12d • Breed of the Week
Australian Cattle Dogs
The Australian Cattle Dog aka Heelers have also been called Queensland Heeler, Halls Heeler, Blue Heeler and Red Heeler.
The Australian Cattle Dog earned their other name, Heeler, due to moving cattle by nipping at their heels. This trait is present due to their dingo ancestry. What breeds were used to make up the Australian Cattle Dog is up for debate due to the records being disposed of but it is thought that some breeds include: Blue Collies, Kelpie, Bull Terrier and the Dalmatian (although the Dalmatian has been questioned).
How a wild dog would breed with a domesticated dog is not entirely known but a popular theory is that a litter of Dingo puppies were abandoned and raised domestically and from there was able to breed with domesticated dogs. While the theory is a consideration it is in fact a man named Thomas Hall who is credited for developing the breed. It is said that Hall, a cattle rancher, imported dogs from the United Kingdom, such as the blue-speckled Highland Collie, other sources say bob-tailed drover dogs with a blue coat, and crossbred them with the wild Dingo. This crossbreeding created a dog that was sturdy, tough, robust, active and could handle the Australian Outback but also work alongside their human.
It was in 1825 that Hall was first successful in breeding this new breed of cattle dog. Through continual and selective breeding, he had developed an extremely handy cattle dog by 1832. It wasn’t until after his death is 1870 that his dogs would become available to other people aside from friends and family. This is also where the breeding records of how the cattle dog came to be is lost to history due to the details of his breeding program being thrown away.
Sometime between 1845 and 1855 another type of Heeler was developed. These were known as Timmins’ Biter and were leaner than Hall’s Heelers, were blue and had stumpy tails. Cattle dogs were also said to be mixed with Kelpie which helped further develop their herding abilities and changes to their markings.
In 1893 a man named Robert Kaleski started to breed Blue Heelers and began showing them in 1897. Kaleski authored the first published breed standard for the Australian Cattle Dog. After showing the breed in 1897, the standard had changed over time as the breed gained popularity. Kaleski has tried to take credit for the development for the Blue Heeler which is untrue and his writings are considered to be wildly inaccurate.
The cattle dog first appeared in the United States in the mid 1900s, was recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1980 and placed in the working group. In 1983 they were moved from the working group to the herding group and this categorization applies to competitive events as well.
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Australian Cattle Dogs
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