Need some serious help/advice fast.

[Camirab]

I just put an ACD (Australian Cattle Dog) puppy on hold. After much consideration, we decided to go with that as opposed to a Malinois. As requested by me, the puppy has high drive and moderately good conformation. My friend told me I'm being cruel by keeping a high drive puppy of a high drive breed when I'll be living in an apartment.

While an apartment isn't ideal, I will be home most of the day, every day. (I might be gone a couple of hours max 2 or 3 days a week). I still plan to schutzhund train, so it will have plenty of mental stimulation. I plan on daily walks and daily runs, as well as daily obedience training in puppyhood until it's old enough to start schutzhund. On weekends, my boyfriend and I would also take it hiking, the beach, dog parks, etc. This is the whole reason I wanted an active dog and why I was first considering a Malinois.

That being said, do you think the amount of time and exercise I would give it would make up for the apartment or do you think it would be really miserable. I'd rather lose my deposit and get a different breed that unknowingly torture a dog.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

I don't think it is a problem as long as the dog receives enough mental and physical stimulation to keep him busy. I know of people keeping high energy/needs dogs in apartments successfully. I think it all depends on you, and how committed you are.

 

[Maura]

An average ACD is a high energy dog. If you are getting a dog that is super high energy you may be getting more dog than you can handle. A farm dog is outside all day or much of the day, trotting around, sniffing, exploring, swimming, etc. Your dog's exercise will be scheduled, and this is where you MAY have a problem. Into your program try to incorporate indoor activities for your dog. This could include (if you feed kibble) using a Buster Cube for all of his meals. It could include hiding objects for him. to find while you are doing something else. Your dog will be very intelligent and you can trick train him to pick up objects and hand them to you, and so on. Since you are planning on daily walks and runs, work obedience routines into them, get him to jump over things, run circles around you, etc. Running by your side would be boring for this type of dog.

If you aren't already exercising this much, or nearly this much, you aren't going to start just because you have a dog. Having this type of dog inside much of the day is doable, as long as you know what you are getting yourself into.

 

[sammgirl]

ACDs are a very intense breed of herder, but if you can stick to your current plan I'd say you'd be fine.

 

[stardogs]

I have two ACD crosses (one may even be crossed with Mali lol) and live in a house with no yard - ime you can def train an "off switch" into them and mental exercise is worth way more to them than physical exercise, especially during adolescence. If you want to talk to other ACD people I really recommend the forum at AuCaDo .

 

[smkie]

Victor was a high drive insanely active pup. I lived in a house with a yard but no fence. which is about the same as an apt. The yard never would have been enough to excercise him anyway. WE had to be creative and dedicated to getting him the time and the place to run. It can be done, it isn't ideal, but it isn't impossible.

 

[Paige]

My friend's ACD lives in a small apartment right in the middle of the city. She loves it and has never known any different and has adjusted to city life with ease. She's more active than your average apartment dog but it's workable if you make it work.

 

[Zoom]

If you are highly dedicated to providing the mental and physical stimulation you know the pup is going to need, you should be fine. I had an Aussie and a Lab in a shoebox of a studio apartment and as long as we spent a good part of our day out at the dog park and did a bunch of mental games, all was fine.