HISTORY OF THE
AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG
The well-bred Kombinalong Born to be Super is a great example of what an Australian Cattle Dog should be. At only five months old, “Kylie” is working cattle in the breed’s homeland.
The land rolls on for miles ahead of you. The grass is dry, brown, summer-hot and barely moving in a breeze that just can’t get started. Cattle begin to stir. A small dark figure appears out of nowhere and begins to circle the herd. The dog is going to work. From somewhere off in the distance, a series of sharp whistle notes tells the dog to start the herd moving toward the river.
Some cattle balk at the orders. Quickly, the dog convinces them to move out. As they do, dust rises up from the ground and, momentarily, the dog is lost in the cloud. Can you picture the dust rising? The cattle synchronizing their movement? The occasional cow that refuses to stay with the herd?
Watch the dog and you’ll see what he does best. Seeing a cow drifting away, the dog races up behind the animal. With lightning speed, he bites the hock of the cow’s rear leg. Instantly, dust flies again. The errant cow lashes out at the dog with flying hooves. But the dog is safe.
Years of careful breeding have insured that the dog will bite, then duck low beneath those driving hooves. When the cow’s hooves thrash back and upward, the dog drops below the cow’s line of fire. Inbred instinct keeps the dog safe to drive the herd another day. Training tells him how to enforce the herdsman’s orders.
You have been privy to an amazing display of a dog working together with man to accomplish what the man alone could never do. The dog is an Australian Cattle Dog.
Just as the name implies, the Australian Cattle Dog is a tough, fearless, loyal, all-business kind of dog. In action and at a distance, he looks like a miniature tank with fur. He goes where others dare not go, he’s unstoppable and he’s afraid of nothing. These traits also make him a devoted companion to his owner and a dedicated protector of the home.
He’s been bred for herding cattle in Australia since the early 1800s, when settlers realized they needed a dog to help them move and control the cattle in the open country, where there were no fences. Initially, it took years of experimenting with various breeds of dog to produce what we know today as the Australian Cattle Dog or Blue Heeler.
DOG-UMENTATION
Did you know that documenting the existence of dog breeds can be done in various ways? For example, literature, ancient artwork, spoken stories, songs, riddles and even children’s games often help to document certain breeds and the dates when they became popular.
Back in those early days, ranchers used bob-tailed dogs called “Smithfields” to round up and herd the wild cattle that roamed the bush country. However, the Smithfields possessed some traits that the ranchers didn’t like. They barked almost constantly, bit too hard when working the herds and did not cope well with the extreme heat of the outback.
The year 1830 saw the beginning of a series of experimental matings of various breeds of dog to get the desired traits needed in the cattle dog. First, a man named Timmins from a town north of Sydney crossed his dogs with a Dingo, the native wild dog of Australia. The pups were quiet, quick and a great improvement over the Smithfields. However, they possessed one serious fault—when beyond the supervision of a drover, some of their inherited Dingo traits caused them to bite and chew the cows so severely that the animals could not be marketed. The Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog derived from Timmins’ stock.
More experimental breedings followed. Mixes of Collies, Bull Terr
