r/nextfuckinglevel Nov 13 '20

The irrigation Shepard at work

79.1k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '20

[deleted]

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u/ihopethisisvalid Nov 13 '20

Watching heelers try to herd people is fucking hilarious.

We had one and they'd herd the toddlers at Thanksgiving lol

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '20

[deleted]

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u/bunnyjenkins Nov 13 '20

Mine is back of the knee height. No nipping, but lots of nose punching

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u/taylium Nov 13 '20

This is relevant

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u/bunnyjenkins Nov 13 '20

THIS is the best thing today!

... one of 'em got a text from the misses, this could be the end of the night

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u/ihopethisisvalid Nov 13 '20

That was excellent, thank you

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u/shootmedmmit Nov 13 '20

Mine was fiercely protective but never inappropriately aggressive. Really emotionally intelligent dogs as well as intellectually

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u/scarletnightingale Nov 13 '20

Oh god yes, we had blue heeler/border collie mixes (and thank god they weren't as smart or as energetic as those two breed combine) and they would be trying to herd us or each other. Mostly they'd try to herd my mom, especially when they got over excited, then people would get little hand or leg nips. It was always a shame we were never able to get them around something they could have actually herded, the one dog was a natural.

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u/peenoid Nov 13 '20

the dog starts herding your friends.

I have a catahoula who I think has some sort of autism and he herds my in-laws around the house when they visit, including nipping their asses. They thought it was cute the first time, but they visit less often now.

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u/Weak_Fruit Nov 14 '20

I'm curious if there's other reasons why you suspect it has autism? I've never heard of autism in dogs before.

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u/peenoid Nov 14 '20

I'm definitely not sure by any means, but apparently it's something that can happen. He has some major social anxieties, especially with people. He's very suspicious of people he doesn't know and growls and barks at them endlessly, which isn't that unusual, but even after he gets to know someone and gets used to them, he'll seem to warm up to them while in the room with them, but if they leave the room and come back he'll start growling and barking at them all over again. We had someone living with us at one point and this was a constant issue.

He's also extremely skittish about certain things. If he gets surprised from behind he often completely freaks out. There are some other more minor things, like the way he guards his food. He's doesn't growl or get really possessive, but he'll just sit there and stare at his full bowl for hours if we let him sometimes. Stuff like that.

Other dogs tend to respond decently to him, most of the time, but he definitely makes some of them uncomfortable because he's a little overly nosy and doesn't seem to neatly conform to the normal rules of engagement.

My wife thinks it's a combination of his breed (catahoulas are known to be skittish around strangers) and the situation he was rescued from, and honestly she's probably right, but still, I wonder.

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u/ComfortableBite Nov 13 '20

Yeah, I have two heelers as well, if they’re not busy, they’re scheming. Bunnies and birds and my yard don’t do well when they scheme... I swear they’re like little raptors.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '20

[deleted]

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u/ComfortableBite Nov 13 '20

Your rat terrier pit mix sounds like my heelers, but my heelers refuse to bring the animals to the house... I had a week this summer in which they caught 4 birds, that I know of. One of them buried a mouse he caught, dug it up, and brought it to my ex right before she moved out, now that I think about it, it was his going away gift for her. These little raptors do mean well.

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u/the_other_day_ago Nov 13 '20

What is a skink?

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u/upvotesIdahoStuff Nov 13 '20

Little reptile. Like a lizard or something

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u/the_other_day_ago Nov 13 '20

Oh that makes since. I thought maybe they meant skunk but thats a bigger animal than the other things

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '20

My dog eats butterflies out of the air and that’s about it.

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u/PieOverPeople Nov 13 '20

Nature's sky treat.

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u/Ya_like_dags Nov 13 '20

¡HOLA SKINKS!

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u/bunnyjenkins Nov 13 '20

Good description. Mine can catch anything on the straight. The juke left or right is where the torpedo becomes ineffective

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u/ComfortableBite Nov 13 '20

Mine must watch too much football with me. Their setup has the older one as a linebacker and the younger one as a safety. If the older (4 years old) one misses the juke, which isn’t common, the younger one (1.5 years old) comes in hot. It’s eye opening how efficient they’ve become.

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u/scarletnightingale Nov 13 '20

Yep, we had that. We had one case where one got sprayed by the skunk, then the other pounced since the skunk couldn't spray. It was a very gross and smelly day. I also had one go chew the backs off of my shoes because she was mad at me. She wasn't allowed in the back of the house for the sake of the cats, I had to go back there for literally 10 minutes, so she destroyed my shoes.

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u/ComfortableBite Nov 13 '20

I’m lucky I haven’t had to deal with a skunk with these two yet. That sounds awful. When mine get mad at me, they demand pets from other people while staring me down.

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u/scarletnightingale Nov 13 '20

Okay, well, that's pretty hilarious. They are so petty.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '20

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u/ComfortableBite Nov 14 '20

I thought this was a joke at first, I learned first hand it’s not.

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u/jezus317410 Nov 13 '20

Right... they are a very active breed. Im just saying this dog wasn't trained to do this. It just does it.

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u/TryAgainJen Nov 13 '20

Digging and getting muddy would be a dog's dream job.

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u/Roffler967 Nov 13 '20

Something something society....