My wife has has fallen in love with a 3 month old blue lacy that a farmer is wanting to give away because he's having trouble with her chomping on the legs of his sheep.  

We don't have land.  

A few years ago we were intending on getting some land and some sheep but due to the economy we weren't sure we would be able to afford it, so to play it safe we decided to go with an F2 hybrid (Great American Cattle Dog) rather than a purebred border collie.  We got him at 3 months of age, and with careful training to never cross a street without being at heel, and bringing him up with as much love and child contact as we can find for him, he has adjusted well to being taken out for a walk in our small town every day without a leash and has never nipped at any children to "herd" them.  

 I understand that blue lacy's are more "wild" so I'm wondering how she will adjust with similar training and treatment.

 

Hello,

Lacys are extremely intelligent. With some good training she would probably be fine. Is she full blood? What size yard do you have? She will need plenty of excercise! 

 

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What can a Lacy Dog not do?

She's full blood. Sire from the the Lacy ranch the way I hear it.  I asked for papers.  

Its a reasonably good sized yard but the way I exercise my cattle dog is to walk him to the edge of town where the country opens up and let him run in the fields. Its usually about an hour of running 'wild'.  I maximize freedom by commanding "heel" only when stepping into a road and then "free" again when stepping off the road.  

 

I feel confident about that.  My main problem is making sure she has lots of contact with different children so she learns they're part of the pack rather than herding them.  She's already got a problem nipping sheep so I need to stop this while she's young. 

I think you'll do fine.  you obviously have the experience and ability to train a dog obedience.  My lacy Rooster is alittle over a year and is nearly "push button".  if you're persistent, and consistent im sure it'll work out.

 

-travis

Travis:

You should post a couple of pic of Rooster on the forum sometime. 

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TLGDA Breeder

You aren't wealthy, until you've experienced something no amount of money can buy
(979)557-6334 or (979)557-6264

wild?  no, unless you don't train, which doesn't seem to be a problem.  Training and exercise are key.

I wonder why a 3 month old Lacy is "chomping" on the legs of a sheep.  Seems kinda young to be that aggressive on stock. 

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Crescent Moon Ranch
Raising quality commercial calves

Well I don't know if "chomping" is the right word since all I know is whatever she was doing it wasn't what the guy with the sheep wanted out of a 3 month old.  Maybe it was just the normal "nipping" that cattle dogs do to cows, but is inappropriate for sheep.

 

We took her in, BTW.  She's got an 'edge' to her personality That's the way our other (1/4 border collie, 3/4 Australian shepherd) dog was at 3 months when we got him and the edge turned out to be wonderful personality when trained. 

Was she really chomping or just wool pulling?   Sometimes the sheep guys are so pro-border collie that they are very un-accepting and narrow minded about other breeds' herding styles.  So any dog crowding up on the sheep is frowned on, and mouthing no matter how light they are all over it. 

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A tired dog is a GOOD dog.

He had cattle.  I think he wanted the Blue Lacy for that.  But, like I said, I only know what he told me was the reason he wanted to give her away.  The prior owners had previously been breeders but ran into some serious financial problems and ended up unable to give their pups proper medical care.  When they gave her away, she had a belly full of worms.  When he got her he took her to a vet who I talked to and he said he gave her a course of Drontal Plus.  My vet just today said he was skeptical that course was complete so we're starting her on another course -- this time of Strongid T Wormer.  (We had to wait a day due to her getting her puppy shots today which the vet said can cause complications if you pile on the wormer.)