# Wet horses and the next generation of cowdogs



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Just snapped a few pictures yesterday while I was doing chores. We were forecast with 5-8 inches of snow but all we got yesterday was a lot of rain. Ended up with 1-2 inches of snow last night but I haven't got any pix from today. If I get some this afternoon, I'll just add them on to this thread.

Even though it was raining, the horses were more concerned with just standing around eating than trying to get to shelter...



























All the boys in the big pasture...































































The horse that has been lovingly dubbed "*******" is enjoying his turnout in the small paddock.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

And, just snapped a few pictures of the puppies. They are about 8 weeks old now and are growing like weeds. Kiba (the one with the brown) is about twice the size of his sister, Syl. She is the runt but it's more than that, he's just a freak of nature LOL.


Tobi, the black one on the right, has already perfected the "puppy dog eye" look ROFL.































Here, the one on the right is Syl, the lone female.










You can see how much bigger Kiba is compared to the other two.




















And just snapped a couple pix of our "demon dogs" LOL. I am really looking forward to when we get cattle in the spring. We've got a tougher group of dogs right now than we've ever had.


Joker










Bub


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## Country Woman (Dec 14, 2011)

very nice pictures of the horses 
and very adorable pictures of the puppies


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## stylemichelle21 (Nov 9, 2011)

Jeez, you got a full house! Your horses and pups are all beautiful!


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## VanillaBean (Oct 19, 2008)

OH MY PUPPIES!!! I love puppies!!

Nice horses, too. Love the black one. John, right?


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

YOU MEANY. DONT YOU KNOW HORSES SHRINK IN THE RAIN AND TURN IN TO PUPPIES.. oh, you did? my bad!

Lovely looking pups, especially the 'eyes' one.. so adorable!

And your herd looks more than happy enough... way to a horse's heart is through its stomach after all ;D


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## Casey02 (Sep 20, 2011)

aww the dogs dont have to stay chained up do they?  otherwise dam adorable pictures! And you are right that black dog has the puppy look DOWN


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

Casey02 said:


> aww the dogs dont have to stay chained up do they?  otherwise dam adorable pictures! And you are right that black dog has the puppy look DOWN



If they're working dogs.. whats the problem :/

Chain, lunge line, leather lead... which is less likely to snap lol.. chain. Dogs look happy and healthy!

Wish mine would pose, yours are so lovely.. he just puts his nose in the lens!


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## csimkunas6 (Apr 18, 2010)

Rafe is growing like a weed! He looks bigger and bigger every time you post pics up of him! Your horses look like they could care less about the rain.

The puppies are adorable!!!!! Look forward to more pics!


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

Awwww puppies! Good pics, bet they enjoyed the rain, been awhile hasn't it?


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## cakemom (Jul 4, 2010)

Beautiful one and all!


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Thanks guys .

Casey, yes they do have to stay chained up. Since they are working dogs with a very high drive, they would spend all their time "herding" our horses and going to the neighbors pasture to work his cattle. Not a way to stay on good terms with the neighbor LOL.

Yes, I think they did rather enjoy the rain, even if I really didn't. If only we could get the moisture without everything at the barn turning to a soupy mess:lol:.

Duffy, I think your dog is adorable.

Csim, I think you're right, he does seem bigger every single day. I think he might have grown a bit more, I need to stick him again. Even if he isn't taller, I can tell he is certainly thicker. His chest is starting to get pretty broad .


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## lucky2008 (Aug 17, 2010)

DuffyDuck said:


> YOU MEANY. DONT YOU KNOW HORSES SHRINK IN THE RAIN AND TURN IN TO PUPPIES.. oh, you did? my bad!
> 
> Lovely looking pups, especially the 'eyes' one.. so adorable!
> 
> And your herd looks more than happy enough... way to a horse's heart is through its stomach after all ;D


Because of this.comment I had a dream where puppies could turn into horses!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## kait18 (Oct 11, 2011)

i LOVE your pictures of your animals!!! so beautiful


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## Casey02 (Sep 20, 2011)

Ok, nice to nice to now smobs!! Yeah i guess that wouldnt be a good way to have the neighbors love you


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Cool smrobs!

What kind of pups?


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

Thanks smrobs.. you want him rofl, he KNOWS he's cute. Last night I closed my door. 3am he was on my bed again, knowing i'd stirred and wagging his tail like a mad one xD


and lucky glad to be fo dream service


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## MangoRoX87 (Oct 19, 2009)

Rain THEN snow? Geez, I bet ya'lls place is a muddy mess!!! Send some of that snow our way please! I'm tired of rain!


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Chick, they are Border Collies .

Mango, we ended up only getting 1-2 inches of snow. On top of the ~2 inches of rain we already had, that didn't make it _that_ much worse LOL.


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

smrobs said:


> Chick, they are Border Collies .
> 
> Mango, we ended up only getting 1-2 inches of snow. On top of the ~2 inches of rain we already had, that didn't make it _that_ much worse LOL.


Oh I thought they were a BC cross because they are multi colored.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Nope, they are all full-blooded. Our main stud dog, Bill, carries the gene for the brown highlights and also for red coat colors. The female that these pups are out of is red and she also carries the brown highlight gene . There is always at least _one_ of her pups that comes out tri-colored, though this one has a lot more than average.


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

Alls I can say is they're bloomin' lovely.

My dad saw them and said 'good lookin' dogs- but don;t you reckon three is enough? A pup isn't just for christmas.. if you ration it'll last till new year too' hahaha gotta love parents!


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

smrobs said:


> Nope, they are all full-blooded. Our main stud dog, Bill, carries the gene for the brown highlights and also for red coat colors. The female that these pups are out of is red and she also carries the brown highlight gene . There is always at least _one_ of her pups that comes out tri-colored, though this one has a lot more than average.



That is cool! They sure are purdy!
Do they have any bite in them on cattle?

Sorry I am asking so many questions....I love a good cowdog as much as a good cowhorse! I can appreciate the time it takes to put into a good dog.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

LOL, if only he knew that we currently have 9 dogs on top of the 3 puppies :wink:. But, I do have a reason for that, they are actual working dogs that help us with cattle during the summer. 4 good dogs can easily handle 150+ head of wild cattle. Keeps us from having to run our horses completely down into the ground.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Sorry for the double post. Chick, yes they do have some serious bite when it's needed. We've been breeding our own for about 20 years and have picked the traits more suitable for working cattle like courage and bite. We started off with dogs that had been bred for and raised on sheep and we had hell working cattle with them. They would flank way out and the cattle would run off before the dog got ahead of them. They would also back down from a cow whenever it came at them a little bit. After generations of breeding for the tougher dogs, we've got them to where they flank in close and will tear a cow up if it tries to fight.

Just for grins and giggles, these vids are from a couple of years ago when some of our dogs were still rather green. I planned to get more vids this summer, but with the drought, we ended up not getting any cattle LOL. Maybe next summer.


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

Great vids! Love watching dogs work. That's the biggest reason I go bird hunting with my hubby, I do actually hunt but get just as much enjoyment out of watching the dogs


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Robs, I have been trying to watch these videos and my computer is throwing a rigging fit,LOL. Hopefully when it decides to play nice I can take a look!


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## Gallop On (May 1, 2011)

Wow, you have a ton of horses  And those puppies are so adorable! And fluffy  What breed are they?


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Gallop, they are Border Collies.


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## Gallop On (May 1, 2011)

Border Collies, seriously? I thought they were Australian Shepard's :lol:


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Nope, just Collies. We've had an Aussie or two over the years but I just prefer the BCs.


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Beautiful BC's smrobs  
We love our borders too, current one was a farm bred border, but as he grew up we found that he's a bit... erm... 'special'! Nothing like our old border that would round up the sheep day and night unless we locked him in. 
Cobber prefers to sleep on his own personal lounge chair all day, he also plays soccer, 'talks', and is petrified of loud noises, horses, sheep etc. The most he'll chase is the kids rabbits, but never actually does anything to them, just follows. 
Silly ******, but he's a sweety so he's here to stay 

ETA: I forgot the cross dressing... he is quite partial by being dressed up in skirts and dresses by the kids :/


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Aw, he's a beauty!


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## AngieLee (Feb 20, 2011)

awe love the horses and dogs! adorable puppies. i didnt read all three pages, but are some of the puppies named after characters in Wolfs Rain or is that just coinsadence? lol


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Nope, not a coincidence at all. I've been waiting for the right puppy to name Kiba and he just happened to come along this time.


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

I got my computer co-operating tonight so I got to watch you ride colts and work your dogs!

I love your dogs, they got some bite. And no bark!!!

Mine does a little too, but I notice with her if I havent worked her for a while, like now shes been off, she has waaay too much eye. I find it a little frustrating.
I dont mind some eye to give a warning but I dont want to sit there all day in a stare off. When she is worked on a regular basis that goes and she is more bite.

She is more a heel dog dog, but I had her built her confidence for heading and doing well. I would love to breed her to a strong biting dog to see what I get.

We had a big strong Hanging Tree dog and we bred her to him, we sold all the pups except one and unfortunately the first time I took the pup out that we kept for the first day and worked good..hubby ran him over on accident. So you know he was going to be a good dog...you cant kill a bad dog....oh well.

Do you stand your male dogs up for stud?


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## MangoRoX87 (Oct 19, 2009)

My dog has "courage". Mainly I just call it stupidity on her part lol XD


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Chick, yeah, it took a lot of years and generations to get some BCs that would go for the head. Our old male, Bill, is the one with the most eye. If left to his own devices, he'll just stand and stare at one that is faced off with him. BUT, we can give a single word or whistle and he'll jump right in LOL.

We normally don't stand our studs for public breeding. Mostly because the folks that want dogs only want one or two so they go for puppies, but also because those that already have dogs also have their own ideas of what "good" breeding is, same as we do, and they want a more _traditional_ type BC with the wide flanking and the eye instead of bite.


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