Australian Cattle Dog

Dog Training Frustration

Diane J.
Dog Training Frustrations
The Driveway, notice the telephone pole

Training your dog is not always as easy as whipping up peaches and cream. It’s also not full of sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. Honestly, it can be downright frustrating.

Please bear with me on the dog-training frustrations front, it gets a little brighter at the end of this piece.

Reality Means Frustration and Elation

One thing I promised myself, and that I am now sharing with you, is that I would keep this site as realistic as possible. I didn’t want to set high expectations and promise that life would be easy if you were a novice owner of a particularly stubborn breed of dog. Nothing is gained by people who claim you can train your dog, and all will be rosy. It just makes us feel like failures. And we’re not, and neither are our dogs.

Before we brought Pandora home, I started watching dog training videos. I knew I was a novice, and I knew Australian Cattle Dogs are not recommended for novice owners. So, I watched video after video. One thing that stood out, was that professional dog trainers made it look somewhat easy.

Each episode began with a problem that was the video’s focus and, in a half-hour, we got the final results. We know, realistically, these trainers didn’t get those results in a half an hour. Yet, we don’t know how long it took to get those results. We don’t know how many hours a day they worked with the dog; we don’t know how many days they worked with the dog.

I wanted to avoid that. I want people to have a real sense of how long training can take. Some things Pandora picks up quick, and some things…well, that’s today’s focus.

Complete, Utter Frustration

Last week was a low point. I hit rock bottom. Frustration punched my gut and stomped on my heart.

Each time my husband and I take our evening walk, I see dogs with their people, walking happily around the lake. Last week, every time I saw a person with their dog, I started to cry.

The Melt Down

I can’t get Pandora to walk with us near vehicles. After yet, another regression in the training, my heart broke. I went into full-on self-pity mode:
She’s never going to walk with us. She’s never going to get over this fear. I can’t train her anymore. I’ve hit a wall and there’s nothing left I can do.

I was so gut-wrenchingly destroyed, that when I went out to work with Pandora, I had no feelings. Complete numbness. I knew nothing was going to change. If this were a movie, this is where I would say, “But she did it! This was the day she walked up to the top of the driveway.” Alas, this is not a movie, she didn’t go to the top of the driveway. It was the same thing as the previous two and a half weeks.

The only difference is that Pandora knew something was off with me. Pandora’s cure all is Frisbee, so she’d bring the disc and I’d half-heartedly play with her. I truly felt I failed her.

Each evening I spent a good hour tossing and turning: is it me? Am I that inept at training? Is it Pandora’s stubbornness? Could it be her fear of cars? Is it that her hearing is so sensitive that the cars sound 40x louder than we hear them?

The Moment of Clarity

I felt defeated. It was time I saved up and paid for a professional dog trainer. But, at $150 per hour (some are the same price but only 30-minutes), I realized a professional is not in our immediate future. I’m sure Pandora would need many lessons.

I started journaling about my frustration. We’ve been working on this walking issue since we brought her home. She’s two now. A month and a half ago, I made it a Priority Training Exercise. Meaning, that was the main task we would work on every day.

The first week went well. I got her to the telephone pole. Joy of all joys! Then we went backwards. She stopped walking tentatively with me and started pulling the leash for the back yard. She started turning her back to me and crouching down. I had to walk backwards and offer endless treats to get her to go back to the telephone pole.

It was then I realized. I was using regular dog treats.

We Are Making Progress – Frustration is Waning

Regular dog treats. This may not seem like a big deal, but one year ago, I couldn’t even get her past the front end of our vehicle. And I was using the “big guns” of dog treats. Bacon. A full slice of real bacon. She wouldn’t even walk with me for that.

Now, even though we struggle, even though it seems like endless setbacks, she will follow me for a regular dog treat.

If you look at the picture above, you’ll see where the front of the car is. That was as far as I could get her a year ago. Now, we can get to the telephone pole. By this time next year, we should be able to get to the top of the driveway.

Don’t give up. You will get some wins and some frustrations, don’t quit. We’ll get there. I don’t know when, but I believe we will. You will, too.

How to Care for Pup After You have surgery

How to Care for Your Pup After You Have Surgery

Diane J.

Preparation Before Surgery

I recently had major surgery. Thankfully, I had the chance to plan ahead. Which meant getting ahead on household chores, work tasks, and Pandora’s training, some of it anyway.

Even if you don’t have an upcoming surgery, it’s probably a good idea to make sure your dog is trained in a few commands. These are mostly the basics. The stuff they tell us to train our dogs on immediately. The commands that can help us keep our dogs safe, and us too. There is a bonus to having these commands down well. If you have emergency surgery, with no time to pre-train your pup, your home recovery will be easier.

If you are lucky enough to prepare in advance, here are the areas you should focus on:

  1. Training commands, such as “off,” “down,” “gentle,” “wait.”
  2. Changing behaviors such as not jumping on you when you get home, going ahead of you when going up or down stairs.
  3. Investing in some dog puzzles or a dog walker – things that will burn your pup’s energy, calmly.

Training Commands

When my doctor said surgery, this was the training area that I cracked down on for Pandora. She loves to jump on me, my husband, our neighbors, other people, you know, everyone. We couldn’t have that for when I got home so she had to learn not to do it.

The reason Pandora jumped on us so often is because my husband loves that she barrels out the door and jumps to greet him. We’re undecided if she’s trying to jump into his arms or if she’s leaping that high to lick his nose. Since my husband wouldn’t work on the “off” command before, he finally realized we had to now.

The best response we got was semi-ignoring Pandora when she greeted us. We’d say hello to her, and then when she’d jump, we’d say “off” while turning sideways. If she was launching into the jump, we’d put a knee up that prevented her from getting close. She’d bounce off the knee.

Pandora understands “sit,” and “wait,” well enough.

The one thing I wish I had taught her, was “gentle.” She’s not insanely rough, but it would have come in handy when she’d curl up with me if she understood to be a little gentle. You know, don’t walk over the surgery site three times to find where you want to lie down. Here’s a link on how to train “gentle.”

Changing Behavior

The biggest behavior changes you’ll want are for your dog are, jumping on you and not being underfoot on stairs. After surgery, you may be weaker, you may have balance issues, you may be dizzy. The last thing you need is your dog to knock you over and possibly reinjure or cause more injuries to your situation.

I already addressed the training of “Off,” above.

Not having your dog underfoot on stairs, is really nice. I never spent time training Pandora to go ahead of me on the stairs, but she learned it fairly quick. When she was a few months old, she’d bite at my feet when I was near the stairs. One day, I stopped moving and pointed down the stairs. Pandora ran down. From then on all I had to do was gesture (which is the equivalent of a one-handed “you first” gesture) and Pandora goes up or down ahead of me.

I watch a friend’s pup a few days a week and she walks down the stairs with me. Sometimes, she’s in a hurry and shoves by me. Usually, she’s pretty good about staying to the side of me, but every once in a while, she’s tried to shove by me or stopped in front of me.

Invest in Energy Burners

Pandora’s favorite activity is frisbee. Since I knew that I wouldn’t be able to give her that energy outlet for a few weeks, I had to do some planning. Thankfully, I have my husband and a son who can take her out, but she doesn’t play long with them. So, I started preparing by stocking up on items that could be used to entertain her brain and nose. While she doesn’t spend a bunch of physical energy, she tires herself out thinking.

I stocked up on toilet paper rolls, the cardboard piece. I cut them in half and put a tiny treat in each piece, then wrap it up around the treat. A little pocket if you will. I would put Pandora in a room and then hide the packets around the house. Each time I did this, I tried to find new places. I would do about 12 packets, six rolls. If you use treats like Dingos, you can save on the extra calories, by breaking them in half or thirds.

Another thing I did was to take an old blanket and scatter a few treats in it, then roll it up, tie it in a loose knot, and toss it on the floor. She spent a good while trying to get her treats out from the fuzzy depths.

And, I bought a dog puzzle off of Amazon. I was able to sit on the couch and play with her.

A Few Other Suggestions

If you don’t have someone at home, maybe hire a local teen to come play with your dog or to walk your dog. When friends or family come by you can ask them to spend some time playing tug or throwing a ball for your dog.

Lick Mats keep them busy, but calm for a while, so those are handy to have on hand.

Snuffle Mats, are great for nose work that encourages them to work those sniffers to find their food.

Get Pandora’s favorite indoor energy burners (just check with your doctor before anything that requires your physical movement – like throwing a ball).

The prep work takes time

…but it will make your home healing process smoother.

Curb the Barking

Diane J.
Curb the Barking

Ears Ringing from Barking?

Pandora only had one event where her incessant barking put us on our neighbors’ “most hated” list. That was when Pandora decided no more night crate. And she was done. Period.

I’m fairly stubborn myself, and figured it was just a phase. I kept telling my husband if we give in, she’s never going back in the crate again. We have to ride out the phase. For two weeks, I’d put her in the crate and the barking would start and it wouldn’t stop until I opened the crate in the morning. She’d take a few twenty second breathers here and there, but she never stopped. All night long. Fourteen nights. I’m no stranger to sleepless nights, I raised twins. However, I will admit that once the twins slept through the night, I thoroughly enjoyed the sleep. So much so, that it’s really hard to go back to sleepless nights, or maybe it’s age.

I’m a firm believer that you need to pick your training method and see it through. I learned this through parenting a horde of boys. You can’t read a tip and try it for two days, then give up and try another. Your child needs to know the consequences will be the same and you will stick to it. When I implemented a punishment for my kids, I gave it a solid two weeks. Usually, it only took a week so long as I was consistent.

So that ideology stuck with me during this phase with Pandora. And Pandora usually reacts like the kids. At first there is an increase in rebellion. Then there’s a little give, then reluctant acceptance followed quickly by another round of resistance, and finally full acceptance.

However, this time, there was no give. No change in the barking, no weakening in intensity. She gave me nothing. After two solid weeks, I had to admit, she’s not a crate dog. She’s not having it. I didn’t change anything, and she didn’t give one darn micromillimeter.

So, she no longer sleeps in the crate. We don’t even use the crate anymore.

Bad Barking Habits

Even though we solved the worst barking, if you consider ceding a solution, Pandora still has a few barking issues we need to work on.

Anytime I’m in my office and anyone wants to talk to me, she barks. She sees people walking up the road and she barks. A delivery driver comes down the driveway, she barks. My husband moves, she barks. People come to visit, and she barks for their attention.

Clearly, some of these, I want her to bark at. Others, not so much.

I want her to bark and let me know if someone is near the house. However, I want her to stop barking when I give a command. For a while, I would look out the window, take note of what she was barking at, and say “Okay, thank you.” It still works, but we seem to be in a regression period.

As for the other barking, I don’t want it at all. I don’t want my family shushed by my dog. My husband needs to do things and we don’t want to deal with my dog trying to give me a play-by-play of my husband’s actions.

Which has led us to…

Operation: Curb the Barking

Pandora doesn’t go on barking tirades when we’re not home. So far, the only things that have suffered during our absences have been toilet paper and tissue boxes. Which kind of sucked back in 2020 when people were hoarding toilet paper.

We decided to continue with our plan to acknowledge + “thank you” when people are near the house. I’m pretty sure it’s just a phase…(rereads paragraph two and prays).

I searched around the internet and came across two sites that share the same basic training idea:

WebMDs’ – Understanding why dogs bark and,

AKC’s – How to stop nuisance dog barking

Then I told my husband the plan, we will tell her “Quiet” and as soon as she pauses, we say, “Yes” and give her a treat. We also put our finger up to our mouth to show her a nonverbal command.

We’ve been doing this consistently for the past four days. And it’s working. It’s not perfect yet, but we are making a lot of progress. Last night, Pandora started to bark when my husband called to me from downstairs. I put my finger to my mouth, and she stopped. I didn’t even say “Quiet”.

Consistency and having us all on the same training method has made this process go well so far. Everyone in the house needs to be on board or Pandora will only listen to me, and then I get grumbly because I have to stop what I’m doing to go deal with the barking.

I’ll keep you posted, but for now, it’s working.

Always Account for Setbacks

There will always be a setback, a small rebellion. Whether it comes a few days after or a few months, the dog (kids do this too) will test you to make sure you are still enforcing the behavior. That’s okay. Don’t get discouraged. Usually, a couple days of constant training is the reassurance the dog needs to get back on the behavior track.

Unless it’s getting Pandora to walk on any path where vehicles can be seen and heard, then it can be discouraging. But that’s another blog post. We are making strides, but they are incredibly slow, and we have constant setbacks. So, yeah, that’s for another blog post.

For honest information on dog training check out: Behind the Game on Dog Training

When to Spay Your Dog StubbornDogNoviceOwner

When to Spay Your Dog

Diane J.

This isn’t a long post, so bear with me. Near the end I include a link to a chart from a study that helps you make a much more informed decision of when to spay your dog. My best recommendation is to read the chart.

When I was younger, I remember our puppy got spayed fairly young. That was the in the 1980s. At a third or fourth round of puppy shots I asked the vet if we should schedule Pandora’s spay. She was approximately 3- or 4-months old and I was under the impression that it was best to spay your dog sometime between 4- and 6-months of age.

The Unexpected Answer

The vet ever-so-casually says, “We spay a few months after her first heat.”

I vaguely remember her say, “Hello?” Followed by a long pause and then “Are you there?”

I was completely unprepared for that news. I had a plan and getting Pandora through her first heat was not in that plan. As far as I was concerned, we were not doing the first heat thing. We have a friend who breeds bulldogs and French bulldogs. I’ve seen the dogs when they’re in heat. A lady we met on our walk was telling me about her mixed-breed’s first heat. This was not good.

All I could muster was “I’m going to have to process that.”

The vet gave me a whole host of reasons about research and discovering it’s better for the dogs. I thanked her and hung up. I haven’t been so speechless since I got to talk to Tommy Lee from Motley Crew on the phone when I was a teen. And that was the 80’s, when Motley Crew was big.

After a few days of recovering from this news, I hit Google. It was a rough journey. There are sites that say to spay by 6 months, after the first heat (or season), and even some that say it’s best not to spay or neuter your dog at all.

Is it Best to Wait to Spay Your Dog?

Frontiersin.org published the results of a study of when to spay your dog.

The simplest answer is if you have a small pup, lapdog size, the study doesn’t show much of a difference of waiting to spay your dog. I’ve read that small dogs mature quicker, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not, but something to think about.

And some larger breeds did okay with an earlier spay. But there are some breeds where it appears it’s better to wait. For Australian Cattle Dogs (Pandora’s predominant breed) it was best to wait because there is a 15% increase of joint disorders. Pandora is not full bred ACD, she also has a bit of Border Collie in her. For Border Collies, there were more benefits of waiting to spay until after her first heat. For us, it made sense to wait through her first heat.

The study encompassed 33 dogs and they have those breeds listed in more detail. If your dog is not in the list, make sure you check with your vet. Maybe, look at the possible breeds that your dog is a mix of and decide based on that.

Frontiersin.org made a handy-dandy chart to peruse when it comes to deciding whether or not to spay or neuter your dog. CLICK HERE – to go directly to the chart. In the chart, there are 35 dog breeds and for each there is a check mark for the best option for your dog. The categories are Intact, Choice (meaning it’s up to you), Beyond 6 months, Beyond 11 months, and Beyond 23 months.

I hope that chart makes it easier for you to make an informed decision. It made it much easier for us.

Coming Next Week: Tips for Dealing with a Nervous Dog

Behind the Game with Dog Training

Diane J.
Stubborn Dog Novice Owner

When You Didn’t Train from the Get-Go

Did you fall behind on the dog training?

Any of these reasons sound familiar:

  • You scoffed at the idea of needing to “train” your dog, only to realize, “Crap, I really do need to train my dog.” I’m serious here. When I had my twins, the hospital gave me a number to a Mother’s of Twins group. I scoffed; I didn’t need a support group. Two weeks later, delirious from lack of sleep, with infant twins screaming, I called the number and blubbered through tears, “I have twins.” It happens people, it happens. We scoff at something and then learn we really shouldn’t have.
  • Possibly you were on a roll with dog-training and then your job switched your hours. Or you had surgery. Or any other reason that side-lined you on the training front.
  • Maybe you got your dog just before, or right after, the Pandemic hit and the ability to hire a trainer or socialize went pfft!
  • Or you intended to hire a trainer or start obedience classes but, due to the Pandemic, finances got stretched too thin and/or local restrictions prevented meeting with a trainer.

Whatever the reason, if you’re behind the game like I am with training, don’t worry. We still have time.

It Won’t Be Quick or Easy

I’m not trying to be a Debbie-downer, I just want to keep things in perspective so you don’t lose hope. If I say it will be a breeze and it’s not, you’re going to either think you got an untrainable dog or that I’m an idiot. Neither of which are good.

Always remember, your dog will pick up some things quicker than other dogs. As with raising kids, do not compare where your dog is with another person’s dog. Your dog might not take to the idea of “sit,” he might walk away when you say it. Pandora (my pup) picked it up right away. It was crazy simple how fast she got some things like sit, look at me, and high five. It also gave me a false sense of belief in my training abilities. Which utterly crushed me when I realized she wasn’t going to do everything as easily as sit. That was part of the reason we fell off the training wagon.

If your dog is willing to walk out the front door on a leash and walk by vehicles, I envy you. I don’t even care if your dog doesn’t have leash manners. I’m in full envy. Pandora will not walk near vehicles or where she can hear them. It would be fine if we lived in the middle of nowhere, but we don’t. Again, no comparisons between dogs. Every dog has their own quirk. If you envy Pandora’s ability to pick up commands quickly, just remember I envy your ability to walk with your dog in public.

One of the first things you may have learned when researching how to train your dog is that it is best to do so after they have exercised. Dogs who get plenty of exercise are also better behaved because they wear off destructive energy. Can we revisit that I can’t walk my dog?

I can walk her, I have found a location where I can walk Pandora and she can get plenty of exercise, but I don’t have the time to drive out there every day. The ability to walk out the front door and go for a walk eludes us.

Persistence and Repetition Pay Off

Pandora has had this fear of vehicles since we brought her home. Nothing traumatic has ever happened to her near vehicles. When we’d go to see her, she would run around in a corner of a parking lot near a road. She was completely oblivious to the vehicles. What caused the fear? I have no clue.

We brought Pandora home three days before she turned eight weeks old. She is now one. We’ve just recently had two teeny, tiny successes with the walking.

The day before her first birthday (Feb. 3), she went to the vet. The vet is right off the main highway that runs through town. In case you don’t catch my drift, let me be clear, lots of vehicles, lots of loud heavy vehicles. Due to the COVID-19 era, we have to wait in the car. I tried to make the best of the wait by pointing out all the other dogs going into the vet on leashes. Pandora watched them, intrigued. Each time the vet’s door opened and a dog walked in, Pandora stood still with eyes wide open. The equivalent of us watching a horror movie and sitting rigidly, silently imploring the dingbat entering the killer’s lair to run the other way.

When the vet tech came out to the car, she asked me to lead Pandora to the door on her leash. I knew that wasn’t going to happen, but gotta try. Pandora jumped to the back seat and then to the front as I opened doors trying to snag her. Finally, I picked her up and set her on the ground and started walking. We walked the whole three yards to the vet’s door like a normal person and dog out for a walk. HALLELUJUAH! Then I handed the vet tech her leash. At that point the success turned into a typical dog-visiting-vet comedy. Pandora dropped low and dragged the tech back toward the car. I had to cut her off, pick her up, and hand her to the stunned tech.

Pandora is a tiny, mid-size dog. She’s an Australian Cattle Dog, but she’s definitely on the tiny size. However, she’s a ball of muscle. Her strength is what shocked the vet tech. Couple muscle with the adrenaline of fear and I’m not sure what the lady expected. It was probably that Pandora seemed okay about the situation until the lady opened the door.

Success Came AFTER Months of Training

I have been working with Pandora on this for many months. Each time I’d take her to her favorite place to walk (a bunch of trails away from everything), I’d keep her on the leash for a little bit and work on leash manners and “look at me.” Then I’d let her off the leash and let her run. ACDs are velcro dogs. She doesn’t run too far away. She’ll get a little ahead and then come back and keep repeating. The majority of the time, she comes back when called. She only ignores me if she’s sniffing something good.

I’ve also been working with her in the backyard. Having her wait and then come to me, or wait until I come back to her. Then I would put the leash on her while we’re in the back yard after Frisbee time and work on leash manners. She’s not as receptive in the back yard. She lies down, afraid that I’m going to make her go to the front yard.

When I say leash manners, I tell her “with me,” and want her to walk by my side. If she starts to pull, I change direction. And we keep repeating.

A couple of videos I watched to learn leash manners: 5 Reasons Your Leash Walking Isn’t Working and 5 Quick Tips to Stop Your Dog from Pulling both are from McCann Dog Training.

In an effort to desensitize her to loud vehicles, I’ve been playing YouTube videos of garbage trucks at work. With the stereo on and the volume up enough that it sounds like garbage trucks are hoisting cans in our kitchen. She’s been getting better with vehicle sounds. Yes, there really are channels that have hours of garbage trucks doing their thing. I hear those trucks in my sleep now.

If you need to work on desensitizing your dog to loud vehicles this YouTube Garbage truck video has over an hour of garbage trucks doing their thing.

Our second success came a few days ago. I took her to a local dog park. It is off a medium-busy road. Meaning you can still hear the vehicles, but you usually can’t see them. In order to visit the park, you have to park your vehicle approximately ten yards away. She hopped right out of the car and headed for the dog park. I was so excited I filmed it and put it on our Stubborn Dog Novice Owner Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLaXls5D0cN/

I didn’t worry about her leash manners, we were experiencing progress!

When you get a moment of success don’t worry about perfection. Get the big success first, then worry about those nuances.

There Will Be Setbacks

Also, know that there will be setbacks in dog training. It sucks. Many times I have whined that I’m never going to get Pandora to walk around the lake. We sit just up from a great loop around a lake. It’s perfect for a midday walk, an evening walk, a whenever we need fresh air walk. If we ever get to that point. Yes, I still get discouraged and need encouragement at times. Please feel free to send encouragement in the comments.

One of our setbacks came on the heals of me pushing a little too hard. I figured I would carry her up to the mailbox and then walk her back down the driveway. It’s about 25 yards from our drive to the mailbox. It worked. She was excited to get back to the house. But the third day I tried it, she ran away from me to avoid getting the leash on – we were still inside the house.

I backed off for a month and then started the backyard training. We’d been doing that training for almost a month when we had the mini-success at the vet’s.

Don’t Lose Hope

The training takes time. It will test your creativity to defeat the biggest obstacle. In the end it will pay off.

I’m not at the end point yet with Pandora, but I truly believe this. Despite my many whining sessions, I do believe we’ll get to walk the lake someday.

If you have any tips on what’s worked for you in walking a fearful dog, please share, I would love to hear them.

Other posts you may find interesting: Australian Cattle Dog, Novice Owner

Australian Cattle Dog, Novice Owner

Australian Cattle Dog, Novice Owner

Diane J.

The Details

I posted once about my new Australian Cattle Dog puppy, Pandora. Today she is 15 weeks old (3.5 months, plus a week). This little girl has stolen my heart and destroyed my socks.

As I attempt to train her I’ve realized a few things. The most obvious one being, I never trained a dog before. As a young girl, I remember when we got our dog, Katy. She was a mutt, super cute, and somewhere between small and mid-sized on the height spectrum.

I remember when we brought her home and put an old clock under her bed so she could hear the tick, tick, tick of the time. We also gave her a doll “Mr. Bill” that she loved to attack.

My parents made a puppy gate that blocked off the kitchen. That was Katy’s area at bedtime during the night and when we had to leave the house without her. As Katy got older she learned to jump. We’d hear, “click, click, click, click, click,” across the kitchen linoleum, a thump and silence. She didn’t make much noise on the carpet. That was all you needed to hear to know she’d escaped.

There was the night we were eating dinner and after us girls were done, we’d gone off to play. Shortly after we heard a yelp.

Turns out, Dad was tired of Katy biting his ear, so he bit her ear. I don’t know how I feel about that, but she didn’t bite his ear again, so….

The Collie

When my husband’s and my son was three or four, we got a Collie. Super smart, we were told. Now, granted, I am clearly not a dog trainer. However, that dog didn’t listen. I tried to train her to sit. Nope. Not going to do it. And then she took off. She ran and ran, just like the first dog in Funny Farm.

Long story short, she was rehomed.

Enter Pandora, the Australian Cattle Dog

We’ve had Pandora at home with us for almost two months now. We picked her up three days before she turned eight weeks old.

I have found great training videos on YouTube. I’ve found videos specific to the Australian Cattle Dog breed. This breed is also know as Blue Heeler or Red Heeler depending on the color. Blue is white and back and sometimes a tad bit of brown. A red heeler is one that is brown and white.

One thing, I keep hearing over and over again is how this breed needs to be socialized. They are wired to be a one-person dog. And many people talk of their heelers flipping a switch and going from little social furballs to angry hermits.

I don’t want that for Pandora. I want her to be, at the very least, non-plussed by other animals and people. Preferably, she will play with other dogs and be kind to people, maybe not super lovey, but you know, not all, “I shall eat you if you take one more step.”

The Problem

Australian Cattle Dogs are smart, but tough to train. Couple that with novice dog owners and there’s a reason most dog sites say this breed is more for people who are experienced dog owners.

Have I made it clear that we’re not experienced dog owners? Because we’re not. Not even close.

The problem is more me than Pandora. I have to learn how to be the leader of her world. I have to learn to be consistent with her training. Plus, I need to get the others in the household on board with her training. That’s even harder than training her.

What I need

What I keep looking for is a site that shows me what to expect with a tough breed and a novice trainer. I need reality. I don’t want sugar-coated encouragement nor do I want horror stories. Actual tips would be most helpful and I want to see how it plays out and how long it will take to get her to be a decent dog. And hopefully, I don’t screw up along the way.

Since, I’m not finding that, my blog is becoming that. Pandora is taking over our lives. In a good way.

I’m starting a YouTube channel with clips from our walks so you can see how long it’s taking her to learn and hopefully you can pickup ideas and most importantly, share ideas with me.

Here’s to new adventures!

This post was previously published on DianeDeMasi.com.