welcome to the site
“if you’re uncomfortable around my dog, i’m happy to lock you in the other room when you come over.”
— Unknown
welcome to cattledog.city, my (fox's) spot on the web to post about my various pets.
my dogs are lizzie, a 2 year old cattledog mix, & soon - ellie, a show & sport prospect finnish lapphund. i'm a dog trainer - with a focus in coopertive care training & trick training, as well as any confidence-building type of training. herding dogs are my favorite dog type!
in general i like when dogs (& animals in general, if you count my non-dog pets) have an attitude & talk back to me. i really like when dogs have the intelligence to know what i'm saying and can say "hm. no. i think that's stupid, i don't want to do that." - type of thinking for themselves. really, i'd prefer to not have an ultra-biddable "i'll do whatever you say, even if it involves something dangerous" type of dog -- hence why i strongly prefer herding breeds, primitive breeds, & livestock guardian dogs. no shade to dogs who fall into the oppsite category, lol, i do like any/all breeds of dog in practice. love all of the little house beasts <3
i do all of my training through a force-free/R+ lens, primarily, though i suppose in general i'd be considered as a LIMA trainer. my personal training opinions, to be specific: i use toy & food rewards, my dogs wear harnesses that give them full freedom of movement in their bodies, & i use long lines both as a daily leash & for training. i do not use prong collars, e-collars, "easy-walk" harnessess / gentle leaders, retractable leashes. i'm conditionally okay with slipleads, martingale collars, on a case-by-case basis - though my personal dogs don't use them because i don't see a need for them to. i believe all dogs should be muzzle trained (with a properly fitted muzzle.)- yes, that includes your 4 year old golden retriever who is "perfect" and "would never hurt a fly" & your grandparents chihuahua. i'd rather dogs be comfortable wearing a muzzle and never needing it than have one forced onto them in a high-stress situation and panic even more (plus -- now you can get cute custom ones in fun colors!)
look at how cute lizzie is in her rainbow muzzle. it even says "best friend" on the front! we got it from big snoof dog gear - they're one of my top favorite companies for fun dog gear - i've also got two of their long lines & i've been really happy with quality of everything from them so far.
lizzie's gear:
- collar & harness from tags for hope - very solid gear, especially for a short coated dog. no complaints, though ellie will have different main gear due to coat differences. lizzie doesn't have any matting because her fur is so short, so any gear style works for her. lizzie also has a big tag from the same company attached to her harness.
- 4 ft leash & 8 ft leash, also from tags for hope - same as collar & harness, good leashes. i like the traffic handles on them, & the 4ft leash has a "in training" leash wrap on it (from amazon) - this will be replaced with a "ask to pet"/"ask to approach" leash wrap soon when i find one i like the wording of. my daughter doesn't like strangers approaching her on leash, lol. she's okay with most people (except small children & heavily bearded men).... her favorite strangers to interact with are older (60+) women for some reason.
- 15 ft & 30ft biothane longline from big snoof dog gear - good longlines. i use them daily, especially since we don't have a fence up yet, & they hold up really well. the ease of cleaning is a huge bonus.
- rainbow wire muzzle from big snoof dog gear - primarily just used for vet visits. she's really weird about the vet, even on three different drugs to keep her calm. she's too suspicious of them. the muzzle is for everyone's safety/comfort, & it looks cute on her <3
- tracker from tractive - good tracker, also logs activity. no complaints about it, customer service has been good with issues & the battery life is very solid.
- slide-on collar tag from besties pets - yes she has two different tags - one is on her harness with more detail & this slideon one is on her collar. i don't like dangling tags being on collars, but i wanted one with more info too. this silicon one just has her name & my phone number, + technically could have an airtag on it but obviously she's got a seperate tracker so i'm not using that feature. it's nice, it looks cute. no complaints but really it's just the first fun patterned slide-on tag i found.
my goals with lizzie:
- get her CGC title finally.... after i register her with AKC canine partners & find an evaluator
- get her PKD-N title. we've got to get videos of the skills & do more proofing with "back-up" non-lured & then train "around" but she's very confident with the rest of the cues for the title. get PKD-T, then work on PKD-EXP + PKD-BIN.
- FDC - hinges on finding evaluators & places to train. i know she can do it, we just need a safe place to train & work on her impulse control....
ellie's gear:
- pending! - she's still a babbyyy & i pick her up from her breeder end of february 2026 :)
- her final gear will most likely be a quick release rolled leather collar & a leather harness but i am undecided for now
my goals with ellie:
- CGC, + general puppy socialization & confidence building
- PKD-T.
- FDC - hinges on finding evaluators & places to train.
- training for conformation comps
