Which Breed To Choose

[HugL]

Equerry, I'm glad you haven't left the forum. People who are negative are the reason I don't post much but I wanted to give you my thoughts.

It sounds like you are open to a variety of breeds but don't forget there are many variations within each breed. GSD's are supposedly high-drive, active large dogs that require huge amounts of exercise. However, my GSD hasn't been told this and is the laziest thing I have ever met. eg he loves showing but on the rare occasion we go in for group, I have to all but wake him up! I chose my breeder based on what I liked about her lines.

When you are looking at breeds, make sure you pay attention to the individuals within the breed. If I ever wanted a red kelpie, I would go for the lines of one I show with - calm, refined and friendly with all. I know the ones I see up north on the back of utes wouldn't suit my lifestyle.

Good luck with your hunting and most important of all - take your time and listen to your gut.

[SpikesPuppy]

Didn't even think about the horses but Borders (Terriers ) were originally bred to run with them (the heavier Hunters) after the Hound pack in fox hunts. They are said to instinctively know to avoid hooves but not so sure about this lol. Anyway, they are smart little dogs and seem to have a natural affinity with horses. They are small but enough leg to keep up on a ride. I know of a few riding schools with resident BTs. Mine have only been around horses briefly and on leads (have only had 'pet' ponies for the last 7 or so years so it's just visiting and feeding rather than riding).

[equerry]

Thanks to all those that understand how hard my decision was, decided it was pointless to let a few with big opinions to send me packing as I love dogs and am enjoying the forum, understand why they are so against my decision in a way and are convinced I must be a hopeless dog owner, they are dog lovers like we all are and want the best for dogs.

Hard also to explain the situation in full on a forum, so much happened that it would take pages and pages to go through it all, so you try to condense it and in doing so you paint yourself in a bad light depending on your writing skills (obviously mine are awful), but it would have been nice if some read my posts fully and correctly before replying, the dog was not badly trained, we had him 3 years with a multitude of a cats and ferals prior to the first cat killing incident, it was only when the second JRT arrived on the scene that things turned, anyway been over and over it, those that think I am a dreadful owner and don't deserve a dog, so be it, you haven't managed to scare me of as there are too many nice people on the forum to run and hide.

We are thinking now maybe another cattle dog, had two over the years, really lovely dogs, good around the cats, good around the horses, great with our daughter, loyal and relatively easy to train, and tough as, would love a pug or a border terrier, but the OH is not so keen, my dream of owning another GSD will be put on hold for now, this dog is for our daughter, and if we get a GSD I will claim it for sure, also means we can take a little bit of Australia back with us Will just make sure its from a good breeder, will also make sure it is a puppy so that it can get used to the cats at an early age.

Good news is we have rehomed all the kittens, managed to catch one of the feral females, she is now desexed and part of the family, the other two feral females are still a work in progress, we have borrowed a cat trap from one of the neighbours but no sucess as yet but early days, not sure what will happen to these two as they cannot be rehomed as they are extremely antisocial unlike the young ginger we have adopted, who we just picked up and brought inside, no need for a cat cage for her, pts may be the best option, will talk to the welfare group once they are caught.

[Greytmate]

Good news is we have rehomed all the kittens, managed to catch one of the feral females, she is now desexed and part of the family, the other two feral females are still a work in progress, we have borrowed a cat trap from one of the neighbours but no sucess as yet but early days, not sure what will happen to these two as they cannot be rehomed as they are extremely antisocial unlike the young ginger we have adopted, who we just picked up and brought inside, no need for a cat cage for her, pts may be the best option, will talk to the welfare group once they are caught.

That is good news.

The opinions I gave in this thread had nothing to do with your qualities as a dog owner.

It was pointing out the risks of attempting to keep dogs in an environment containing feral cats. Because you have already had problems with this to such an extent that you had to give away two dogs, and seemed reluctant to make necessary changes to avoid a repeat.

If the ferals are gone and you can supervise your dog's interactions with other animals, you have every chance of avoiding a situation where you might have to give away yet another dog.

It was when you put the welfare of feral cats above the welfare of your own dogs that people expressed concerns about the problem you had being repeated. Big opinions, but ones that have come from years of experience and knowledge about dog behaviour. That is what you get when you ask a question on DOL.

Glad to see you are being realistic about the feral cats, and once that is sorted I hope you enjoy your new dog.

[equerry]

I don't want to leave a feral cat problem for the new owners either, the neighbouring culprits have been reported, they now have a litter of mongrel pups as well, all of which I believe they are keeping without desexing sigh..... Why can people not get their animals desexed, its a one of fee and not that expensive in the whole scheme of animal ownership, over its whole lifetime its pittance.

HugL, no one told my GSD that she had to have a high prey drive either, she would have loved to have been a lap dog, sleeping and being by my side was her preferred past time, my old cat years ago had her extremely well trained.

[Monah]

cattle dog =