Wife made an important discovery this morning

[Indy]

You can't win a staring contest with an Australian Shepherd.

 

I could've saved her a lot of time by telling her not to try, but where is the fun in that.

 

For those that may not know, the intense stare is one of their best tricks used in herding,  Intensely staring down the animal they are herding to get them to turn around and it worked again as the wife finally turned around.

[Longjohn ★]

Our Aussie would stare at us until we agreed to take her for ice cream.

[Indy]

19 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Our Aussie would stare at us until we agreed to take her for ice cream.

So you went out for ice cream often I take it.

[Longjohn ★]

12 minutes ago, Indy said:

So you went out for ice cream often I take it.

Yes, she was quite spoiled. Most of the time we didn’t buy any for ourselves 

[groupw]

We had a border collie. Same thing. Still a little unclear of the difference even after having 1 for 15 years!

 

[12string]

I use that on my Aussie when she's not cooperating.  She knows the drill, I point to my eyes, we stare until I tell her OK.  Just long enough to get her focused again.  Then she looks away before I do, she learned early that's the way it goes.  Probably because it only happens when she's not doing something she's supposed to

[Indy]

1 hour ago, groupw said:

We had a border collie. Same thing. Still a little unclear of the difference even after having 1 for 15 years!

 

I have had several of both, Australian Shepherds are an American off shoot of a Border Collie.  The came about because Border Collies had trouble standing up to rough terrain on the long cattle drives out west.  So they bread a beefed up version.  So what's the difference between a Border Collie and Aussie, Aussie's aren't as lean, tend to be thicker, stronger and more rough and tumble, but characteristics are basically the same.  The bobbed tail came about because Aussies then to be wild with their tails and they got torn up on rocks, people are now realizing that they look good with tails and more are starting to live them on.  Easiest way to tell them apart though, Aussies ears, the tips of them will droop and flop around.  Borders stand up clear to the very tip.

I will say, I've always had better luck with Aussies when it comes to herding.  We used to use them on the farm to move pigs between barns, the Aussies seemed to work independently more, just tell them which pig and where you wanted them to go and it was done.  With the Border's I always had to give them constant direction and telling them where I wanted them so they would take the pig the right way.  Now I will admit, probably a lot of that was training as the Aussies we seemed to always get as puppies and the Borders we always got them from a rehoming situation and seemed to be always around 2 years old when we got them.

Currently I have one Border and two Aussies.

[Scrapr ★]

3 hours ago, Longjohn said:

Our Aussie would stare at us until we agreed to take her for ice cream.

I am staring at you right now

*^strawberry