My dog is either brilliant...or nuts!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk

At 9:00 to 9:15 every morning, like clockwork, he'll suddenly get up and run around the house like he sees an intruder. The other day I decided to go see what he was doing. He runs around behind the house down to the lower corrals where we keep the bulls and steers, charges up to the corrals, stops and barks. Just one bark... Then he looks around, and casually walks off.

Have you had any cattle mutilations lately? No? Of course not. He's doing his job.

a reply to: KansasGirl

Great story!

Cisco and Rhodie are absolute best-est of best friends. More, they're 'brothers', or think they are anyway. Brothah's from another mothah', I guess. Cisco is about 18 months older than Rhodie. Rhodie would most likely not be able to walk now if it wasn't for Cisco. Cisco is a hardcore cattle dog (as most ACD's are), and the heeler in him really shows. He'll "heel" anything that moves...including his brother. So how would this make Rhodie able to walk, you ask??

When Rhodie was about 4 months old we noticed he'd yelp sometimes when he got up. We thought maybe he just hurt himself, but it wasn't that simple. When we took him to the vet she came back with the bad news. Rhodie had a very serious case of hip dysplasia, and it was only going to get worse. He hadn't even made it a year yet and we were faced with possibly having to put him down.

The vet asked us if we'd consider a radical kind of new surgery that not even our vet (who is a very prominent surgeon) was qualified to do. It would be a long road for recovery though. We decided to go for it. The procedure involved removing Rhodie's hip...completely. There would be no artificial hip joint, no nothing, just...chop-chop, buh-bye. The idea was that the muscles and tendons in his leg would heal around where the joint and bone used to be and would form their own 'joint' of sorts.

Rhodie was going to have to stay in a crate 24x7 for 8 weeks. Cisco laid right at the door to Rhodie's crate the whole time. The only time we could take Rhodie out was to go potty, and then right back in the crate. Let me tell you how incredibly horribly sucky this was!! It sucked BIG TIME! And Rhodie is no small dog either.

When Rhodie first came out of surgery his hind quarter looked like a big piece of cooked spaghetti, his leg just dangled there like a chicken leg attached by skin only. Cisco stayed with Rhodie no matter what. He went out when we took Rhodie out, and when it was time to come back in Cisco was right with him. We'd have to practically drag Cisco outside so he could burn off some of that incredible energy that ACD's are notorious for. When we did, he'd do laps around the property at 70mph until everyone else got tired!

About a week into the first 8 weeks we were allowed to let Rhodie stand (on 3 legs obviously). We're talking about a 4 month old puppy here. Can you imagine keeping a little guy like that down? Every time we took him out if his crate he was so wound up he was ready to shoot off into the stratosphere! His tail would be waggling so hard he'd fall down, and he totally didn't understand why his other leg didn't work anymore. It took months to rehabilitate him, actually years. Cisco never strayed far from him the whole time. He also protected him when he got to where he could walk again.

After Rhodie healed for the most part he was still pretty stiff, and Cisco would keep him on his toes by heeling him which increased his flexibility and coordination. Our vet said we'd need to keep him active, and this is not a problem at all with Cisco around who is the most high energy dog I've ever known or seen. I've never tried it, but I'd put my money on Cisco in a race with a Greyhound or a Whippet any day in a race of 300-400 yards, he is hands-down the fastest dog I have ever seen. A Greyhound or a Whippet would run him down eventually with their long legs, but on short yardage ol' "Sissy" (as we call him) would eat their lunch. And he's powerful too, he can go from 0 to 60mph faster than you can blink your eye. I've seen him leap onto (3) bales of hay stacked before...that's a 9 foot vertical jump! He just wanted to see what was up there. Only problem with Cisco is he's so high-energy he winds up hurting himself fairly often (which is common in ACD's). He can accelerate so fast he literally breaks his toenails way up high (which is a trip to the vet), among many other injuries. I've posted pictures of him here when he was all bandaged up. Recently he hurt his back somehow, but if I ran around like he does I'd be in a full body cast.

They're both great boys, and I love them both more than most people. In fact, I love them more than just about everyone except for maybe my bride (most days).

a reply to: Bigburgh

Nice lookin' boy.

Cisco is a Red Heeler ACD.

Cisco is pretty much my wife's dog. ACD's generally bond with only one person. Cisco is a little different than most because he bonded with both of us, but he's definitely a momma's boy if it came down to it. We're best buds, but if he had to choose between one of us, well, I know what the answer would be.

Rhodie "The Dork" picked me, so I guess he's my dog. Well, except if there's food in the equation in which case he'll farm his loyalty out to pretty much anyone.

Both dogs have interesting differences. Cisco is everyone's friend, he loves everyone...which is really weird for a Red Heeler. Normally they're not like that at all, and most people are really surprised when he runs up to them and act aggressive. And Cisco is afraid of everything, and I mean everything, except cattle of whom he has zero fear. He'll run from a fly swatter (seriously), but aggressively go after the biggest, meanest, bull in the pen or pasture.

Rhodie, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite. He's highly protective of both me and my wife. Again, this is odd behavior for an Aussie who normally love everyone. He also has zero fear of cattle. Rhodie is a stalker. He'll get down on his belly and creep up, sneak up, on the cattle, whereas Cisco just comes at them full bore head on.

Cisco will mock attack Rhodie on his way OUT the door and away from the house. Rhodie, on the other hand, will hide, stalk and ambush Cisco on the way back to the house and IN the door. They do this every single day without fail, never reversing roles. It's in their DNA.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You gotta patrol the turf once per day, sounds to me he totally knows what he's doing.

One could speculate where he got it from, maybe his mommy told him, maybe it was a "urge" and this time makes the most sense, because it sounds like it's when the property is unattended by you...
Do you know his origins?

No matter what you got a total pro at his job why are you calling him nuts?

a reply to: Peeple

Naww, he's a good boy, and sharp as a tack too.

He came from a family who raise and train Aussie's. He's from pretty good stock. He was actually the pick of the litter, and they didn't want to give him up. In retrospect I should have probably thought twice because of how big he was compared to the rest of the pups. It should have been an indicator I might be in for health troubles, which hopefully now are behind us.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I read that, horrible, kudos to you and your wife for being so brave.


One could argue about the "pretty good stock" as hip dysplasia is probably hereditary, but sounds like behaviour wise for sure.

And I just love to know there are dogs out there happy with a job/purpose and full members of the family.

a reply to: Peeple

Rhodie runs with the best of them now. He'll never be able to keep up with Cisco, but I never expected him to, Cisco has almost 40 lbs on him. Rhodie is about 95 lbs, and Cisco is about 60 and a solid muscle.