Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog

The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, usually called the Stumpy, is a medium-sized working cattle dog born with a very short tail or none at all. It is a close relative of the Australian Cattle Dog, and both come from the same early stock, the Halls Heelers.

History

Domestic dogs first reached Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 and the convict fleets that followed, and a stray population soon grew up. Some strays that showed promise with livestock are said to have ended up with a free settler, George Hall. His son Thomas Hall developed them into working dogs, which Robert Kaleski later named Halls Heelers. Kaleski also suggested that Thomas Hall had brought in dogs from England. The Halls Heelers went on to become two breeds, the Australian Cattle Dog and the Stumpy.

Kaleski’s 1902 standard for the Cattle Dog described only long-tailed dogs. In Queensland the long-tailed and short-tailed dogs were at first shown as two varieties of one breed, and by the 1950s they usually had separate classes. In that decade, decisions by the Queensland canine authority and the court cases that followed left the Stumpy with a single registered breeder, Iris Heale of the Glen Iris kennels, who would not sell registered dogs. During the 1980s working dog enthusiasts saw that the show breed would end with her, and in 1988 the Australian National Kennel Council began a development breeding program, which Heale supported. The breed has grown in popularity since.

The Stumpy was first recognised as a breed in its own right in 1963, when the Australian National Kennel Council issued a standard for the Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog. The word Australian was added to the name in 2001, and the FCI accepted the breed in 2003.

Appearance

The standard asks for a well-proportioned working dog, rather square in profile, with a hard-bitten, rugged look. The ears are small and pricked. The tail is naturally short, under 10 cm (about 4 in). The coat is short and dense with a small ruff around the neck, and comes in patterns of blue or red. Unlike the Australian Cattle Dog, the Stumpy must not have tan markings, which the standard treats as a sign of mixed breeding.

Temperament

The standard describes the ideal Stumpy as alert and watchful, responsive to its owner and reserved with strangers. These are high-energy dogs that need a lot to do. Stumpies take part in herding trials, agility, obedience, flyball, tracking and frisbee.

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