Sharing your life with an ACD (Australian Cattle Dog)
An Honest Guide for First-timers
Throw everything you think you know about raising a puppy and having a dog right out of the window. You have no clue.
Me and my husband both grew up having dogs. We had a beautiful soft-natured German Shepherd and a witty Golden Retriever together. Both of them passed away of old age in the same year. It was a massive blow and we waited 3 years before we felt ready to maybe add a new puppy to our family. Thinking we knew everything we needed to know to get a new puppy. If only.
How we discovered this breed
We were scuba diving in Mozambique when we met an ACD for the first time. The lady who owned the dive centre had a red male and he was an impressive dog. He only had eyes for her and followed her everywhere. He came out on the boat with us and waited for her to surface after every dive, licking her face as she got back in the boat. Happy to see her and made sure she was okay.
I reached out to a breeder in our area with the intention of visiting her to meet her dogs and pick her brain about the breed since we did not know much about them. I wanted to do my research and make sure this breed would work for us and our lifestyle. We arranged a date and went out to the farm. Turned out she had four puppies and one became available. The puppies were 4 weeks old when we saw them first, needless to say, that was that.
We were all excited, visiting the puppy at the breeder’s house numerous times until he was old enough to join his new home. We had clicker training sessions and got to play with the puppies. The clicker training sessions should have been our first clue. They are also crate trained, which was new to us and seemed a bit mean. Why would you put a puppy in a cage? This should have been our second clue about what we were up against.
This is No Ordinary Dog
This puppy ruled the house and our lives from the very second we brought him home. They are very intelligent and will take initiative if there is no strong leadership given. Having a strict routine and clear boundaries with these dogs is imperative. They are strong-willed and extremely opinionated and will make it clear when they are not happy or do not agree with you.
This dog completely lives for you, you become their focus and reason for being. They strongly attach to their person or persons. They form strong bonds and are loyal to death. This is the way they were bred to be.
Together with this, they are suspicious of strangers and can be very aloof. This causes them to not allow strangers or new people near you whether you want it or not. It may take them quite some time to get used to new people, but once someone is accepted as part of their group of acceptable people, it will not change and they will not forget.
They are finely attuned to your moods, stress level, body language and movements. They pick up on the slightest things, anticipate and will act accordingly. If I, for instance, do not like someone and that person approaches us, Gibbs will be difficult with the person by barking at them or not allowing them in my space. If I am stressed or anxious, the dog becomes jumpy or barks a lot at everything and anything. Different dogs will obviously react in different ways in different situations. But this is something to be aware of, we do not always realize that the reason our dog is acting strange is most probably because of something we are doing or experiencing.
Here are 8 mistakes we made and how they can be corrected:
1. Socialize Socialize Socialize
Primary socialization takes place between 3–5 weeks and is the most influential stage in a puppy’s life with critical socialization continuing on up to week 16. The breeder plays a very big role here and introducing the puppy to as many different people and animals is a great way to make use of this socialization window. Continuing this socialization process once your puppy comes home with you is imperative.
We brought Gibbs home and he immediately joined us on our daily movements to our workplace, shops and the beach. We also joined a puppy class which was highly beneficial to him.
He was doing really well, not paying much attention to other people or dogs, happily greeting new people at work and being generally sociable. Then lockdown struck, and being isolated at home caused all the work we had done to dissipate leaving us with an overwhelmed reactive dog.
Reactivity is where the dog becomes overly aroused by common things. After the lockdown, he started lunging at cars, bikes and people passing by. He would bark at them and not be able to easily calm himself down again. He would get overly aroused by the sight of another dog, even at a great distance.
This makes our life very difficult since we are not able to take our dog out into public places where there may be other dogs off-leash or especially rude people who would approach us and try to touch or even talk to Gibbs.
Fortunately, this can be corrected with training and a massive amount of determination. It takes commitment.
2. Keep Up the Crate Training
We slacked with crate training in the beginning and did not immediately realise the benefits of the crate. The crate is a safe space for your pup to retreat to, where he can calm down and reset.
It's not a punishment, although the pup would sometimes complain when put in the crate. This is like a two-year-old toddler that needs their nap, they never want to nap but really need it. So it’s helping them and not punishing them. They are naturally burrowing animals, and the crate gives them that sanctuary.
Feeding your dog in the crate teaches them that this is a nice place to be. When your dog retreats to the crate, leave them be. Do not disturb them, this is his safe space where he can have his alone time. It is very important to respect their space.
It’s an ideal place for them to learn to sleep at night and is also suggested by most, that being said, Gibbs sleeps on the bed with us. Chuckle. I would like to meet the person who has kept their ACD off their bed and couches for that matter.
The crate is also a great way to transport your dog. It keeps them safe in case of an accident, keeping them contained and preventing them from being flung about. It also keeps the situation controlled and safe instead of having a free-ranging dog about in the car whilst driving.
3. The Utmost Importance of Downtime
We only later realised that our puppy was overstimulated a lot of the time. His poor nervous system never got a chance to reset. Thinking that he needed a walk or a training session when he was hyper, to tire him out, was a big mistake.
When he got hyper he needed downtime and not more stimulation. This constant overstimulation caused him to never learn how to calm himself down.
When he got older it was extremely difficult to teach him to be calm and not ‘on’ all of the time. He expected our constant attention and to be entertained 24/7. When I had to get some work done he would bark at me constantly for not paying attention to him. I had to ignore this behaviour and just get up and walk out of the room every time he did this. As you can imagine, not much work got done. I thought I would lose my mind with the constant screeching in my ears.
It eventually worked, he stopped barking and slowly learned to entertain himself with his toys. This led to him learning to be calm and eventually fall asleep during the day, like a normal dog.
Dogs sleep 12 to 14 hours a day. Puppies need 18 to 20 hours per day. That is a lot of downtime.
4. Constant Access to Toys
While he was a puppy, having constant access to his toys contributed to his overstimulation. When he needed downtime, the best would have been to put him in a pen where there were few or no toys to help him calm down and fall asleep. Or to put all the toys away.
It also took away the novelty of the toys causing him to become bored with his toys very quickly. He would then destroy them or just refuse to play with them. We kept buying new toys because we were so desperate to keep him busy and out of our hair for a little bit.
The best for a puppy to learn to regulate himself would be to have set play times. Then the toys or a toy comes out and gets put away once playtime is over.
5. Stick To a Routine
By sticking to a routine the dog is calmer because they know what’s happening and when. This also helps you enforce the boundaries, otherwise, the dog will start making decisions and call the shots. Before you know it, you’re just an employee.
Once you have done the same thing once or twice, it will be expected. This is how quickly these dogs get into a routine. Gibbs knows his routine and would ask for specific things each day at the same time, like his food, snacks and walks.
Create a routine that works for you, the dog will get used to it and this will make both your lives easier.
6. Never Bend the Rules
Stay strong, don’t bend the rules. If you bend them once, the dog takes this as it's now the new rule. If you do not want certain behaviours, you cannot allow them even once.
We had a rule of not giving food to the dogs when we ate. I bent this rule once by giving him a piece of a peach I was eating because he was asking so nicely and we were on holiday. After that, every time I eat a peach it's considered ‘ours’ and not mine. I then had to be very strict because he would become quite demanding.
Dogs can not understand getting something one day or something is allowed but the next day you take it away again.
My advice would be to not even go there. Once you have done this, it's very difficult to enforce the rules and boundaries again. Be consistent and don’t bend rules. This gives the dog clear and very necessary boundaries. I know, this can be difficult.
Boundaries need to be enforced regularly since the dog will push the boundaries to see what happens or to try and get their way. Don’t do it, no matter how cute, funny or smart they are in that moment.
7. They Should Not Be Left Alone
Because they bond so strongly with their people, they cannot be left at home all day. They want and need to be with you during the day. They are not happy to be separated from their person or people. If left for too long periods at a time they can become destructive because of anxiety or boredom.
If you have a nine-to-five job where you cannot take your dog with you to work, this breed is not for you.
To be honest, this is a working breed and not really a pet. They are extremely intelligent and are best when they have a job where they can be active and engaged. This leads to my next point.
8. Training and More Training
These dogs must be trained. And they absolutely love it!
If you intend to be an ACD owner, you need to have good knowledge of positive dog training. They do not respond well to negative training methods.
Teach them something they can grasp and understand using positive enforcement like treats or toys. Do not pull them around on a leash and use force to try and correct them, you will not win over this dog as they are born leaders and will not be pushed around. They are bred to think for themselves and take initiative when herding cattle. You cannot subdue this, you must work with it.
They respond very well to clicker training. Gibbs has a high food drive and having treats for reinforcement works like magic. He absolutely loves training sessions and being challenged mentally with new games and tricks. This is also the best way to teach all the behaviours and commands that you will need in future.
Gibbs was clicker trained from 4 weeks old, starting with the basics and going on to more difficult commands as they grew older like sit, stand, down, stay and a good recall.
They love learning tricks, are great agility dogs and are awesome working dogs that can be used for units like search and rescue or protection dogs.
In Conclusion
We had to completely rearrange our lives since we became ACD parents. Our idea for getting Gibbs was to have a loyal dog who would stay by our side and come to work with us every day. It did not turn out that way, and we had to adjust things to accommodate this.
If you are not a truly committed person, you will not fit well with this breed.
My heart skips a beat every time I see people with one of these dogs as a pet. I hope and pray that this will not become one of those ‘fashion breeds’ that everyone runs out and gets because they look so different, and then most of them end up abandoned or worse.
I should also add that I have never ever before had this type of relationship with a dog. I did not even know it was possible to have this level of communication and connectedness with a dog. He has filled our lives with many great things and has taught us countless lessons.
He is our family, we love him unconditionally as he loves us.
All images ©️ by
Madelein Wolf Photography
www.madeleinwolf.co.za
Insta: @madeleinwolf
