I was considering a ACD when I was searching for a dog. I was looking for a medium size dog with great athletic ability without the pit bull image. These are tough little dogs with a great pain threshold .My neighbor has a blue heeler the stubby kind and I can’t believe its leaping ability a great Frisbee dog. I also believe that Corwen(sp) rated them in the top ten of his intelligence ranking.
Brad you were looking for an ACD story and I really liked this one. It was on animal planet. Might have been on Breed all About It. The ACD was featured he was a companion dog for an elderly lady. She was getting to old to take care of herself so she went to a retired home where dogs were not allowed. Her daughter took the dog home and was going to keep him. The first day the daughter had the dog home he was very edge pacing back and forth. The daughter went out for dinner with her husband and brother and when the came home the dog was gone. Apparently he jumped an 8-foot fence. They started their search that brought them back to the mothers’ old house 9 miles away. The dog had been there and was gone. Seven miles further in the opposite direction the ACD found the retirement home and his master. The administration was so touched by this dog’s journey and love for his master they allowed the dog to stay. What’s amazing is that the dog took many trips form his masters house to her daughters so he was familiar with that scent, but only once was he taken to the retirement home. This story may be a little melodramatic but I’m a softie when I hear these dog stories.

Hi to all my old friends.

milt

Australian cattle dogs are also called queensland heelers here, also blue or red heelers. I realise that a dogs propensity to fight an animal might not translate into a desire to fight a man. Heelers seem to take great pleasure in sinking their teeth into warm flesh, wether its animal or human dosent seem to bother them much.
Stumpy tails seem to be sam as the hellers but without tail. They are also known as smithfield heelers. Some of the pups are born without a anus and die. Obvioulsy the tailess gene is at work here.

I took a mare to guy who bred stumpies as well. He had a king ranch bred stallion called Wagon Cook by Peppy San. He had just sent a stumpy to LA. As soon as the guy heard these dogs hated black people he had to have one. True story. Heelers seem to have that rep in northern australia.

I dont think kelpies as a rule would make such good bitting dogs as heelers as they dont work stock in the same way as hellers do. Heelers are mainly forcing dogs, they drive cattle from behind, heeling them as needed. They dont seem to be good at casting like the kelpies are. Casting is when you send the dog out around a mob of cattle or sheep and the dog brings them back towards you. Good dogs will cast out out of site a mile or more away, even in thick scrub or mountain terrain. Kelpies might be good trackers or narc dogs though. They are agile and fit, no hip probs and so on and have a desire to please.
The kelpies you see in the bush are lanky dogs and look like they have dingo in them or something. They come in a red color, black and black and tan, chocolate. You often see them crossed with border collies, heelers and sundry other breed. In had a kelpie/beagle cross who was a great worker. I think the situation here with stock dogs is similar to that of mals. The name kelpie or heeler is applied to a fairly diverse variety of canines. Thats in the bush anyway, in the show ring they are standardised and probabaly arent much good as workers.
I know Ive mentioned this before but the reason these dogs are such good workers and all round companions is because the duds are ruthlessly culled. The basic reasoning in the bush is that bitches cycle twice a year so there are always more pups comming, why waste time with a dud. Dogs that are disobedient, lazy or just plain dumb get a bullet. Ive seen it personally. The good ones are cherished and remembered for ever.

Thanks for the info guys. Milt, it's nice to hear from you again. Nice story. It's reason like that why we all love dogs so much. And to think people actually prefer cats???????? I never understood that. lol

Maybe we'll start to see this breed more in protection sport.

If one is considering the cattle dog be careful with health. The gene pool in these dogs is small and as a result there are many health concerns that should be tested for in breeding parents etc. One of the main ones is deafness.

Shandar, Is that because the Dalmatian played a prominant role in the foundation of this breed?

To be honest, I am not sure. My good freind has cattle dogs and breeds the odd litter. She was talking about how hard it was to find good working dogs without 'any' health concerns. I know her litters were always taken to a specialist in the U.S. for testing.

They can be tough little dogs. I have another freind who trains dogs for all kinds of jobs where they use their nose (bomb detection, drug, etc) She even trained several for sniffing out bear poop for Alberta Canada for a program they were doing. (finding bears, tagging them etc).
She however, does not use cattle dogs. There is a reason but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is. She talked about how it was too bad as there are many of them that have great ball drive etc.

Its interesting what people have said about health problems with heelers in the US. As I say these sort of things are unheard of in them here, at least in the rural areas. Given the US/ australian dollar exchange rate I dont know why americans just dont buy pups direct from australian heeler breeders and get some new genetics. I went a agricultural show a few months back and man and his wife had working kelpies for sale. They were in the late 60s and were fine people. The pups ranged around $200 US to about $500 for a young started dog. Not much really considering the work they can do. This`couple farm a couple of thousand head of sheep so the dogs get worked. Interstingly enough this old bloke said german shepherds were a good outcross with kelpies from time to time. Hed been breeding working kelpies for over 50 years.

I havent heard that dalmatians were used in the development of these dogs. Why do people say that? because they have the mottled coat I guess. Dalmatians would of been few and far between in western queensland during the 19th century when these dogs were developed. About as many as there would of been in Montana or the Dakotas during the 1850's Id say. Not bloody many.

I have sometimes wondered if Corgis didnt go into the development of heelers. Corgis were cattle dogs originally in Wales. They have the prick ears, the chunky body and the alert face that heelers have and also the red color that you see in red heelers.

Perhaps there was not a great height distinction among Corgi type dogs back in the 1840s and 1850s. They could have looked a lot like the smooth collies of today, just not as big. Look at working border collies today. I have seen small 35-40lb borders and large 60-65lb borders.