A Working Ranch Dog is Priceless

I've always wanted a dog that I could take everywhere with me and not have to worry about them taking off or being a nuisance. Three years ago I started looking for a miniature Australian Shepherd and found a breeder in Oklahoma who had some beautiful dogs that were very reasonably priced. We decided on Annie, a red tri female. I really wanted a blue merle Aussie but they are generally hard to find and are more expensive because of their popularity. Annie's father is a blue merle and her mother is a red tri that looks just like her. So Annie has one brown eye and one ice blue eye.

I had forgotten how destructive Aussies can be when left alone. One day while we were gone Annie chewed the sill off one of the windows in the living room/great room. She even ate some of the drywall. She wasn't even alone - she had our YorkiePoo and our toy poodle for company along with several cats. But these dogs need a job to really be happy.

I recently started taking Annie with me when I go out to do ranch chores. At first it was a real hassle because she wanted to run all over to explore everything. I was constantly having to go to the neighbor's house to the south of us to retrieve Annie. Every time she took off I would either put her in the house or put her on her leash at the front of the house after telling her she was a bad dog and she was grounded. She quickly learned that she needed to stick with me, come when called and pay attention to what I was doing.

I hate it when the adult male llamas get into fights. There is generally a lot of screaming, spitting, running around and wrestling. Usually nobody gets hurt but it still aggravates me to no end. Annie is so tuned into me that she quickly learned to start barking at the llamas, which would make them stop their fighting and focus their attention on her. As they got used to her barking, that no longer worked so I would send Annie into their pasture and tell her to make them stop. She runs after the fighting llamas and barks then nips on their back legs to stop the fighting. As soon as they stop, she trots back to me with a satisfied grin on her face - "hey, Mom, see what I did?!"

She went after my horse, Maggie Mae, one day when I went into the horse pasture with grain in scoops and Maggie rushed me and crowded me, getting pushy. Annie immediately went after Maggie and Maggie spun around with Annie between her legs, knocking her down, which frightened Annie so she immediately left the pasture and stood at the gate barking at the horses until I came back out. So, Annie does have respect for the animals and knows when she is out-gunned, so to speak. Now she follows me to the horse pasture and sits at the gate with her chin on one of the gate rails waiting for me to come back out. She watches every move I make, along with every move the horses make, while I'm in there.

I really do feel a lot safer now with Annie helping with chores. I don't worry so much about wild animals sneaking up on me while I'm out working on the ranch. I believe if something happened to me Annie would find help for me or at least stay with me until somebody came to help.

Annie has even learned to work around the tractor. At first it made me really nervous but now she makes a wide berth around the tractor, waits for it to pass her and then falls in behind it, keeping one eye on me and one eye on the tractor.

Next summer we plan to start looking for an old Jeep to use for four-wheeling on some of the mountain trails we used to explore years ago. We plan to take Annie with us because we think she will be the perfect companion on these day trips.