Irongum Australian Cattle Dogs - Blue and Red Heelers

In the year 1840 a land owner named Thomas Bull, who owned the Dartbrook property at Muswellbrook. in the Hunter Valley of NSW imported a pair of smooth haired, blue merle, Highland Collies from Scotland. They were good workers but barked and headed, which as mentioned earlier were undesirable traits in the cattle dog. Hall crossed progeny from this pair with the Dingo, which produced silent workers that become known as "Hall’s Heelers". The colour of the dogs fro this cross were either Red or Blue Merle, with most of them having pricked ears and Dingo shaped head with brown eyes and were generally of the Dingo type. Halls dogs were a big improvement on any other available working dogs and became much sought after by cattle men.Hall continued his experimental matings until his death on the 28 th May, l870. A butcher named Alex Davis took a pair of these Dingo-Blue Merle crosses to the cattle saleyards at Canterbury, in Sydney. Cattlemen were impressed with the working ability of these dogs, and purchased pups from them when they became available. Two brothers, Jack and Harry Bagust, of Canterbury in Sydney, purchased some of these dogs and set about improving on them. Their first step was to cross a bitch with a fine imported Dalmatian dog owned by a Solicitor, Mr. Stephen, of Ashfield in Sydney. This cross changed the Merle to a red or blue speckle. The pups were born white, developing their colouring at about three weeks of age. The Bagusts purpose in this cross was to instil the love of horses, and faithfulness to master into their dogs. The Dalmatian is essentially a horse and carriage guard dog. This characteristic was obtained and made these Bagust dogs useful for minding the drover horse and gear. The only problem with this mating was that some of the working ability was lost. Admiring the working ability of the black and tan Kelpie, which is a sheep dog, the Bagusts experimented in crossing them with their speckle dogs. The result was a compact active dog, identical to the Dingo only thicker set, but with peculiar markings found on no other dog in the World. The blue dogs had black patches around the eyes with black ears and brown eyes, with a small white blaze in the middle of the forehead. The body was dark blue evenly speckled with a lighter blue, having the same tan markings on the legs, chest and head as the Black and Tan Kelpie. The red dogs had dark red markings instead of the black, with an overall even red speckle. Litters were culled and only the pups closest to ideal were kept. So by selective breeding, the Bagust’s dogs become the forebears of our present day Australian Cattle Dog. The working ability of the Bagust’s dogs were outstanding, retaining the quiet heeling ability and stamina of the Dingo with the faithful productiveness of the Dalmatian. As the word spread of the ability of these dogs to work cattle, they became keenly sought after by property owners and drovers. The blue coloured dogs proved to be more popular, and became known as Blue Heelers. These Cattle Dogs became indispensable to the owners of the huge cattle runs in Queensland, where they were given the tag of Queensland Heelers or Queensland Blue Heelers. After the Black and Tan Kelpie cross, no further infusion of breeds were practiced with any success. The blue dogs had black patches around the eyes with black ears and brown eyes, with a small white blaze in the middle of the forehead. The body was dark blue evenly speckled with a lighter blue, having the same tan markings on the legs, chest and head as the Black and Tan Kelpie. The red dogs had dark red markings instead of the black, with an overall even red speckle. Litters were culled and only the pups closest to ideal were kept.

So by selective breeding, the Bagust’s dogs become the forebears of our present day Australian Cattle Dog. The working ability of the Bagust’s dogs were outstanding, retaining the quiet heeling ability and stamina of the Dingo with the faithful productiveness of the Dalmatian. As the word spread of the ability of these dogs to work cattle, they became keenly sought after by property owners and drovers. The blue coloured dogs proved to be more popular, and became known as Blue Heelers. These Cattle Dogs became indispensable to the owners of the huge cattle runs in Queensland, where they were given the tag of Queensland Heelers or Queensland Blue Heelers. After the Black and Tan Kelpie cross, no further infusion of breeds were practiced with any success.