Working cattle dog

[lynnmcmahan]

Met a fellow in St. Augustine, TX down around the Sabine River many moons ago that used curdogs to work cattle and hogs. Very interesting gent. He made a living rounding up hard to handle stock.
I sold a blackmouth cur to a fellow in Florida that said he was going to train him to work cattle. Never knew how that worked out. He acted like he knew what he was doing by the way he talked and the 45 minutes it took him to pick out the 6 week old puppy.
Do any of y'all use a dog for working cattle? If so, why and what breed dog do you use.

 

[heath]

I use bc's. I use dogs because with them I Nevermind need to rely on help showing up or knowing what they should do. I know guys that use curs, but the mainly gather wild cattle.

 

[Lane]

I have always used dogs to work cattle. I grew up around Catahoulas but found them to be too
much like hounds. I tried Heelers and never could teach them to gather well. I had a couple of
Australian Shepherds and found that they loved their people, but weren't what I wanted in a
cowdog. I have been raising Border Collies for about 40 years and found they fit me the best.

I think that you really need to look at bloodlines and try to find something that fits what you
want to use the dog for. I want a dog that can gather a pasture, drive down lanes, and help
me in the traps and pens. My entire labor force is me, my wife, and my dogs. My kind of dog
has to be willing to work all the time, but that will have an off switch so I don't have to baby
sit them. I must admit that I have never had one that I considered perfect, but I do remain
hopefull.

Lane

 

[stockdogcompany]

Border collies(90%), australian kelpies, occasionally an australian shepherd, and some bc/kelpie/bull dog crosses. Gathering work is done with all above, with as much variation within breeds as between. A well trained dog ready to go is worth its weight in gold. If you have ever seen well broke cattle handled by a good stock man you'd sell most of your remuda and fire most of your day-help cowboys.

Even out of carefully bred and culled lines only so many pups turn out to be useful for certain purposes. Not all dogs gather, not all dogs drive, not all dogs will work through sloughs and palmetto scrub, etc. "Pick the dog for the trick" as the old circus trainers used to say. Beware the man who says all the pups he breeds or buys and trains turn out. The reason why well started and finished dogs are costly is because even out of well bred lines there will be plenty culled. And plenty injured and killed.

http://www.thestockdogcompany.com

"I can't do everything with a stock dog, but I can do most of it better."

 

[culprit987]

We have four black mouth curs that we gather our cows with. They really do good bunching the cows and moving them, but they are a little to aggressive to work with in close quarters, or one on one with a cow. The man we got our dogs from really had some good ones. They were all black mouth curs. About six years ago he took six dogs and rounded up about 130 heifers calves. What really impressed us was that it was in a pecan orchard, beside a highway and only about five cows broke out from the heard..but the dogs quickly returned them. This man worked his dogs probably 3-5 times a week, but he would actually take them to the pen where he wanted the cows brought, then bout 4 people on horseback would go follow along and let the dogs gather them and push them towards the pen. It wasnt long before my dad jus had to have some.

 

[fargus]

We use Catahoulas. As recently as 6 years ago we didn't use dogs, but there was a lot of time wasted, and more people needed to do the simplest things. Most of our work is done out in the pasture, with a bit of work in some river bottoms and swampy land. I need dogs that circle hard, and have a fair bit of grit, as we have been running grass yearlings along with a cowherd. Those idiots come in and hardly know what a fence is, let alone a dog. Need something that can break rough, running cattle, and has the brains to switch gears and just circle and bay momma cows and calves.

We don't have a good corral or pen set-up, so no dogs in the yard. Helps the cows too, they learn if they go in the yard, the dogs leave 'em alone. Doesn't take much to teach the new cows the routine every year that way. I worked with some border collies out in Western Canada in dry-lots, if we had that kind of setup I would probably have one to help push cattle through alleys with.

The other thing I like about a cur-dog is they don't need a lot of training, it's pretty well born in them. We've been lucky so far, had 100% success rate on everything we've kept out of our own litters. (That's 100% as a working dog, not necessarily as a breeding-quality dog.) Adding dogs to the operation has made a huge difference over the last 5 years, I sure wouldn't go back to doing it the other way.

 

[Limomike]

I have used several breeds to gather or corral my cattle. I have had border collie, X breed border & jack, and now have an old blue heeler, and a young red heeler (which is still being trained) BUT.. my very BEST dog I had for working my cattle was unbelievably a black Lab. She was absolutely the best I have ever had to obey my voice and hand commands.. She died last year, and was only 11 years old. Miss that Jenny girl ..