🐕 Medium · Australia
An extremely hardworking Australian herding dog bred for large sheep flocks that needs a daily job and becomes a difficult, destructive house dog without adequate outlets.
Highly intelligent, agile and geared toward constant engagement with its person, while alert and distant toward strangers. Tends to find its own occupation when idle, such as herding children or vehicles.
Needs several hours of intense physical and mental work daily, such as herding, agility, dummy training, or bikejoring. Entirely unsuited to life as a purely indoor dog.
Short, dense coat is very low-maintenance and needs only occasional brushing. The real care effort lies in daily exercise, not coat upkeep.
Suitable only for very experienced, active owners with a genuine job for the dog (herding work, dog sports); in inexperienced hands, the breed's enormous drive often leads to behavioural problems.
Overall a robust working breed; hip dysplasia, the Collie eye anomaly gene, and cyclic neutropenia occur in some lines and should be screened out before breeding.
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This information is for general guidance and does not replace veterinary or breeder advice. Temperament and health vary individually within every breed.
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