The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Totally Off-Topic Discussions, Rants, Tire & Oil Threads, Etc. => Topic started by: marcmax on April 14, 2017, 09:50:24 PM
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Just wanted to ask some of our members from Oz about this breed of dog. I good friend of mine just got a new pup and I am just curious about them as I know nothing about the breed. She is a beautiful dog, obviously intelligent and full of energy. Any comments from members who know the breed, ie. what to expect. how to train, etc. would be appreciated.
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We have owned blue and red heelers for more than 30 years, there is no difference (aside from the colour) all cattle dogs are born white and gain their colour - red or blue in the first few weeks of their life. The photo is of Rosie, our 3.5 y.o red dog.
As you have already observed they are a very intelligent dog - this is a two edged sword because intelligence needs occupation, or "work" if you will - unless you are able to put a lot of time into activities with a cattle dog you are making a rod for your own back as a bored cattle dog gets up to mischief.
You will find that one family member will be "adopted" by the dog and that whils tother family members are well regarded the CD will look to that one person for its major interaction and will bond with that person. Other pets, including cats are OK but limits have to be set very early in the dog's life.
never, ever forget that this is a "manufactured" breed and that these little dogs were breed to run with horses rounding up cattle all day and to charge in and nip the heels of recalcitrant cattle to get them moving they are crazy brave but at the sticking point they are well armed and have a bite pressure greater than many dogs that are much bigger than them.
Therefore the very first thing you must instil during early play is bite inhibition, otherwise family members are going to get hurt.
Fortunately the teaching process is easy - they want to please their owners and they want to learn. Rosie has a simply enormous vocabulary, she will also work out new behaviours and put them into action on her own initiative - such as collecting her lead and dropping it at your feet if the time for walking has passed, or picking up her food bowl and carrying it to the kitchen if meals are a bit late.
Cattle dogs love all games and excel at those that require the dog to be agile and to think for itself, they are good problem solvers - Rosie spent a night in hospital after a minor mishap, she opened her cage and then for good measure opened all the other cages as well. The over night staff had to sort our a wheeling mass of cats, dogs and rabbits, review of the CCTV revealed our Rosie as the guilty party.
Health wise they are VERY robust - typically ours get to see the Vet once a year for their yearly shots and check over, but occasionally they have had accidents.
Some random thoughts
Lots and lots of toys - balls, squeeze toys and rope based chewing toys are a good start.
We buy our horse balls (really heavy rubber balls with a handle that are given to horses to play with) as they can't bite through them so they last a bit longer. We also give her coconuts when available, she can husk one fairly completely in under three minutes.
Don't expect a cattle dog to rush up and want to meet other dogs and play with them - they are a bit stand-offish in that regard, firstly because they don't know that they are dogs and secondly because as a breed they bond more strongly to their "special" human than they do with other dogs. To the un-initiated taking a cattle dog to puppy school is a worrying experience, all the other puppies will be in a seething single mass of fun having - the cattle dog will settle down about 10ft away and simply watch - its what they do and perfectly normal.
In summary, strong, healthy, brave, intelligent and loyal. What more could you want in a dog.
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Just wanted to ask some of our members from Oz about this breed of dog.
couldn't help myself, here are some photos of some of our past ACDs.
The first is from 27 years ago - the original Rosie (we are not above recycling names if they suit the dog) and my partner.
The second is Charli the blue dog. We took Charli on in her middle age - prior to living with us she had been a show dog and collected a few "best in show" and was Grand Champion in a Sydney show.
We reckoned she enjoyed the second half of her life more than the first because she got to be a dog. Sadly I backed our 4WD over Charli and killed her - I didn't look closely enough and she was as deaf as a post in her later years. Much sadness.
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Just for a little perspective.
This is "Cheeky". Cheeky was a pure bred Northern Territory dingo. She is very fat in this photo, her metabolism simply didn't process food the same way as domesticated dogs and she packed on weight until her owners realized.
She was a VERY difficult dog to have in suburbia, we thought that because we took her as an un-weaned pup (the locals had just shot and were preparing to eat her mother) that nurture would triumph over nature and she would be a pet.
We were wrong!
There are, as we found, many differences that are "hard-coded" into the DNA of the dingo. A brief summary:-
Dogs generally accept being confined to a house or a yard, Cheeky could climb an 8' wooden fence to get out, or she could dig her way out underneath.
Dingos are hard coded to hunt and kill, if she got out she would kill wallaby or ground dwelling birds.
Whilst every bit as intelligent as a cattle dog (remembering that there is more than a little dingo in the cattle dog breed) and easily able to learn things - a dingo has no concept of doing so to please an "owner". Stuff like walking on a lead or coming to her name was a grim struggle.
Utterly silent, a dingo does not bark, they have an atonal "alarm" sound if they choose to use it and when they are happy they will occasionally "yodel" with pleasure - but a person arriving unannounced would only become aware of her presence when she bailed them up.
Cheeky would play with the cattle dogs and she would play wrestling or rope tugging games with the humans, but balls, frisbees and the like were a closed book to her.
Eventually we came to realized that dingos are just about as far from domesticated dogs as wolves are. At about that time some friends who were teaching in the outback offered to take her on, she lived a long and happy life living with them - she was much happier with 100s of square miles to roam instead of a mere back yard.
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Tony, here are a couple of pics of my friends new pup. It is funny after reading your descriptions of your dogs behaviors I have noticed every one of them in this very young one. It is obvious that she has picked him as her "person". He is a mechanic by trade and is always working on something and she is right there all the time. It is funny to watch as he will be under something working and reach for a tool he has laid down only to find her standing just out of reach with it in her mouth. It is hilarious. But she learns quick and gets her feelings hurt when she is scolded. I think the most amazing thing is how she reacts to other dogs, just like you said. Most dogs will run and bark if another dog comes near. She just watches, she knows they are there and keeps an eye on them until they are out of her "area".
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That's a pretty little blue dog.
Plus 1 on the tools. Rosie will bring tools back to me when I drop them - when you consider how unpleasant something like a spanner must be in a dog's mouth, that she does that is pretty special. She gets extra cuddles and dog treats for retrieving spanners and the like for her fumbling owner.
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That is a beautiful pup, Marcmax!
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Ok, I promise this will be the last dog/puppy photo from me for a while.
This one is Abbi, a beautiful blue heeler that we got in 2004. She was smart, agile and an absolute barrel of fun.
Unfortunately there is a genetic kidney abnormality that is beginning to haunt the breed which whilst it is rare, it is fatal for the dog.
We still talk of her and what an unfair go at life she got.