noticed you had sofas".)


And a quick second photo of Rosie in a boat. 5 minutes before she had never seen a boat and for that matter had never been surrounded by water, two circumstances that can reduce a strong dog to a howling wreck. Rosie, with typical cattle dog pragmatism decided "this is where my humans are, they aren't worried, so why should I be, but I'll just let everyone know I am on duty with the cattle dog glint".

Finally, aside from some dogs that as a result of catastrophic in-breeding  are complete nutbags there is no such thing as a "dangerous" dog, there are merely humans who should not own dogs..

[Lucky_Lou]

Fine looking pooch there Tony what breed is it ?? I just home one occasionally with the Grandkids.. 2.4 children this one runs for fun.....
Lou

[Tony Smith]

lou

Also a nice looking dog.

In answer to your question Rosie is a red cattle dog.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Cattle_Dog
&
http://www.purina.com.au/owning-a-dog/dog-breeds/Australian-Cattle
&
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo


Which pretty much sums up the "public' record.

DNA analysis shows that there is far more Dingo in the breed than breeders would like to admit, which means their heritage, and a lot of their makeup, can be traced to the Indian Wolf (which is the line ancestor of the Dingo). In more recent years some Papuan "singing dog" has snuck into the blood lines.

In short they are a "manufactured" working dog breed.

Having owned a dingo I can attest to the fact that they are 'just like a dog, but different", the same is true of Cattle dogs.

[Lucky_Lou]

Stupid is.... sorry tony I in my "Pommy" ignorance have never heard of the "Red Cattle Dog" breed before despite having graced your shores in my youth,, I my have children in Freemantle...........happy daze.
Lou

[Tony Smith]

Nah Lou, I live and breathe cattle dogs, I sometimes forget there are places in the world that have never seen or heard of them.


Sort of like the first time I met a Borzoi.

[Justin B.]

Heh, all of a sudden a movie line popped into my head - "That Dingo ate my baby..." or something like that and I don't even remember the movie!

Neat looking dog, looks pretty laid back chillin' on the couch!

[Burt]

Just google Lindy Chamberlain and all will be revealed.  I believe Meryl Streep played the part in the movie.  

It was all the headlines in its day and as I have no interest in it at all, I will leave it at that.