Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
Encyclopedia
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a bobtailed
, medium sized breed
of dog
. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog was developed in Australia
to herd cattle
, and descends from crosses between Europe
an herding dog
s and the Australian dingo
.
is medium length to short, straight, dense and harsh. The coat color is a speckled red or speckled blue. Size is 46-51 cms (18-20 ins) at the withers
for dogs, with females slightly smaller. The Australian Cattle Dog
is a related breed (with a long tail) that is similar in appearance to the Stumpy, but the Australian Cattle Dog is proportionally heavier and less leggy. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog also does not have the tan color seen in the Australian Cattle Dog. See the article Dog terminology for an explanation of terms.
with the dingo
. Records of working dogs are scarce from this time period, and there are several different accounts of the breed's development. One is that a drover named Timmins from Bathurst, New South Wales
, crossed the Smithfield dogs with the dingo, producing a type of working dog called Timmin's Biters. In order to mute their dingo characteristics and make the dogs easier to handle, further crosses were made with Scottish smooth collies, producing speckled red and blue dogs that were often born tailless.
In the book A Dog Called Blue, author Noreen Clark makes the case that both the tailless Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog and the Australian Cattle Dog descended from the same stock, called Halls Heeler
s, kept in the 1830s by a very large cattle operation run by Thomas Hall. The dogs which were also crosses of Smithfield Cattle Dogs and dingo, but the breeds diverged at some point in the late 19th century. Selective breeding
of the tailless or short tailed dogs has fixed the characteristic of today's breed. A summary of both versions of the breed's history is found in the Fédération Cynologique Internationale breed standard.
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is recognised in its native country by the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog Club of New South Wales and by the Australian National Kennel Council
in the Working Dogs Group
. It is also recognised by the New Zealand Kennel Club
in its Working Group, and in the United States by the United Kennel Club
in its Herding Group
. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog was provisionally accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale
in 2005, in Group 1, Section 2 : Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Cattle Dogs) as breed number 351. The breed may also be listed by minor kennel clubs, working or herding dog clubs, or internet based dog registry businesses, and promoted as a rare breed
pet.
trials, obedience
, showmanship
, flyball
, tracking
, and herding
events. Herding instincts and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. Stumpys exhibiting basic herding instincts can be trained to compete in herding trials.
Natural bobtail
A natural bobtail is an animal's tail which due to a mutated gene grows unusually short or is missing completely. The genes for the shortened tail may be dominant or recessive....
, medium sized breed
Dog breed
Dog breeds are groups of closely related and visibly similar domestic dogs, which are all of the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris, having characteristic traits that are selected and maintained by humans, bred from a known foundation stock....
of dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog was developed in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
to herd cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, and descends from crosses between Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an herding dog
Herding dog
A herding dog, also known as a stock dog or working dog, is a type of pastoral dog that either has been trained in herding or belongs to breeds developed for herding...
s and the Australian dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
.
Appearance
The Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a normally proportioned, rugged dog with pricked (standing up) ears and long legs. The breed's most distinctive feature, for which the breed is named, is the frequent lack of a tail. When there is a tail, it is quite short, no longer than 10 cm (4 ins), and never docked. The coatCoat (dog)
The coat of the domestic dog refers to the hair that covers its body. A dog's coat may be a double coat, made up of a soft undercoat and a coarser topcoat, or a single coat, which lacks an undercoat...
is medium length to short, straight, dense and harsh. The coat color is a speckled red or speckled blue. Size is 46-51 cms (18-20 ins) at the withers
Withers
The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of a four-legged animal. In many species it is the tallest point of the body, and in horses and dogs it is the standard place to measure the animal's height .-Horses:The withers in horses are formed by the dorsal spinal processes of roughly the...
for dogs, with females slightly smaller. The Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Cattle Dog
The Australian Cattle Dog is a breed of herding dog originally developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. In the 19th century, New South Wales cattle farmer Thomas Hall crossed the dogs used by drovers in his parents' home county, Northumberland, with...
is a related breed (with a long tail) that is similar in appearance to the Stumpy, but the Australian Cattle Dog is proportionally heavier and less leggy. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog also does not have the tan color seen in the Australian Cattle Dog. See the article Dog terminology for an explanation of terms.
History
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog descended from Smithfield Cattle Dogs in England, which were brought to Australia in the early 19th century and crossedCrossbreed
A crossbreed or crossbred usually refers to an animal with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. Crossbreeding refers to the process of breeding such an animal, often with the intention to create offspring that share the traits of both parent lineages, or producing...
with the dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
. Records of working dogs are scarce from this time period, and there are several different accounts of the breed's development. One is that a drover named Timmins from Bathurst, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, crossed the Smithfield dogs with the dingo, producing a type of working dog called Timmin's Biters. In order to mute their dingo characteristics and make the dogs easier to handle, further crosses were made with Scottish smooth collies, producing speckled red and blue dogs that were often born tailless.
In the book A Dog Called Blue, author Noreen Clark makes the case that both the tailless Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog and the Australian Cattle Dog descended from the same stock, called Halls Heeler
Halls Heeler
The Halls Heeler was a dog bred by Thomas Simpson Hall to herd cattle on the Hall family's extensive properties in north-western New South Wales in the 19th century. On Dartbrook Station, in the Upper Hunter Valley, Hall selectively crossed the offspring of Northumberland Drover's Dogs that he had...
s, kept in the 1830s by a very large cattle operation run by Thomas Hall. The dogs which were also crosses of Smithfield Cattle Dogs and dingo, but the breeds diverged at some point in the late 19th century. Selective breeding
Selective breeding
Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...
of the tailless or short tailed dogs has fixed the characteristic of today's breed. A summary of both versions of the breed's history is found in the Fédération Cynologique Internationale breed standard.
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is recognised in its native country by the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog Club of New South Wales and by the Australian National Kennel Council
Australian National Kennel Council
The Australian National Kennel Council is the peak body in Australia responsible for promoting breeding, showing, trialling, obedience, and other canine-related activities and the ownership of temperamentally and physically sound purebred dogs by individuals across Australia. It was formed in...
in the Working Dogs Group
Working Group (dogs)
Working Group is the name of a breed Group of dogs, used by kennel clubs to classify a defined collection of dog breeds. Most major English-language kennel clubs include a Working Group, although different kennel clubs may not include the same breeds in their Working Group. Working Group does not...
. It is also recognised by the New Zealand Kennel Club
New Zealand Kennel Club
The New Zealand Kennel Club is the primary kennel club responsible for dog pedigree registration services in New Zealand. They also provide training services, judging for dog shows and many other services relating to dog showing. The organisation was introduced in 1886, it is also a full member of...
in its Working Group, and in the United States by the United Kennel Club
United Kennel Club
The United Kennel Club is the second oldest all-breed registry of purebred dog pedigrees in the United States and the second largest in the world. According to the website, the club records 250,000 registrations annually. The UKC is not part of the International Canine Organisation, Fédération...
in its Herding Group
Herding Group
Herding Group is the name of a breed Group of dogs, used by kennel clubs to classify a defined collection of dog breeds. It does not refer to one particular type of dog. How the Herding Group is defined varies among kennel clubs, and different kennel clubs may not include the same breeds in their...
. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog was provisionally accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale
Fédération Cynologique Internationale
Fédération Cynologique Internationale is an international federation of kennel clubs based in Thuin, Belgium. The English language translation, World Canine Organisation, is not often used.Its goals are described in Article 2 of their regulations:...
in 2005, in Group 1, Section 2 : Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Cattle Dogs) as breed number 351. The breed may also be listed by minor kennel clubs, working or herding dog clubs, or internet based dog registry businesses, and promoted as a rare breed
Rare breed (dog)
Rare breed is any breed of dog that is small in number. Since dogs have greater genetic variability than other domesticated animals the number of possible breeds is vast...
pet.
Temperament
The ideal temperament of the Stumpy is described in the breed standard as alert and watchful, as well as responsive to its owner and reserved around strangers, but also notes that "it must be amenable to handling" at shows, which implies that it is extremely independent, and that handling may be difficult. All working dogs need early socialization with people, and consistent training and activity throughout their lives.Activities
Stumpy Tail Cattle Dogs can compete in dog agilityDog agility
Dog agility is a dog sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy. Dogs run off-leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler can touch neither dog nor obstacles...
trials, obedience
Obedience training
Obedience training usually refers to the training of a dog and the term is most commonly used in that context. Obedience training ranges from very basic training, such as teaching the dog to reliably respond to basic commands such as "sit", "down", "come", and "stay", to high level competition...
, showmanship
Dog showmanship
Dog showmanship is a set of skills and etiquette used by handlers of dogs in a dog competition. Dog showmanship is not a competition in itself but a qualification of the handler to present a dog to its best advantage. Skills are technical as well as artistic...
, flyball
Flyball
Flyball is a dog sport in which teams of dogs race against each other from a start/finish line, over a line of hurdles, to a box that releases a tennis ball to be caught when the dog presses the spring-loaded pad, then back to their handlers while carrying the ball.Flyball is run in teams of four...
, tracking
Tracking (dog)
Tracking is a technique in which dogs are trained to locate certain objects, such as a downed bird, using the object's scent. Many bird and rabbit hunters train their dogs in tracking. The scent hounds are generally regarded as having the best tracking abilities among all dog breeds.In dog sports,...
, and herding
Herding
Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group , maintaining the group and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. While the layperson uses the term "herding", most individuals involved in the process term it mustering, "working stock" or...
events. Herding instincts and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. Stumpys exhibiting basic herding instincts can be trained to compete in herding trials.