Need advice on a new ACD Questions

Alright guys, sorry this is a longer post but I could use some advice here. I'm looking to get an ACD and I'm curious on how well he/she would work out for me. I don't have time for a puppy but I was looking for a 1 or 2 year old. This would be my first ACD and I work 5 days a week between 40-50 hours per week as a welder. I do have an active lifestyle. I run everyday and love going out wheeling and shooting and stuff like that. (until i move out of state I am staying at my grandparents due to family medical issues). I've read that it is a terrible idea to get a ACD if your working and not home a lot and I've heard a lot of people make it work and it works great. So, how would this work? I plan on running with him everyday (at least 3 miles), obviously obedience training every day and I would like to find some type of herding competition or rally or something like that in my area as well. My plan would be wake up for work early around 330 or 4 am, go toss the ball and get some energy out, make sure his water is alright then go to work. I'd be gone like i said 8-10 hours a day. Come home, go running, and throw a frisbee or ball for a while, do some obedience training and just hang with him for the majority of the night till bed time. If I did go anywhere I'd load him up and take him for a car ride with me. I literally want to take this dog everywhere I go. When I'm gone at work my grandpa will probably go out there and keep him company a bit and help watch him a little (the old vet in him haha). This is the first job that i've had that wasn't a restaurant type setting so I have more freedom with him shadowing me everywhere.

A bit of background on myself. I've grown up around sheep, horses, dogs, cats, cows, birds, snakes, and turtles. My grandfather was a vet of 40 years we have owned around 15 dogs in my lifetime (I'm 20), specifically, 1 great dane, 2 cocker spaniels, 4 different labs, 1 border collie, 1 terrier, 2 different lab/dane mixes, 2 german short hairs (not including helping watch my grandpas old hunting dog and his wirehair griffon) and, 2 different beagles not to mention dog and puppy sitting for friends and family… Most of those dogs we've had from puppies and a few we rescued but ALL of them were at a decent sized yard (we didn't have all these dogs at once). I know how to train and take care of them so I'm not a novice and I have an extremely active lifestyle as far as running and working out goes.

I know this breed is a very intelligent highly active breed that bonds primarily to 1 or 2 people which is just what i'm looking for, however I'm worried keeping a dog like that kenneled up for 8+ hours a day could be rough, I've heard of plenty of people doing that and they have said it works just fine. I know I couldn't sit cooped up like that for more than an hour or so myself lol.

Sorry it was a long post haha. Anyway, does anyone have any insight?

As with any dog a bored dog can be a destructive dog regardless of breed.
Leaving a dog at home for 8-10 hours is not ideal, even well house trained dogs will need to go toilet & unless you have someone willing to go & let dog out throughout the day so they can go toilet & maybe take them walkies, if not them a cat will probably be better pet to have.

obviously yeah, they need to go out. How do people claim that their ACD can stay kenneled up all day then? Or are they talking about more of a dog run type kennel? 15ft L x 6ft W x 8 ft T?

If putting in kennel will there be cover if it get to hot or starts raining, where dog can go to keep cool stay dry.
Not sure where you live so don't know if there are any dangerous snakes - spiders- mountain lions- bears etc that can hurt your dog if kept outside in kennel, plus theres flystrike in really hot weather.

Not trying to put you off owning a dog, but you do need to make sure a dog is going to be a ideal pet for you.

It can be done, but a lot depends on the individual dog as well as the breed, 8/10 hours is a long time and it really needs someone to come every day and take him/her for a walk, bored dogs can become very destructive, can be very vocal and if you have neighbours it may not go down very well,you would need to take time off work to settle the dog in and try to establish a similar routine to when you will be working.

If you’re thinking on using a kennel then yes you would need to build a decent sized run, even then it’s still a long time to leave a dog on its own, and because it has a kennel and run doesn’t necessarily mean it will go to the toilet in it .

I'm not sure you understood what I was asking in the first post of the thread so I'll paraphrase. I am an experienced dog owner. I have had energetic breeds before (i.e. boxer collies, short hairs and a lot of hunt dogs alike), but they all have A YARD of 1-3 acres when family was at work or school. I was wondering, specifically pertaining to an Australian cattle dog, of course being properly trained, if they can manage hanging in a portable kennel while I'm at work at least until they can be trusted to roam in a designated area

No doubt, and yes before I move out of state I have roughly 5 or 6 months to really get bonded with the dog and get him trained, and I was planning on taking off about a week or 2 to get him used to the apartment as well as myself. I'm not concerned about now, he would get plenty of exercise and time with people as their is always someone home, I'm more conceded when I move… I only reason I ask is I've had dogs that love kennels and they wouldn't get hyper unless I was around them and I've had dogs that are wired all the time regardless if I was with them or not.

Assuming that you are in the US, exactly how much do you know about ACDs and their health problems?

Hi Brett, and welcome to the forum.
The best advice I can offer is to try and learn as much as you can about the breed first hand. The AKC website has a wealth of information on the breed, and you should be able to search on there for contact details for the ACD breed club.
If you are hoping to buy a puppy, it might be a good idea to make some links with a couple of breeders now, and ask them how they think a single ACD would cope in your location and circumstances. You would also need to know that there would be likely to be a puppy available at the time you are planning for. Perhaps you could spare a day to visit a show at which the breed is scheduled. The breed club would be able to advise you where and when.

Hip dysplasia, deafness, blindness from what I could find. As far as the breed itself, very active, intelligent breed that needs exercise of around 3-4 hours a day and mental stimulation but they do best with a job. Very loyal to 1 or 2 people but I've heard of them being friendly to strangers as well. I don't have kids but I've heard of them trying to heard younger children and I've had that happen to me at about age 4 a long time ago haha. I guess the majority of depends on the specific dog and how much socialization they see as a puppy/young dog.

Thanks! I haven't been around the forum much yet haha but I'll defiantly look around and try and talk to some breeders on the forum and in my area. Their is a flyball ground about 20 minutes from where I live that I was hoping to check out. They might have some information as well

Brett I know I am biased, but from what I have learned from the Epilepsy List is that ACDs are rapidly dropping in numbers due to epilepsy. At the moment I cannot contact them directly due to having changed [stupidly] t Windows 10 and lost all my email addresses, but I do have the private email address of one of the co-owners and if I can contact her I will ask for the address of The List - then you can ask for yourself if you would like.

There is a lot of information about which breeds are majorly affected, and ACDs are one of them.

That would be awesome…Is their a way to private message on here?

The US breed club can be found on,
www.acdca.org click on the word 'committee' to move on a page.

@CaroleC - I know what the US breed club say as it has been discussed in full by US owners of ACDs. And to be honest I prefer to accept what owners know and say because the breed club refuses to even admit that there is any epilepsy in their breed. They say their breed is clear.

In the words of Mandy Rice-Davis - "well they would, wouldn't they".

I went to the humane society today and found one, she's a very sweet girl but was very very reserved the first 10 or 15 minutes into the meet. Once she figured me out she wouldn't let me stop petting her. Every time I tried she would wiggle her muzzle under my hand and prop it up n her head lol. I think I'm going to try and get her tomorrow

@Malka My post was nothing to do with epilepsy - just a possible first hand contact for Brett.

@Brett Give it some thought, and still speak to people who have the breed. (A breed rescue co-ordinater is a good place to start).
If this girl is to be the one, I hope it works out well. Perhaps we'll see some photo's in due course.

Apologies for the misunderstanding Carole . I was rather concerned because I know what the breed club have said to people on the Epi List - which I am trying to get back on using my ISP address - Google may have stopped all my other email addresses [and Add-ons] but I do not think that even Google can stop Israel's main internet provider.

@Malka I had an odd issue with Google recently, and my daughter also said that she had been locked out of her account. Google were requesting a password, which we didn't know we had. I ended up clicking, 'forgotten password', and was asked for a mobile phone number. Google texted a 4 DigIt number to the phone, which then restored my access to Google. Hope this helps - I know you are far more PC savvy than me!

Sorry for the off topic comment. Back to ACD's.
Although our (UK) KC seems to only demand PRA testing for the assured breeder scheme, there is a list of other recommended tests relating to eyes, hips, elbows and deafness. Googling for epilepsy in the breed, does bring up sufficient references which would make me want to do some further research if I was thinking of having an ACD. The site AuCaDo seemed to be quite interesting. Whether the incidence of epilepsy is greater than for similar pastoral breeds, I do not know, certainly it is a major problem in Border Collies.