Missy's Life

Missy at 2 months old.

Missy was the runt out of a litter of Nine. She was very tiny, and we didn't think she would make it. Her mother "Jake", was my dog and is now my mothers. I could not separate Jake from her brother, so we bred her, and I took a female. Missy was very cute right from the start, and she was very smart also. She had to be to survive 8 siblings. Missy's litter mates consisted of 6 males and 2 other females. Missy is the only one that is not fixed. Her mom is blue, and her dad "Taz" is red & blue. Missy took after her dad's build. She has a very stalky neck, and square set shoulders and hips.

Missy Six months old.

Missy thinks that she is a BIG dog. She was raised the first 4 1/2 years of her life with a German Shepard. This is where I first noticed that she would have been an excellent cattle ranch dog. Every time our Shepard would play fetch, Missy would be healing her back to us. She actually helped us train the Shepard to bring the ball back. Missy loves to go on horse back rides with us, but we do a lot of dune riding and my horse loves to run. So, when Missy gets tired she will run up the trail and wait for us. When we get up to her she will jump up into the saddle of my 16 hand horse. She does this from a stand still.

Missy resting with other dogs while on a trail ride.

I started training Missy in Search and Rescue in the summer of 1995. At first I was just going to try, because my husband was training his Shepard for Search & Attack. Well, it turned out that Missy was better at the searching than the Shepard. However, she would not have made a good police attack dog, when she found the people she licked them gently and then jumped all over me. She is so willing to please, usually you give a reward at the end like their favorite toy, etc. Missy's reward was jumping on me and me petting her and telling her how good she was.

Missy & Kirstyn cuddling.

A lot of people describe their ACD's as shadows. Missy is definetly my shadow. She is everywhere I am. I would never need a leash, if it wasn't for the leash laws. She also loves to go in the vehicles. Even if it's a quick trip down to the grocery store, she loves to go. I would not know what to do without Missy. She is very much a part of my families life. She is very protective of my daughter and I, so when we go for walks I never feel unsafe. She does not bark unless she thinks there might be a problem. She is a very good judge of character. As you can see we are very fond of Miss Priss.