Our Animals · Working Dogs

ARDARDS Working Dogs

American Ranch Dog Adaptive Response Drive Selective

A multi-generational working dog development program.

ARDARDS is a working dog line developed through many years and multiple generations of breeding and selection.

The program combines livestock handling, catch work, predator and pest control, and property protection in a single working dog.

Selection centers on situationally adaptive drive: the ability to respond to different working conditions while remaining responsive to the handler.

Gotenks in the desert lot.

What Is ARDARDS?

The name describes the work. ARDARDS dogs are bred to be a single dog for a single handler that covers catch work on unruly livestock, predator and pest control, and protection of the property. Most modern working breeds specialize; this line consolidates those jobs into one animal for a working ranch.

The program was formerly worked under the name Catchy Bandogges. It was renamed ARDARDS to describe the dogs by their working skills rather than their historical type.

ARDARDS is a developed working line tracked through the program's own breed registry, in the same way SABBS tracks the Boerboel. Its credential is documented performance and the dogs themselves, recorded through years of photographs and video. The program's working standard is often summed up as: stable dogs for stable working families.

The Selection Standard

Situationally adaptive drive

The dogs are selected for drive that reads a situation and matches its response to it. Gotenks is the reference dog: immovable in a confrontation, controlled enough to catch loose chickens without harming them, and fully off lying beside an infant. The founder treats these as one trait showing up three ways, not three separate traits.

The control standard

The governing rule is that the founder does not breed a dog he cannot control. The benchmark is Gotenks: fully committed in drive, a single word turns him off and sends him into the house. Off-leash recall out of a hot state is held to the same standard.

Zero sharpness

In this program, sharpness has a narrow meaning: aggression toward the handler under correction. It does not mean working drive, and it is not a general description of aggression. A dog with zero sharpness takes correction from the person directing it and stays stable, while keeping full drive and bite capability in service.

Requirements for every breeding dog

Accepts correction without turning on the handler.
Never turns on its own people: no aggression toward handler or family.
Controllable, or at minimum safely containable.
Safe to work.
Safe to re-kennel.
Safe to treat for injury.
Safe under duress.

A dog that falls short is neutered and rehomed, not bred, however another breeder might grade it.

Handling an injured dog

Field injuries are routine in high desert work: split nails, cactus spines, rock and thorn. The handler treats feet and pulls spines after most outings, so a dog that is unsafe to handle while hurt is not workable. Steadiness under pain and restraint is treated as part of the same control standard.

These are the program's breeding standards and the founder's observations of his dogs. They are not a guarantee about any individual dog with any person or child. ARDARDS are working dogs for experienced handlers.

Development Across the Generations

Foundation names carry forward through the generations. The sire line runs from Goku 1 to Gotenks to Gohan, and the type holds through it: black coat, white chest, white feet.

Goku 1, a black dog with a white chest, standing on red lava rock — Goku 1 on red lava rock.

Gotenks, a black dog with white feet, standing in a desert lot — Gotenks in the desert lot.

Gohan, a large black dog with a white chest, standing in a dirt yard — Gohan at about a year old.

F3 The foundation pair

Goku 1

Foundation sire

The original dog of the program: a supreme catch dog and personal protection dog. He was pulling sleds weeks before his death. His type, a black coat with a white chest and white feet, carries through the sire line.

Goku 1 fully airborne, gripping a hanging rope in a yard — Goku 1 airborne at the hanging rope.

Goku 1 and Aya seated on grass with a brindle pup between them — Goku 1 seated beside Aya, a pup between them.

Aya

Foundation dam

A Colorado Bulldog, an F1 cross of Scott American Bulldog and Turtlebuster boar dog. She brought the American Bulldog working frame and furthered the catch drive. She was documented stable with the founder's children. Her litters to Goku 1 founded the program.

Aya, a white dog with brindle patches, standing in a field — Aya in the field.

Aya leaping to grip a hanging rope — Aya airborne at the hanging rope.

F4 The common sire and the outcross dams

Gotenks

Founding sire of both active lines

A clone of Goku 1, and the fixed foundation point of the program. Black with a white chest blaze and white feet. His recorded working history: never stopped, never knocked off his feet, never lost a catch. He is still working.

Gotenks as a black and white puppy held by his handler — Gotenks as a puppy.

Gotenks standing stacked on a tire platform — Gotenks stacked on the tire platform.

Beast

Boerboel dam of the Boerboel line

An XL Carter Boerboel, out of Bodhington's Cora x Afrika Kennel Hondo. She is handler focused: her predator confrontation drive stays directable.

Beast, a large fawn Boerboel with a black mask, seated in the sun — Beast, Boerboel dam of the Boerboel line.

Bug

Dogo Argentino dam of the Whites line

A Dogo Argentino from 5X Apollo Dogo, out of Furiosa Dogo Argentino. Alongside catch grip she shows a guardian style behavior the founder calls the scoot and slam: running full speed toward the children, then dropping to lie at their feet before contact.

Bug, a white Dogo Argentino, lying in a wooden whelping box with her newborn white pups — Bug with her pups in the whelping box.

F5 The production generation

Gohan

Gotenks out of Beast

Taller than Beast at the shoulder, with his sire's type rather than the Boerboel mass, and still growing. He made catches as a young pup on puppy teeth, before any training.

Gohan in profile at sunset.

Gohan facing the camera, showing his white chest and feet — Gohan head on.

Shaka 2

The stopper

Roughly Gotenks's size, named for Shaka 1, an imported Boerboel. She charges a threat at full speed and reads it as she closes. Most threats quit at the charge, so she ends most confrontations without contact, with full catch capacity behind it.

Shaka 2, a dark brindle dog, standing on lead beside her handler at the ranch — Shaka 2 on lead at the ranch.

Shaka 2 beside her handler at the ranch, lead in hand — Shaka 2 with her handler at the ranch.

Shaka 2, a dark brindle dog, on lead with her two pups, one black and one dark grey — Shaka 2 with her pups Cocoa and Cloud.

Cocoa, a black pup, walking toward the camera on a gravel ranch path — Cocoa, a black pup from Shaka 2's litter.

Cloud, a dark grey pup with a white chest patch, standing on dirt at the ranch — Cloud, a dark grey pup from Shaka 2's litter.

Britt

F5 littermate, placed

The brindle of the litter, and the one dog bred since the foundation that lives outside the founder's household. She is placed with the owner of the foundation-generation dog Scout.

Britt, a brindle dog, sitting calmly on a sunny deck — Britt on a sunny deck.

Goku 3

F5, Whites line, Gotenks out of Bug

A white ARDARDS carrying the foundation sire's name, taller and longer than Gotenks. He is the most focused catch dog in the yard, with a below-ear grip. He is calm and soft with children, which the record treats as evidence that drive and family safety are separate traits. His drive puts him at the far end of the management range: he needs an experienced handler and secure, multi-layer containment, and his correct use is the largest and most dangerous livestock and predators.

Goku 3, a white dog, seated on a loose lead beside his handler — Goku 3 seated on a loose lead.

Goku 3 standing on a loose lead beside his handler on a ranch road — Goku 3 standing on a loose lead.

Goku 3, a white dog, standing and panting after a catch — Goku 3 after a catch.

F6 The current generation

The F6 females

Current generation

The surviving females are the founding stock of the current generation. Their development is being photographed and recorded as they mature.

Young F6 pups lying together on a blue blanket — The F6 females as young pups.

The Two Active Lines

Both lines run off the same foundation sire, Gotenks. Holding the sire constant and changing only the outcross dam lets each cross be judged against the same foundation.

Boerboel Line
Whites Line: Gotenks; Gotenks; Beast, Boerboel; Bug, Dogo Argentino; Gotenks x Beast; Gotenks x Bug; Gohan, Shaka 2, Britt (F5); Goku 3 (F5); Mastiff size and directable predator confrontation drive; Catch grip with guardian style family stability

The Dogs at Work

Photographs from the founder's archive. Children's faces have been covered.

In the field

Gotenks moving across dry desert grassland — Gotenks moving in the field.

Gotenks doing chain drag sprints in the desert with his sister, Honey — Gotenks doing chain drag sprints with his sister, Honey.

With handlers

Gohan in profile at sunset.

Head study of Goku 1, black with a white blaze and chest — Goku 1, head study.

Around children

Aya resting on a bed while an infant, face covered, sits leaning against her — Aya on the bed with an infant leaning on her.

Aya lying flat with an infant, face covered, held against her — Aya lying flat with an infant against her.

Gotenks lying on a couch with an infant, face covered, behind him — Gotenks on the couch with an infant behind him.

Goku 1 lying on a bed beside a sleeping adult and an infant whose face is covered — Goku 1 asleep on the bed beside an adult and an infant.

All photographs on this page feature actual dogs from the ARDARDS program. No stock photography is used.

Documented Dogs and Their Histories

Selected dogs placed with working families. The founder records outcomes only for dogs he has kept track of.

Z

Red and white, from the foundation generation. Calm in a vehicle beside a small dog, settled in family yards, and effective on pests at the fence line. He lived a full working life.

Z, red and white, sitting calmly in the back of a vehicle beside a Pomeranian — Z in a vehicle beside a Pomeranian.

Z standing in a green family yard — Z in a family yard.

Z taking an opossum at a fence line — Z taking an opossum at the fence line.

Scout

Foundation generation. His coat reads red in daylight and blue under interior light. Documented from puppyhood through adulthood in a family home; he lived to old age. His owner later returned to the program for Britt.

Scout standing in falling snow — Scout in falling snow.

Scout sitting indoors on a tile floor, his coat reading fawn and blue — Scout indoors under interior light.

Xena

A brindle female from the foundation generation, photographed fully settled indoors.

Britt

F5. Lives fully inside her family's home: on the deck, asleep on the bedroom floor, in the living room.

Britt standing in a living room beside a lit Christmas tree — Britt in the family living room.

Interested in the ARDARDS Program?

For information about the ARDARDS working dog program, breeding development, or potential future placements, contact Thunder Cactus Ranch.