That's funny. What do Molly and Jake think about being herded?

She's a herding dog! She just wants to bring the flock in at night.
Sounds like she's doing a great job.

Joyce

It must be a BC thing because Cara is like that. The door bell goes
and she ignores it, and then shes like *oh sh*t, better Bark - *Woof,
woof* - there job done! No I can go back to trying to herd the cats!*

Helen M

My Snowball, RB, was part BC and she would make sure the cat who lived
in the next apartment never wandered the halls of the building. She
would often herd the poor thing back into OUR apartment, where I would
pet him and take him home to his people. Sometimes she put him back
directly where he belonged.  If the apartment doors were closed, she
would get him pinned against the door of our apartment and bark for
me. When he was in an apartment she was very friendly toward him but
he was not SUPPOSED to be in the hall. Since his own servants didn't
want him out in the hall either, this was fine.

On the other paw, in another residence, I came home to the evidence of
a break-in and Snowball was unharmed and calm. Whoever broke in had
opened a new box of dog biscuits and either taken half of them or
given them to Snowball. The burglar took our two change jars and left
computers, televisions and, most important, Snowball. Snowball was
less hungry for supper than usual that night. Some watchdog.

Will in New Haven

--

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail
better."
Samuel Beckett, "Worstward Ho", 1983

Come on!  once you have mastered cat herding, guard duty is a bit beneath
you!

Andy

Guarding the property by barking at potential intruders doesn't come
naturally to some dogs.  It is something that can be taught, though, so if
you would like me to give you some tips on how it can be done, private mail
me.

My lurcher Trim (RB) would bark if someone came to the door, but once I
seemed pleased to see them she was all smiles.  She would accompany them to
sit down on the sofa with waving tail and solicit pettin's for however long
they stayed for unless I told her to get in her bed for being such a pesky
love tart.  Lulling them into a false sense of security by being so friendly
and waggy, the guests would occasionally get up from their seat if I left
the room, sometimes to follow me into the kitchen where I was putting the
kettle on for a cuppa.  Bad idea from Trim's point of view.  She would grab
them hard.
The first time she did it, I was shocked.  After that, I always warned my
guests not to get up if I was out of the room, but you always get some
smart-a*** who insists he was born amongst dogs, had lurchers since 10yo and
it was my fault for holding her collar when guests got up because I was
"reinforcing that she had something to be afraid about by restraining her."

So, OK.  Far be it from me to know my dog better than Jack did.  I asked him
if he was *absolutely* sure that he could get up to go to the toilet if I
was not in the room. He said "Yes"  I offered to put her upstairs out of the
way, he said no  and I replied "well, if she bites you, it's on your own
head."  He confidently stated that he knew lurchers and there was no way
such a friendly dog would do anything to him.  OK then.
So I nipped down the garden to shut up the chickens for a few minutes, he
got up from the sofa and she bit him on the thigh.  In one way I was not
sorry..that his arrogance had come unstuck.
I'm not saying guard dogs should do this, not at all.  I was just sharing a
guard dog story.  I never could train her out of it.
She was dumped and managed to live feral for some time, this is no mean feat
in the big city she was captured in here in the UK and yes,she *was* sort of
like KFC about making a success of living wild, but harder for Trim in a big
city.  She would have gone on for longer, I am sure had she not been injured
by a car.
She was a very challenging dog to own.  Nothing food-wise could not, and
would not be stolen, whether it was in the fridge, in the oven, or in a
cupboard. She could break in to anything. Even tins. Only tins of meat
/ham and salmon/tuna though, never tins of peaches..
She went to RB at 14 with liver failure in 1995.  Kitty Farmcat was living
around the chicken huts then and they knew each other.  Trim did not
particularly like cats but she & KFC came to an agreement because they met a
few times; that KFC should not be on the ground when Trim helped with the
chicken feeding, otherwise she would be chased.
So KFC perched up on the roofs of the huts while Trim was helping - Trim's
real agenda was  "can I eat some of this chicken food?"
Shut me up now.  I could go on for hours about Trim, the whippets, getting a
cat in the garden you don't want and how we managed it and stuff like that.

I'm shutting up.  Right now.  Too much of what you don't want to know.

Tweed

 Jake and

So Kayla has resumed her cat escort duties.  When its time the

A friend, Eloise, has 5 cornish rex kitties, 2 border colliesand 2
poodles at her farm.  The eldest female border is just obsessive about
herding those poor cats.  I think it had to have been much harder on
Sweeper when they were still small kits though-and moved like quick
silver!!

PatM