working stock dogs

[Dyer Show cattle]

Another to check out is English Shepherd. I was looking for an aussie and came across someone who had some english shepherds and I bought one. They are one of the oldest breeds and are called the farmers right hand man. They gaurd, herd, hunt, and lay by your side. They are supposed to be great family dogs and great working dogs and know how to work when asked and love to relax when told to. So far this has been true with mine. He works when you tell him and when your done he will sit by your side and be calm and quite. He just turned 2 and he is quite the dog already. Also they are great guard dogs.....he is not a mean dog but barks and lets you know when other dogs or other people come around. He is not nearly as aggresive working as my aussies and heelers i have had, but getting better all the time.

As for Heelers and Aussies I have had them both and the best combo we had was 1 heeler and 1 aussie at the same time. The heeler was one of the best I ever had due to it learned many great things from the aussie. The aussie was much older at the time and mellow. Both were great dogs. My heeler got ran over and I replaced it with another and that dog would bite almost anyone who was not family when they were not looking.....So he never made it to 1 year old.

Then my gpa always had border collies. And they were deffinatly the best herders but had no stop to them, so they will herd even when you don't want them to. So when your not working cattle you almost have to kennel them all the time. This bould have been just the ones he had. But the aussie, heeler, and english shepherd I have had would only work when you told them to. Otherwise they would gaurd the herd when you were not using them to work the herd.

 

[herfluvr]

Maybe this site will help

http://www.stockdog.com/clubs/usorg.htm#ENS

My grandfather also raised the English Shepards.  I had forgotten about them.  They are everything the previous poster stated.  Lovely hard working farm dogs.  I was little when he had his and they took great care of the children on the farm and were excellent workers.  Might just be the dog for you.  If you find a good breeder, please post.  I would b e interested in the contact information.

Adding this...you got me looking..now I am wanting a puppy!
http://www.stonycreekenglishshepherds.net/id58.html

http://www.stonycreekenglishshepherds.net/id5.html  In MI born Jan 2011.  That girls face is what I remember as a child with my grandpa's dog Betsy.  NIce dogs!

 

[Jill]

We have Aussies and Corgis and love them both for different reasons.  The Aussies are great dogs, we are in the process of training 2 of them and just bought another one, he is adorable, I'll post pics later.  We use them right now for 4-H, they work well and are great agility dogs.
The Corgis, we tried them all in 4-H and they don't work at all, they do what they want when they want, however, they have been a great help with the cattle, the problem we have found is they are very protective and want to get between the kids and the cattle so that sometime causes issues.
The best and smartest dog we ever had was a BC-Aussie cross and would get one of those in a heartbeat. 
I think dogs are like anything else, you don't really know until they are a little older what you have, if you can find one someone has already started, it may cost a little more, but you have a better chance of getting a dog that does what you want.

 

[justme]

We had 11 corgi pups last night...10 made it.  Heck I may have a whole pack of herding dogs in here lol.  I can see all these short little legs hell bent for leather after my cows lol

 

[knabe]

have two kelpies.  they are very on and starey and respond to minimal commands.

the thing to watch out for is the length of the throw, at least with mine.  on dog goes way out, the other just what she sees nearby.

it would be nice to have something in between.

careful, job dogs without a job or an apex handling will be cute at first but grow annoying quickly.