Australian Cattle Dog: characteristics, curiosities, and dedicated products

The Australian Cattle Dog is a very active herding dog, always ready to do something with its human friend. This doesn't mean that to have a Cattle Dog as a friend you have to prepare for a daily marathon! A well-bred Australian Cattle Dog will be able to regulate its own energy, resting in the owner's absence and engaging in lively games if its human is available. Be careful, this certainly doesn't mean we can forget about our Cattle Dog until we feel like playing with them...that's completely wrong! For an Australian Cattle Dog, the owner is a figure who must always be present; our dog will expect daily attention and activities. Extended running? Competitive sports? Absolutely not necessary! Mental stimulation is always appreciated by a good Cattle Dog, as are walks in the woods and scent games. The Cattle Dog is a dog that you can't forget in the living room, but neither is it the demon some describe. As with every aspect concerning a purebred dog, correct selection is the key to having a balanced individual and a pleasant companion.

When Australian Cattle Dogs and small humans live together, timing and excellent selection are crucial. Timing, because it will be fundamental to plan the puppy's arrival in the family, assessing when the child in the home will be ready for the arrival of a little dog full of sharp teeth, tiny claws, and enthusiasm. Bringing together very young children with very young puppies can be difficult to manage, because the puppy will want to play with the child, who may not yet be physically ready. Once it is established that your child is ready and that our time management allows it, the puppy can come home. It will be essential to manage the interactions between the two "little ones," so that they become friends while respecting each other's spaces, rest times, and meals. A well-selected Australian Cattle Dog will be delighted to share its space with one or more children, with whom it will share hours of play. Parental supervision will always be important, as the Cattle Dog is a very "physical" dog in its expressions and even if it is positive energy, boisterous play could result in some bruises for the small human. Once adulthood is reached, the dog will tend to learn to contain itself in the child's presence and, from a pure playmate, it will become their chosen guardian and powerful guardian angel. If you have children at home or if you plan to have them in the future, it will be fundamental to carefully evaluate the parents of our future puppy and ask the breeder many questions about the behavior and temperament of the puppy's relatives that we will bring home. Good dogs only come from good dogs.

There are two basic colors accepted and described by the Breed Standard:
-BLUE: a mixture of black and white hair
-RED: a mixture of red and white hair
The fundamental thing to keep in mind when evaluating the coat of an Australian Cattle Dog is the distribution of white hair.
The RED coat has white distributed in small "speckles." This specific coat is called "Red Speckle." Insufficient white hair or its failure to aggregate into small speckles constitutes a fault, although not a serious one.
In the case of the blue coat, white hair distribution is allowed in 3 ways:
-BLUE: black and white hair mix uniformly over the dog's entire body
-BLUE SPECKLE: white hair is grouped in small speckles; the base is always black
-BLUE MOTTLED: white hair is grouped in larger white spots than in the speckle coat, approximately the size of a 50-cent coin. The base is always black.
Dogs with a white base and black patches are considered outside the standard, as are liver, cream, or coats with white patches larger than permitted (often somatic mutations).
Solid patches on the body, of any color, are considered undesirable, unlike patches on the face, which if symmetrical are defined as a "mask" and are considered a desirable trait

In the world of purebred dogs, asking for a price without providing the right context can cause confusion. When asking for dog prices, you'll find puppies from €300 and puppies from €3000, but what is the correct amount? It all depends on what is offered with the puppy. The minimum we should receive with the dog are:
-Minimum vaccinations for its age
-Microchip and registration in the canine registry
-ENCI Pedigree (without which the puppy will not have certified ancestry and therefore should be considered a "Cattle Dog mix")
-An appropriate socialization path for the puppy's age (which should never be less than 60 days old at the time of transfer).
Even if we shouldn't even consider buying the puppy without the above, there are many more important things we should ask the breeder:
-Parents certified free of dysplasia
-Parents with DNA tested for breed-specific diseases
-Parents with good show results and working trials
-Balanced and sociable parents
Does it seem like too much? Yet, without all this, the risk of encountering major problems is high. So how much can a good Australian Cattle Dog puppy cost? Considering that each breeder does their own calculations and values their dogs according to their own parameters, we can say that a good puppy cannot cost less than €1000-€1200. Do you find one at a lower price? Ask yourself why that puppy costs less. What are you willing to give up? Well-cared-for parents? The puppy's health? Its good temperament? Adherence to the standard? Ask the breeder many questions, ask to see the certificates, and you will be able to better understand whether the final price of the puppy is a good price or not

The Australian Cattle Dog is a double-coated dog, meaning it has a topcoat, which remains the same all year round, and a thick undercoat that grows in the cold season. The Australian Cattle Dog's undercoat gives it a regal appearance, especially thanks to the beautiful fur collar that grows around its head. The "negative" aspect, although completely natural, of this double coat, is the fact that the undercoat sheds when it is no longer needed. As spring approaches, our Cattle Dog will begin "shedding," which is the loss of its winter undercoat. And how much does it shed exactly? Well... saying a ton doesn't even come close! A home grooming routine, with a good daily brushing and, most importantly, a good vacuum cleaner, will be our faithful companions during the shedding period.
It's a small price to pay to have the best life companion

The Breed Standard is very precise when it comes to the correct height of an Australian Cattle Dog. The maximum and minimum height indications differ for male and female dogs:
MALES: 46-51 cm
FEMALES: 43-48 cm
Height is measured at the dog's withers, which is the point where the base of the neck meets the insertion of the shoulder blades.

When you think of an Australian Cattle Dog, you need to imagine why this breed was created back in the 1800s. Their work as independent and intelligent herders required a selection process that sharpened certain aspects of their character, such as independence and decision-making ability. The breed has carried these characteristics through to the present day. Once you understand the heritage of this breed, words like "stubborn," "difficult," or "unruly" will never come to mind! Our Cattle Dog is not difficult; our Cattle Dog is capable of making autonomous decisions and evaluating us. Are we capable and consistent owners? Good leaders? If the answer is yes, no training will be necessary. Our dog will adapt to our lives as if it were the missing piece of a puzzle.
Are we nervous, indecisive, anxious, tied to the classic "sit-stay-down"? Perhaps the Cattle Dog is not the right dog for us. This is because after indulging us by obeying a couple of uncertain "sit!" commands, our dog will decide that we are not worth its time and will start minding its own business.
So, is it difficult to train an Australian Cattle Dog? No, as long as we don't end up being trained by them!