"Too many dogs, not enough cattle."
We found out very early on in our little ranching adventure on a tiny plot of 10 acres, that one or two steers with a bad attitude is enough to make you want to either get more dogs or keep a rifle on hand. At that time, we had only been doing this for a year, had one dog, one UTV, and 3 people trying to corral some loose steers on our property. We very quickly realized that we needed more dogs, and to learn how to train them. Our first Aussie named Whiskey was a show-bred rescue that we brought to Texas with us from Florida. He showed us many times over that he was willing to work, but if he got inflicted with just the slightest evil eye from livestock, it would take an act of congress to get him over that fear to work them again. So in January of 2024, we decided we needed to find true working bred Australian Shepherds to help us out with our growing pastured meat operation. Like every animal on our farm, it needs to be able to earn its keep, but also be able to replace itself, and that included breeding Aussies that were good enough that we would want to keep them for our own operation. I reached out to a few breeders and everyone recommended Susan Boyd from Boyd Ranch Aussies over everyone else. And that's where we started. We got on a waitlist for two spring 2024 pups out of Cowpuncher and Catty. We brought home Moonshine (Shiney) and Kamikaze (Kazi) in June of 2024. The rest of the story is just starting to unfold with both of these girls getting more and more adapted to help out in every unique facet of this micro-ranch.
Genetics, Instinct, and Partnership
Adding two working bred Aussies to our operation was the best decision we ever made. Granted, getting two females from the same litter presented some serious challenges with hot tempers and hormones between two female pups, it was something we have been able to help these girls overcome and have ourselves learned how to manage. Watching these two mature and their genetic capabilities and instincts unfold has not only been rewarding, it has been the biggest addition of time back into our pockets. Because we rotationally graze cattle with pigs and chickens behind them, daily moves is chaos without these dogs. Cows are usually pretty easy to move, as well as pigs. Chickens, ducks, and turkeys on the other hand tend to wander before you can get everything moved. The dogs help keep them within the bounds of the move. The dogs also help put cows back into the electric polywire fence and move stray pigs back into their fenced area during a move when we don't bring quite enough feed to keep them in place. The dogs understand their roles very well during pasture moves, keeping cattle off of us while we get hay bales out, pen work in the barn during goat breeding and weaning, loading hogs for the butcher into the trailer, and even finding wayward poultry! At the end of the day, they're ready to wind down on the porch with a glass of iced tea as much as we are!
The Future of Our Program
While these two girls are reaching an appropriate age for breeding and are still honing their stock working skills, we are just now beginning our search for a sire for future litters. Both girls have OFA Good Hips by parentage as well as Normal eyes, and normal MDR1. Both have proven themselves to be very stock savvy, biddable, yet independent enough to think and learn on their own. We have a stud in mind for Shiney for a 2026 Spring or Fall litter, but still need a stud or to purchase a male for Kazi. We would like to have a red bi/tri male for the both of them, but will certainly use studs or AI if we need to. Keep an eye on our social media and our profile on Good Dog as we approach that timeframe!
Boyd Ranch Aroura Moonshine
Shiney is the absolute superstar of our three Aussies. Smart, calm, biddable, she exemplifies all of the things I saw in the Boyd Ranch line of dogs when I visited Susan's ranch and also when I saw one of their dogs from a previous litter show off his skills at a training workshop that I went to. That's one of the traits that I love most about the Boyd Ranch dogs... they're CALM Aussies. No neuroticism. No freaking out when they're not put in to work. They're not perfect all the time, but they are a far-cry better than a lot of the almost psychotic Aussies I've seen! Shiney showed us tenacity as a pup when we put her in with baby goats when she was 3 months old and one heck of a drive to work! At 7 months old, I challenged her to fetch our goat herd of about 17 head at the time from all the way at the back of our property and to bring them all back to the front where the barn in. It took her a couple of minutes to figure out where they were, but after she caught on, all by herself, she did it! She brought all 17 back to the barn. Of the two girls, she is the most biddable. She shows a lot of prowess to do trial work as well.
Boyd Ranch April Kamikaze
Kazi is the sweet, lovable, goober in this pack. To be honest, we wondered for a long time if she had any potential as a stock dog. Then, when she was about 7 months old, all of a sudden, out of the blue, it just "clicked" and she started showing us just what she was made of! Though she's not as calm as her sister and it takes a lot of work to break her concentration off of stock at the moment, she's been able to work through that and learn impulse control. Though she's not perfect, she is a very capable independent thinker and has taught us to trust her. She knows what she's doing, but is biddable enough to listen to us when we need her to change what or how she is doing something. She's a lot more methodical than her sister, too. While Shiney likes to run in with guns blazing, Kazi will slowly and calmly work the stock. Birds are Kazi's biggest challenge though and is where she really struggles to break her concentration, but who can blame her? Crazy birds are a huge temptation for a dog! Yet she's always manageable enough to get the job done!
