Susie Q

Here is a story from August, 1998, Susie and her littermate are barely eight weeks old: Yesterday I took the puppies down to the picnic area to exercise. As we arrived there, a woman arrived from the opposite direction walking her two dogs. She had an elderly Irish Setter and a cur-looking dog that may have been part Rhodesian Ridgeback. The cur raised his hackles at the pups and I thought for a minute that he was planning on having puppy for lunch, then Durango took offense and begin to tell him just whose picnic area it was. The cur tucked his tail and ran off the other direction!

Durango

Susie Q

I called Durango off, and we went the other direction, then the Irish Setter took it upon himself to annoint one of the trees in the picnic area. This affront was more than Durango could stand and he ran to the picnic area, planted his front feet on the wall and proceeded to tell the Irish Setter to GO PEE ON HIS OWN TREE!

I went to retreive him, but Durango assumed that I was there for backup, and took off after the dogs, the cur began to run again and at this point Susie Q joined in and they began to herd the big dummies, I finally caught the puppies and picked them up and we proceeded in opposite directions!

As an adult, Susie Q would give any BC a run for their money in trials, she is on that herding end of the ES spectrum.

My Susie Q, bred by Dolores Butcher is as close to perfect as they get! I just returned from a two week vacation in WI, and the friends we left her with offered me $5000 for her. (of course that was way too little! ;-)

Our grandkids took her out to play fetch and when they threw the ball out of her territory (we have about an acre here) she refused to fetch it until I came and asked her to!

Susie is very intelligent and has a very high desire to please. The intelligence can be very difficult for someone who doesn't know dogs to deal with. The way they herd and tend their charges through dominance can also be very challenging to someone who doesn't know dog language thoroughly, but for someone who does, I don't think there is a better breed out there.