Australian Shepherd/Queensland Healer mix

[scrapbookbuzz]

Anyone have one? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? Why did you get that particular breed and not another?

[BritAnnia]

My daughter had an Australian Shepherd. Beautiful dog both to look at and in temperament. She was very gentle, playful, intelligent. Only thing I can think might potentially be a downside to some is the dogs coat. It's quite thick, will need regular grooming.

HTH

[linders]

She was a pound puppy and almost 13 now. She was my first baby. Wonderful temperment - she literally let the babies and toddlers take food out of her mouth and just looked at them mournfully and now she just avoids the boys if they get too wild. Lots of energy - not destructive or nippy, but for the first many years she and I took long walks every day and DH played a lot of frisbee with her. A great companion hiking and camping. Agree with previous poster about the thick coat - she sheds like crazy.

 

Sniff - she is just starting to have trouble with stairs, and her frisbee days are past.

[lovemyboys]

Anyone have one? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? Why did you get that particular breed and not another?

 

We had an Australian Cattledog/Blue Heeler mutt. Mutt because the tail curled a bit and she was slightly lighter in build than that breed purebred. The breed nips at the heels of cattle it's herding.

 

The Aussie Shepherd, I believe, is actually an American breed. Pretty little dog similar to a sheltie. Good-natured, I've heard.

 

The heeler is short-haired but mixed with a shepherd would probably give you a longer-haired dog.

 

Our dog was great, very high-energy, high-spirited. She was very patient with children, even when she was pretty old -- they could crawl up over her, fall on her, pull her hair and she'd just look at them. She was funny and smart. You see this breed on Letterman doing frisbee tricks, they're often in those frisbee-catching competitions. We wished we had a few animals for her to herd.

 

The downsides would be that all that energy has to be channeled. We walked a lot. Our dog was strong-willed too. She liked to get outside and race around for hours.

 

We adopted ours from a shelter.

 

If the heeler breed is mixed with the shepherd breed, it might mellow the energy a bit, but I think they're both herding dogs and those usually need more exercise and like a "job." They're also very loyal.

[MyLittleWonders]

I have no experience with a Queensland Heeler, but my mom and step-dad have an Australian Shepherd. He is a great big teddy bear. He does shed all the time (we keep their dogs when they go out of town and I'm usually still vacuuming hair a couple weeks after they leave!). But, he is extremely sweet, very smart, and a great dog. They do have a herding instinct, obviously, and I have read that it can be an issue with small kids (he is as big as my boys were at 2 and 3, and if he wanted to herd them, he would have knocked them over - not from meanness but only because he has no idea he is as big or strong as he really is). But, that would not keep me from getting one, though the shedding might give me pause. ;) Truly, though, next to poodles, I think Australian Shepherds are the best doggies.

[hornblower]

Well, it depends a lot on the temperaments of the parent dogs but if they're true to breed, you're looking at two dogs with a lot of drive to work, specifically to herd.

 

These dogs may sometimes try to control children (& adults) by nipping. They may chase cars/bikes/rollerbladers. They may be destructive if they're not well exercised (mentally and physically) and challenged with learning games.

 

They are very attentive to their people, will want to work for you, will want a 'job'. That job can be something like a dog sport like agility or flyball etc. Heelers are tough dogs - they are used for herding cattle which is harder to move than sheep.

 

check out for instance:

 

 

&

 

I think they can make fine pets in homes which are into training & dog sport or herding etc.

 

There are some neurotic aussies out there & there are also a number of breeders breeding crayola aussies - ie breeding for color, with sometimes disastrous consequences as there are several genetic health problems which crop up with some color combinations, esp the merle genes.

 

I'm assuming you're looking at an existing dog & not at someone who actually intentionally cross breeds these to create a mutt. If it's a dog in shelter/rescue or up for a private re-homeing, you just need to really find out about its temperament & personality.

 

best wishes

[hornblower]

Oh & I forgot to say: it's hEEler. Though it would be cool if they were healers too :D

[Remudamom]

I've had a purebred Australian Sheperd, a purebred heeler and a mix of the two.

 

Aussie- Abby, very loving dog, adored the children and followed them everywhere. Meduim drive, taking care of the kids kept her pretty busy. I don't recall her ever going through the normal puppy nipping stage. Once I watched the children march by the window in a line with Abs bringing up the rear. A minute later they marched by again, one of the boys was nekkid and Abby was still trotting behind, but this time with his underwear in her mouth. I didn't ask.

 

mix- Molly, one of my heart dogs. The smartest, most trainable dog I have ever owned. She would have out perfomed my collie I think, who had gone through all sorts of training programs. Molly fetched a bottle rocket once, came running up to give it to me with her chest smoking, and had to be restrained from continuing to fetch. She loved us deeply and devotedly. I got her from the pound and she was so thankful to leave there. Unfortunately we only had her six months before she was hit and killed. She attacked a truck. I think she thought it was a threat to me and the children. She was fearless.

 

Tick- ACD, cattle dog, Queensland Heeler. Like a rabid croc. Very high energy. Enthusiastic frisbee dog, she should belong to some young kid who would do agility with her. Extremely protective. Over protective. Hard to control around livestock. If she is in the truck, sees a steer she thinks needs discipline and can't get to it she'll rip the truck interior in frustration. Doesn't listen to anyone but me, and rarely me. She bites on her home turf. Hates strangers. She's beginning to mellow at almost seven now.

Edited January 14, 2010 by Remudamom

[Ellie]

Anyone have one? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? Why did you get that particular breed and not another?

It might be tricky getting an answer to that, since that isn't a breed but a mix, and you just don't know for sure what you'll get with a mix.