Polly

[den]

I have discovered why Polly has been digging tiny hols all over the lawn. At first I thought she was being a BADDOG and kept sending her to the kennel, but watching her after the rain I discovered why she dug the holes.

Crickets.

She's after crickets! Red and Blue cattledogs (and red-and-blue cattledogs) have a lot of dingo in their ancestry. Dingoes are carnivores who also eat insects and berries, very much like a fox does.

I watched Polly stalk around the yard, staring at the ground with her ears cocked, then she'd freeze, sit back slowly, and POUNCE the cricket. Both front feet would smack the ground and she'd dig like mad, then shove her nose in the hole. I don't know if she's eating the crickets but the instinct is there.

Comments

[odiedragon.livejournal.com]

After your most recent Polly post, I went digging in your hournal to find out just what kind of dog Polly is. We think our dog is part blue healer/Australian Cattle Dog/whatever, so I'm always curious to find out about "similar" dogs. And given the chance he LOVES to dig too, though I've never seen him actually find anything.

He's some combination of cattledog, Australian shepherd (which arn't Australian at all, sadly), and/or border collie.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered abd "Australian Shepherds." I've asked people about the breed and I get a WTF look.

Your doggie would pass as a cattledog if he wasn't so fluffy.

[odiedragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so too. That's where the shepherd/border collie part comes in, I think.

They were developed from dogs brought over from Australia I believe, and mixed with other breeds by western US ranchers.

http://www.herdingontheweb.com/shepherd.htm