Dogs

I'm looking at getting a blue heeler (Australian Cattle Dog). I like that it has a lot of energy to keep up and keep us in shape, is known to stay by it's owner off-leash rather than stray, but isn't known for anxiety or bark-fests. Two questions I have for anyone with experience:

Does the herding instinct make it hard to to train this dog to stay away from descending skiers
or does their superior intelligence allow it unlearn the instinct when taught?

How is this dog's flotation and snowproofness? (the Outback isn't known for snow!)


FWIW, I encourage dog-related thread drift!

Good choice on breed.  I appreciate the questions, which I'm going to use as an excuse to brag about my best ski dog, a blue heeler mix.  He doesn't bark, except when I stop for too long, he'll bark at a rock that he is trying to dig up, or he'll bark at birds he chases.

He is very good at staying behind the skier, but he is not very good at waiting his turn.  Whoever goes first is who he wants to run behind.

He is good at staying in my group.  If I meet other skiers, even those with dogs, he may visit the other group and play with the other dogs, but he won't run off with them. 

His floatation is poor, but he is smart enough that when it is deep, he stays in my tracks.  I have never had to carry him.  He keeps up better than other dogs on the downhill and he loves it.  He climbs very well on rock, snow and ice, and doesn't seem to have a problem with the cold. 

Overnight, he refuses to sleep in contact with me.  He wants his own space.  No heater benefit from my heeler-mix.

Also, he has aged well.  He is 13 years old and still makes regular laps at the local hill with me.

That just reaffirms my belief that these dogs are a good fit for me. Even in those pictures your dog looks notably bigger than the breed average. Do you know what he's mixed with?

I'll vouch for Mike's dog, he's great. I have a heeler mix too and he is a great ski dog at less than three years. My dog Zeke is bigger than Mike's but has very similar behavior. Zeke is a heeler/lab cross and has fairly good floatation and can charge through deep snow. He has webbed feet like a lab and snow doesn't stick to his coat. it will take some firm training to keep them off the skis in my experience.

Australian cattle dogs also used to be called "silent blue heelers". Ours never uttered a sound to our knowledge until our landlord decided to inspect our apartment without our knowledge some 2 years after we got her: he was very impressed by the deep low growl; over a decade we had her she only made that kind of noise and only under threatening circumstances. I did know some people who encouraged their heelers to bark and bark they did.

Our blue heeler was the best possible companion dog. She loved to ride with me in my PU. She accompanied me and my (former) wife doing wildlife research and never attempted to molest or chase the animals we were catching and releasing. She accompanied my wife on horseback and was indefatigable. She excelled in obedience training and competition (my former wife was a dog trainer, training for obedience, retriever field trials, and flushing dog field trials; we had lots of dogs). Heeling comes natural to cattle dogs .

One caveat: the breed, as a whole, based on my conversations with Australian owners, tend to by one-man (1-person/1-couple) dogs and not all are social. Some are quite protective and territorial. Getting one young enough, say about 6 weeks old, gives the owner a chance to "socialize" the dog to accept non-family members more readily if the owner expects the dog to be social.

Great dogs.

I concur on the suggestion for a mixed breed. We have a border collie / husky who doesn't have many of the annoying traits of her pure-bred components and she's hard-wired to love the snow.