Australian Cattle Dogs ... what's your experience?

She is gorgeous! I want one!

A lot of your post sounds just like my cattle dog mix. I've had him a year now but he can be a handful. It took me about 2-3 months to lessen the household management some and there is still some of that going on. The part about yours pestering your other dog till the other dog was not wanting to go outside? Yep, that's happened here too. I ended up having everyone sit at the door and call them out one by one. For a long time Hank had to be tethered while around the papillons.

Y'all will figure it out! I remember being overwhelmed.

To answer the question in the OP (I know I'm behind) my cattle dog mix is great. He has a ton of energy and is quite drivey. We do agility and he is incredibly talented. Impulse control is hard for him. He bites really hard and can perform athletic feats none of my other dogs of similar size could perform. He is only 15" tall and almost got over a 6' privacy fence.

He is people friendly but a bit wary. Very very bossy and controlling with other dogs sometimes. As he ages he is less ok with male dogs. He tends to confront situations vs diffuse. He has very high prey drive. Learns things incredibly quickly- way quicker than any dog I've had. He is very versatile and likes a lot of things- lure course, agility, flyball, barn hunt, nosework.

storms226 said:

From my personal experience with Ember over these past few months, this is all completely accurate. She is SUPER attentive and picks things up so fast. My challenge has been keeping her attentive on the right tasks and picking up the right behaviors. She definitely stands her ground when with dogs, but will also back down when she senses she should. And oh boy does this little firecracker test me, lol - love her to pieces and she has definitely made my life interesting ♥

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Hank is on with other dogs... he won't back down. Of course he's a mix and the other part is probably terrier. It can be bad because Hank isn't even 30 lbs. He's 99% of the time fine with other dogs until they start something. Then it's on and he wants to rumble. He doesn't diffuse situations at all.

He's actually been pretty easy around the house save for impulsiveness. He patterns things very easily and will even make 'rules' for himself to follow. He's often doing things before I cue things. He's generally really easy to switch into a 'work mode'.

The cattle dog x bc I found was even more like that... a little more obsessive and even more handler oriented. Seemed softer in temperament. Very similar energy style though. I really really love Hank's energy. It's the best thing about him. Nonstop crazy then crash.

I think my next two dogs (won't happen till at least after one of the paps is gone) will be a border collie or BC/ACD and then a 'real' ACD. I really feel like I've found my niche.