A Brief History Of
The Development of the Australian Cattle Dog
Towards the end of the 19th Century, a more versatile dog still was required and the Bagust brothers, Alex Davis and a man called Robert Kaleski started introducing a strain of the locally developed sheep dog, the Kelpie, into the breed to improve the herding ability.
The Dalmatian was also introduced in an effort to make the breed
more horse friendly.
There has been some suggestion that the Bull Terrier was also introduced,
but this hardly bears serious consideration as the characteristics
of the Bull Terrier are exactly the opposite of what a working cattle-man;
would want in his cattle dogs.
By the beginning of the 20th Century, the breed known locally as Blue Heelers or Queensland Heelers had become sufficiently established for Robert Kaleski in 1903 to draw up a breed standard for the cattle dog, which was accepted by the Kennel Club of New South Wales and subsequently by the Department of Agriculture of NSW. It is that standard which is essentially current today.
No further 'infusions' or 'out crosses' have been introduced since then to improve the breed, although selection within the breed has been ongoing to produce the dog we know today.
For those who may not be familiar with the breed, the standard calls for a medium sized, compact, strong, muscular dog of about 18-20 inches (46-51 cm) in height and weighing between 40 & 50 lbs (20-23kg). The head should be broad between the ears, intelligent looking with strong muscular jaws, ears pricked, eyes brown, set well into the head with a sly, wary look (legacy of the Dingo). The body must be symmetrical, strong and muscular standing on clean well-boned legs with small cat shaped feet. Colours range from very dark blue, through to light blue to speckle blue on white in the blue dogs. The red dogs range from light red speckled to fairly dark ginger and no black colouring should be evident.
Black patches on the head and at the root of the tail are permissible, with a little red on the muzzle and chest in the blue dogs, while the reds are permitted dark red patches on the head and root of the tail.
By Peter Whitehead
