BlueSkyRagdolls Wrote:We've decided against the chihuahua breed because they're too tiny for the likes of our little one (he's 3).
We have decided to go with a medium sized breed. We're going with a miniature australian shepherd. I go on bike rides often, and in the winter, I cross country ski so I find myself to be an active person. These guys like to herd, but with training, we can teach him or her not to do so.
We're waiting till our kittens leave to get our dog because we dont want to stress out the mama-cats at all.
I have been loved by Old English Sheepdogs, most of my life. They are a part of the herding group. They are amazingly smart dogs, but the herding instinct is very, very strong in them. We went to many classes with our sheepies for training and we were very pleased with the outcome. However, our son was very young at the time, and they were very protective, which was good, but they would bump into him to keep him in the "circle" that they felt was his boundaries. They were really careful for the most part, but there was times when they were puppies, that they would take off running and would take the legs out from under our son, and knock him to the ground. Before training, they looked at the cats and kittens as something to protect and herd. They learned word commands as well as hand signals, which after a lot of consistant training they were the most perfect furry family members we have had. You will have a lot of work on your hands, and many times, if you don't put forth the time or energy to keep going forward with training, you will have a very unruly dog on your hands. Many people will give up on their dog, because of the true nature of the herding breed. I don't want to dissuade you from the breed, but to just let you know the complications to expect from the herding group with your young son, your cats, as well as the consistancy and training that will need to be started as soon as he/she comes into your family and will need to be continued. It may be worth thinking of waiting until your son is a little older before adopting a dog. We had each gender, both spayed and neutered, and it seemed our female seemed to be more of the herder and protector of the two. She was also the hardest to train, where our boy was very easy to train, but that could have been just our own personal experience.
I just wanted to share my experience with the herding group. Sadly, our sheepdog, Jack, passed 2 years ago, of cancer. I can't tell you how difficult it was to lose him for our whole family. His sister, Annabelle is still healthy and doing well, but the loss of her brother has affected her as well. I think if I had to have done it over, I would of had our children a little older, before adopting a dog, but we still had fun raising them together, it was just a lot of work.
I want to wish you the best with your search. Keep us posted. If you have any questions, on training, please feel free to ask. We learned a lot about training, and most of it was very affective with the herding group.
Purrs,
Stormi