Barking

I feel like I should start off with a photo for you:

This is a photo of Rippa (who I think is just hanging out by the truck because her mom is) and Fury waiting to go to stock lessons. Fury ALWAYS does this. She will run out and plant herself as flat as she can get right behind the tire of the truck to be sure I don’t leave without her.  It’s daaaaaaaaaamn cute. But of course, Fury is nothing if not cute.

So to clarify one thing I said in the last email about barking – someone asked when I said I was worried that Rippa would be a barker what that meant.

First off, being a barker isn’t really a bad thing, it’s mostly just annoying to Aussie people. Some dogs bark because they are talking, some bark because they aren’t focused enough, and some bark for extra power (Fury, for example, barks on cattle before she bites when she is working them and trying to get them to turn because she’s little and needs to be as powerful as possible).  There are some breeds (New Zealand Huntaways come to mind) that are selected for barking – the dogs will cast off into the brush to find the livestock and then bark while fetching them so that the handler on horseback or ATC can find them and help direct.

Aussies, however, for the most part were bred to work in open fields with very few obstacles hurting line of sight. The hills in the videos you see of us training are a good example of that  - most Aussie stockdogs were developed in the southwest with those conditions. Border Collies, for example, were bred in land that looks like this:

(That’s why Aussies have docked tails and BCs don’t, or at least one reason I usually offer. The fields are short, green, and not full of brush to snag tails.) They don’t need to bark because if you’re looking for stock, the BC is going to cast off and have no trouble bringing them back. Aussies, for the most part, work in this environment, too.

(I keep saying “for the most part.” Obviously a line depends on the needs of the breeder/handler and they weren’t worried about breed standards when this breed was developing. Some still aren’t. Some are, but it’s open to interpretation. Within stockdog lines, you find different working styles and emphasis for this reason.)

Anyway, so Rippa and Fury weren’t bred to bark. If they do, it’s not for a utilitarian purpose (aside from added power, but the dogs’ presence really can be enough). That’s why I said I was worried she would.