Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Cattle Dog | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other names | ACD, Cattle Dog, Blue Heeler, Red Heeler, Queensland Heeler | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Origin | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dog ( domestic dog ) |
The Australian Cattle Dog, or simply Cattle Dog, is a breed of
As with dogs from other working breeds, the Australian Cattle Dog is energetic and intelligent with an independent streak. It responds well to structured training, particularly if it is interesting and challenging. It was originally bred to herd by biting, and is known to nip running children. It forms a strong attachment to its owners, and can be protective of them and their possessions. It is easy to groom and maintain, requiring little more than brushing during the shedding period. The most common health problems are deafness and progressive blindness (both hereditary conditions) and accidental injury.
Australian Cattle Dog has been nicknamed a "Red Heeler" or "Blue Heeler" on the basis of its colouring and practice of moving reluctant cattle by nipping at their heels. The nickname "Queensland Heeler" may have originated in a popular booklet, published in Victoria.[5]
Characteristics
Appearance
The Australian Cattle Dog is a sturdy, muscular, compact dog that gives the impression of agility and strength. It has a broad skull that flattens to a definite stop between the eyes, with muscular cheeks and a medium-length, deep, powerful muzzle. The ears are pricked, small to medium in size and set wide apart, with a covering of hair on the inside. The eyes are oval and dark, with an alert, keen expression. The neck and shoulders are strong and muscular; the forelegs are straight and parallel; and the feet round and arched, with small, sturdy toes and nails.[6]
The Australian Cattle Dog breed standard states that it should have well-conditioned muscles, even when bred for companion or
Size
The female Australian Cattle Dog measures approximately 43–48 centimetres (17–19 in) at the withers, and the male measures about 46–51 centimetres (18–20 in) at the withers. The dog should be longer than tall, that is, the length of the body from breast bone to buttocks is greater than the height at the withers, in a ratio of 10 to 9.[6]
Coat and colour
There are two accepted
Both red dogs and blue dogs are born white (except for any solid-coloured body or face markings) and the red or black hairs show from around four weeks of age as they grow and mature. The distinctive adult colouration is the result of black or red hairs closely interspersed through a predominantly white coat. This is not merle colouration (a speckled effect that has associated health issues), but rather the result of the ticking gene. A number of breeds show ticking, which is the presence of colour through white areas, though the overall effect depends on other genes that will modify the size, shape and density of the ticking.[7]
In addition to the primary colouration, an Australian Cattle Dog displays some patches of solid or near-solid colour. In both red and blue dogs, the most common are masks over one or both eyes, a white tip to the tail, a solid spot at the base of the tail, and sometimes solid spots on the body, though these are not desirable in dogs bred for
The mask consists of a black patch over one or both eyes (for the blue coat colour) or a red patch over one or both eyes (for the red coat colour). Depending on whether one or both eyes have a patch, these are called, respectively, "single" (or "half") mask and "double" (or "full") mask. Dogs without a mask are called plain-faced. Any of these are acceptable according to the breed standard. In conformation shows, even markings are preferred over uneven markings.[6]
Tail
The breed standards of the Australian, American and Canadian kennel clubs specify that the Australian Cattle Dog should have a natural, long, un-docked tail. There will often be a solid colour spot at the base of the tail and a white tip. The tail should be set moderately low, following the slope of the back. It should hang in a slight curve at rest, though an excited dog may carry its tail higher. The tail should feature a good level of brush.[6]
In the United States, tails are sometimes docked on working stock. The tail is not docked in Australia.[10][self-published source]
The Australian Cattle Dog shares ancestry and early history with the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog. A breed standard, current in Queensland during the 1930s, describes two varieties of Cattle Dog, "long tail” and “short tail". The short tail variety was the to be same as the long tail variety except for tail length.[11] The two varieties were exhibited in separate classes. In 1963 the Australian National Kennel Council distinguished the two varieties in separate breed standards.
Temperament
Like many
When on home ground, the Australian Cattle Dog is an affectionate and playful
While an Australian Cattle Dog generally works silently, it will
As pets
Grooming
Known as a "wash and wear" dog, the Australian Cattle Dog requires little grooming, and an occasional brushing is all that is required to keep the coat clean and odour-free. Even for the show ring it needs no more than wiping down with a moist cloth. It is not a year-round
Training
Like other working breeds, the Australian Cattle Dog is intelligent and responsive; both of these traits can be an advantage in training where a structured, varied program is used, but can lead to unwanted outcomes if training is not consistent, or is repetitive and boring for the dog.[20] Stock dog trainer Scott Lithgow recommends making training a game so the Cattle Dog learns that obedience leads to enjoyment.[15] Many of a Cattle Dog's natural behaviours are undesirable in a pet: barking, chewing, chasing, digging, defending territory, and nipping heels. Training, therefore, involves helping the dog adopt a lifestyle that is very different from that of its droving ancestors.[20] The Australian Cattle Dog is biddable, and responds well to training.[21]
Activities
The Australian Cattle Dog demands a high level of physical activity. Like many other herding dog breeds, the Cattle Dog has an active and fertile mind and if it is not given jobs to do it will find its own activities. It will appreciate a walk around the neighbourhood, but it needs structured activities that engage and challenge it, and regular interaction with its owner. While individual dogs have their own personalities and abilities, as a breed the Australian Cattle Dog is suited to any activity that calls for athleticism, intelligence, and endurance.[12]
Kennel club-sponsored herding trials with a range of events suit the driving abilities of the Cattle Dog. Herding instincts and trainability are measured at non-competitive herding tests, and basic commands are sometimes taught through herding games, where rules such as "stay", "get it" and "that'll do" are applied to fetching a ball or chasing a yard broom.[22]
The Australian Cattle Dog was developed for its ability to drive reluctant cattle to travel long distances and may be the best breed in the world for this work.[15] However, some working dog trainers have expressed concern that dogs bred for the show ring are increasingly too short in the legs and too stocky in the body to undertake the work for which they were originally bred.[15]
Among the most popular activities for an Australian Cattle Dog is dog agility. It is ideally suited for navigating obstacle courses, since as a herding dog it is reactive to the handler's body language and willing to work accurately at a distance from the handler. Agility has been used by Cattle Dog owners to instil confidence in their dogs, and enhance their performance in training and competition.[23]
The Australian Cattle Dog thrives on change and new experiences, and many handlers find training the breed challenging for this reason. An Australian Cattle Dog can excel in obedience competition. It will enjoy the challenges, such as retrieving a scented article, but the breed's problem-solving ability may lead it to find solutions to problems that are not necessarily rewarded by the obedience judges. Rally obedience offers more interaction with the owner and less repetition than traditional obedience trials.[24]
Australian Cattle Dogs have been successful in a range of dog sports including
The Australian Cattle Dog can be put to work in a number of ways. Cattle Dogs are service dogs for people with a disability or are therapy dogs,[25] some work for customs agencies in drug detection, some as police dogs,[24] others haze pest animals, such as geese, for city or state agencies,[28] and some work as scat-detection dogs, tracking endangered wildlife species.[29]
Health and lifespan
Lifespan
In a 2024 UK study of 50 dogs the breed had an average life expectancy of 14 years compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds.[30] Many members of the breed are still well and active at 12 or 14 years of age, and some maintain their sight, hearing and even their teeth until their final days.[31]
Common health problems
The Australian Cattle Dog carries
The Australian Cattle Dog is one of the dog breeds affected by progressive retinal atrophy. It has the most common form, progressive rod-cone degeneration (PRCD), a condition that causes the rods and cones in the retina of the eye to deteriorate later in life, resulting in blindness. PRCD is an autosomal recessive trait and a dog can be a carrier of the affected gene without developing the condition.[34]
Hip dysplasia is not common in the breed,[19] although it occurs sufficiently often for many breeders to have their breeding stock tested.[citation needed] The Cattle Dog has a number of inherited conditions,[35] but most of these are not common. Hereditary polioencephalomyelopathy of the Australian Cattle Dog is a very rare condition caused by an inherited biochemical defect. Dogs identified with the condition were completely paralysed within their first year.[36] Based on a sample of 69 still-living dogs, the most common health issues noted by owners were musculoskeletal (spondylosis, elbow dysplasia, and arthritis) and reproductive (pyometra, infertility, and false pregnancy), and blindness.[37] A study of dogs diagnosed at Veterinary Colleges in the United States and Canada over a thirty-year period described fractures, lameness and cruciate ligament tears as the most common conditions in the Australian Cattle Dogs treated.[38]
History
In Australia
British colonist George Hall and his family arrived in the New South Wales Colony in 1802. By 1825, the Halls had established two cattle stations in the Upper Hunter Valley, and had begun a northward expansion into the Liverpool Plains, New England and Queensland. Getting his cattle to the Sydney markets presented a problem in that cattle had to be moved along unfenced stock routes through sometimes rugged bush and mountain ranges. The mobs of cattle were small (the population centres were small) and the distances short relative to the long distance droving feats of the Duracks, and others, in the late nineteenth century.[39] [40] [41] Until the invention of ice-making and refrigeration in the 1850s (by a Scottish immigrant to Australia, James Harrison)[42] butchers, and their customers, had no choice but to buy their meat in small quantities and the cattle growers, including the Halls, had no choice but to maintain a constant, but small, supply of cattle to their markets.
The droving dogs used at the time were commonly the Smithfield dogs which often barked at and bit the nose of the cattle which aggravated the livestock.
By the 1890s, dogs of Halls Heeler ancestry had attracted the attention of a group of men with a recreational interest in the new practice of showing dogs competitively. None were stockmen working cattle on a daily basis, and initially they were interested in a range of working dogs. Prominent members of the group concentrated on breeding these lines.[43] Of these breeders, the Bagust family was the most influential.[44]
Robert Kaleski, of Moorebank, a young associate of Harry Bagust, wrote "in 1893 when I got rid of my cross-bred cattle dogs and took up the blues, breeders of the latter had started breeding ... to fix the type. I drew up a standard for them on those lines".[45] This first breed standard for the Cattle Dog breed was published, with photographs, by the New South Wales Department of Agriculture in 1903.[46]
Kaleski's standard was adopted by breed clubs in Queensland and New South Wales and re-issued as their own, with local changes. His writings from the 1910s give an insight into the early history of the breed. Most importantly, Kaleski identified Thomas Simpson Hall's association with the Halls Heeler.
In the 1890s, Cattle Dogs of Halls Heeler derivation were seen in the kennels of exhibiting Queensland dog breeders such as William Byrne. These were a different population from those shown in New South Wales and included both long-tailed and short-tailed exhibits. These dogs may have come from Hall properties in Queensland. Byrne, however, initiated a trend that favoured Cattle Dogs bred in New South Wales and, during the 1920s, many breeders followed this trend. The original Queensland Cattle Dog population became increasingly attenuated. The most significant New South Wales purchase was Little Logic.
Little Logic was bred in Rockdale, New South Wales. Sydney exhibitors, however, saw Little Logic for the first time only after the dog had been added to the Hillview kennels of Arch Bevis in Brisbane. The show records of Little Logic and his offspring created a demand in New South Wales for Queensland dogs.[47][self-published source] By the end of the 1950s, there were few Australian Cattle Dogs whelped that were not descendants of Little Logic and his best known son, Logic Return.[48][self-published source] [49][self-published source?]
The prominence of Little Logic and Logic Return in the
In the United States
In the 1940s Alan McNiven, a Sydney veterinarian, introduced Dingo, Kelpie, German Shepherd, and
In the late 1950s a veterinarian in Santa Rosa, California, Jack Woolsey, was introduced to Lougher's dogs. With his partners, he bought several dogs and started breeding them. The breeders advertised the dogs in Western Horsemen stating they were guaranteed to work and calling them Queensland Heelers. Woolsey imported several purebred Australian Cattle Dogs to add to his breeding program, including Oaklea Blue Ace, Glen Iris Boomerang and several Glen Iris bitches. The National Stock Dog Registry of Butler, Indiana, registered the breed, assigning American numbers without reference to Australian registrations.[51]
Australian Cattle Dogs had been classified in the "miscellaneous" category at the American Kennel Club (AKC) since the 1930s; to get the breed full recognition, the AKC required that a National Breed Parent Club be organised for promotion and protection of the breed.[51] In 1967 Esther Ekman met Chris Smith-Risk at an AKC show, and the two fell into conversation about their Australian Cattle Dogs and the process of establishing a parent club for the breed. By 1969 the fledgling club had 12 members and formally applied to the AKC for instructions. One of the requirements was that the club had to start keeping its own registry for the breed and that all dogs on the registry would have to be an extension of the Australian registry, tracing back to registered dogs in Australia.[51] The AKC Parent Club members began researching their dogs, including exchanging correspondence with McNiven, and discovered that few of them had dogs that could be traced back to dogs registered in Australia. The AKC took over the club registry in 1979 and the breed was fully recognised in September 1980. The Australian Cattle Dog Club of America is still active in the promotion of the breed and the maintenance of breed standards. The National Stock Dog Registry continued to recognise Cattle Dogs without prerequisite links to Australian registered dogs, on the condition that any dog of unknown parentage that was presented for registry would be registered as an "American Cattle Dog", and all others would still be registered as "Australian Cattle Dogs".[51]
In Canada
The breed gained official recognition from the Canadian Kennel Club in January 1980 after five years of collecting pedigrees, gathering support, and lobbying officials by two breeders and enthusiasts.[52] The small number of Australian Cattle Dogs in Canada at the time were primarily working dogs on farms and ranches scattered across large distances. However, the fledgling breed club held conformation shows, obedience and agility competitions, and entered their dogs in sports including flyball and lure coursing. At the end of 1980, Landmaster Carina was named the first Australian Cattle Dog in Canada to gain both her conformation and obedience titles.[52]
In the United Kingdom
The first registered Australian Cattle Dogs to arrive in the United Kingdom were two blue puppies, Lenthel Flinton and Lenthel Darlot, imported in 1980 by Malcolm Duding. They were followed soon afterwards by Landmaster Darling Red in whelp.[24] Landmaster Darling Red was imported by John and Mary Holmes, and proved to be an outstanding brood bitch. Over the next few years additional Cattle Dogs arrived in the UK from the Netherlands, Kenya, Germany and Australia, although prior to relaxation of rules regarding artificial insemination, the UK gene pool was limited. In 1985 the Australian Cattle Dog Society of Great Britain was formed and officially recognised by the Kennel Club; before this they had to compete in the category "Any Variety Not Separately Classified". Australian Cattle Dogs were competing successfully in obedience and working trials in the UK during the 1980s.[24]
See also
- Bluey
- Texas Heeler
- Australia portal
- Dogs portal
Citations
- ^ Kaleski, Robert (1938). Foundation Dogs of Australia. Sydney Mail 13 April 1938 p. 26, 30.
- ^ Kaleski, Robert (1907). The Australian Cattle Dog. The Bookfellow vol 1. no. 1, 3 January 1907, pp. 10-11.
- ^ ISBN 9780868064642.
- ^ "EBENEZER PIONEERS Of The Hakesbury". Windsor and Richmond Gazette. Vol. 37, no. 1963. New South Wales, Australia. 5 June 1925. p. 10. Retrieved 8 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Barrett, Charles, and Latchford, L. A. (c. 1934). The Sun Dog Book. Melbourne, Sun News-Pictorial.
- ^ a b c d e f "ANKC Breed Standard for the Australian Cattle Dog". Australian National Kennel Council. 14 December 2009. Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
- ^ Ruvinsky (2001), p. 80
- ^ Kaleski, Robert (1958). Cattle Dogs in The Australian Encyclopaedia. Sydney, Grolier.
- ^ Clark (2003), p. 134
- ^ Clark (2003), p. 145
- ^ Cattle Dog and Kelpie Club of Queensland (1923). Cattle Dog, in The Kennel, Brisbane Courier 1 December 1923, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d Robertson (1990), p. 14
- ^ Coren (1995), p. 182
- ^ a b c Lowell (1990), p. 166
- ^ a b c d Lithgow (2001), pp. 5–6, 25–28
- ^ Buetow (1998), p. 136
- ^ Beauchamp (2007) p. 46.
- ^ Dehasse, Joel (1994). "Sensory, emotional, and social development of the young dog". The Bulletin for Veterinary Clinical Ethology. 2 (1–2): 6–29. Archived from the original on 23 February 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
- ^ a b Beauchamp (1997), pp. 67, 77
- ^ a b Schwartz (2009), pp. 78–102
- ^ Stockman (2002), p. 102
- ^ "Getting Started in Herding". American Kennel Club. Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
- ^ Simmons-Moake (1992), pp. 1–8
- ^ a b c d e Holmes (1993), pp. 132–155
- ^ a b Shaffer (1984), p. 53
- ^ Hamilton-Wilkes (1982), p. 77
- ISBN 978-0-684-85502-8.
- ^ Woodruff, Roger A.; Green, Jeffrey S. (1995). "Livestock herding dogs: a unique application for wildlife damage management". Great Plains Wildlife Damage Control Workshop Proceedings. 12. Ardmore, OK: Noble Foundation: 43–45.
- ^ Wasser, Samuel K. (October 2008). "Lucky Dogs" (PDF). Natural History. American Museum of Natural History: 48–53. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
- PMC 10834484.
- ^ Beauchamp (1997), pp. 57–58
- PMID 14623147.
- ^ Strain, George M. (23 June 2004). "Breed-Specific Deafness Prevalence in Dogs". Retrieved 22 October 2011.
- ^ Petersen-Jones, Simon M. (2003). "Progressive Retinal Atrophy: an overview". Proceedings of the 28th World Congress of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
- S2CID 19306779. Archived from the originalon 9 January 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
- S2CID 20918157.
- ^ Kennel Club (2004). "Pure-bred Dog Health Survey". British Small Animal Veterinary Association Scientific Committee. Archived from the original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2007.
- ^ Dorn, C. Richard (2002). "Canine Breed-Specific Risks of Frequently Diagnosed Diseases at Veterinary Teaching Hospitals" (PDF). American Kennel Club. pp. 1–27. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
- ^ Mary Durack, 'Durack, Patrick (1834–1898)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/durack-patrick-3457/text5281, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 2 July 2023.
- ^ Durack, Mary (1959). Kings in Grass Castles. London, Constable, 1959.
- ^ Australian Bureau of Census and Statistics (2008). 3105.0.65.001 - Australian Historical Population Statistics, https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/DetailsPage/3105.0.65.0012008?OpenDocument. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
- ^ James Harrison, Australia, and the World’s First Patented Refrigerator. https://dynamicrefrigeration.com.au/blog/james-harrison-ice-machine/, accessed online 2 July 2023.
- ^ Howard (1990), pp. 26–28
- ^ "Sir Bedivere". The Australian Cattle Dog. The Town and Country Journal 9 September 1903. p. 34.
- ^ Kaleski (2005)
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
- ^ Clark (2003), pp. 55–6
- ^ Clark (2003), p. 54
- ^ Clark, Noreen R (2022). A Dog for the Job. Canberra, Inspiring Publications, ISBN 978-1-922792-43-3, p. 135.
- ^ Clark (2003), p. 58
- ^ a b c d e Ekman, Esther. "Can An American Kennel Club Registration Save A Herding Breed?". Working/Herding Dogs. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
- ^ a b Redhead (1988), p. 116
General and cited references
- Beauchamp, Richard G. (1997). Australian Cattle Dogs. New York: Barron's Educational. ISBN 978-0-8120-9854-9.
- Beauchamp, Richard G. (2007). Australian Cattle Dogs: 2nd edition. New York: Barron's Educational. ISBN 978-0-8120-9854-9.
- Buetow, Katherine (1998). The Australian Cattle Dog: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet. New York: Howell Book House. ISBN 978-0-87605-446-8.
- Clark, Noreen R. (2003). A Dog Called Blue: The Australian Cattle Dog and the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, 1840–2000. Wallacia, NSW: WriteLight Publishers. ]
- Coren, Stanley (1995). The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives of Our Canine Companions. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-37452-0.
- Hamilton-Wilkes, Monty; Cumming, David (1982). Kelpie and Cattle Dog: Australian Dogs at Work. Sydney, NSW: Angus & Robertson. ISBN 978-0-207-14490-5.
- Holmes, John; Holmes, Mary (1993). The Complete Australian Cattle Dog. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-87605-014-9.
- Howard, A. J. (Bert) (1990). "Halls Heelers". In Russell W. Warner (ed.). Over-Halling the Colony: George Hall, Pioneer. Sydney, NSW: Southwood Press. ISBN 978-0-908219-07-0.
- Kaleski, Robert (2005). Australian Barkers and Biters. Warwickshire, UK: Vintage Dog Books. ISBN 978-1-905124-75-6.
- Lithgow, Scott (2001). Training and Working Dogs for Quiet Confident Control of Stock. Brisbane, Qld: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-7022-2394-5.
- Lowell, Michele (1990). Your Purebred Puppy: A Buyers Guide. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-1892-9.
- Pearse, Emma (2011). Sophie, Dog Overboard: The Incredible True Adventures of the Castaway Dog. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4447-1520-0.
- Redhead, Connie (1988). The Good Looking Australian. Adelaide, SA: C. Redhead. ISBN 978-0-7316-2220-7.
- Renna, Christine Hartnagle (2009). Herding Dogs: Selecting and Training the Working Farm Dog. Freehold, NJ: Kennel Club Books. ISBN 978-1-59378-737-0.
- Robertson, Narelle (1990). Australian Cattle Dogs. Neptune City, NJ: TFH Publications. ISBN 978-0-7938-2808-1.
- Ruvinsky, Anatoly; Sampson, Jeff (2001). The Genetics of the Dog. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85199-520-5.
- Schwartz, Charlotte (2009). Australian Cattle Dog: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog. Freehold, NJ: Kennel Club Books. ISBN 978-1-59378-368-6.
- Shaffer, Mari (1984). Heeler Power: A Guide to Training the Working Australian Cattle Dog. Medford, WI: Countryside Publications. OCLC 12987177.
- Simmons-Moake, Jane (1992). Agility Training: The Fun Sport for All Dogs. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-87605-402-4.
- Stockman, Mike (2002). Dog Breeds of the World: The Complete Reference to Pedigree Dogs of the World. New York: Hermes House. ISBN 978-1-84038-871-8.
External links
- Australian Cattle Dog at Curlie