Working Dogs in Suburbia

Originally published December 24, 2017

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After watching a post showing a video from the ‘80s, I came across a bombardment of opinions in the comments. The video was of a tiny kelpie puppy, less than 8 weeks old, having it’s second experience with sheep.

The comments were barely related, in many cases. One thing that frustrated me was the misconceptions being portrayed and argued over.

Yes, dogs are bred for a purpose. Every single dog was bred for a purpose, otherwise we’d still just have a bunch of wolves and dingos. But that doesn’t mean that every single dog of that breed suits the exact same purpose.

The difference between suburbia and rural life isn’t the country or the property size. The difference is the dog’s access to the appropriate balance of mental and physical stimulation. On a farm, working dogs are constantly thinking on their feet, obeying commands from their owner as well as thinking ahead for themselves and knowing where the sheep will move and where they need to go to stop that movement. In a suburban environment, in many cases, the dog is restrained to a much smaller yard and has to find its own entertainment. That’s when the attention switches from working helpfully to digging, barking, chewing and trying to escape.

Thus, the CRAZIES that occur when a dog bred to be accustomed to the high strain of a working dog is cooped up in a tiny yard with not outlet. But, that isn’t any fault of the dog, or even any fault of the yard. That’s a fault of the owner, and it’s a fixable one.

My friend and I got Millie, our puppy girl, a few months ago. We avoided kelpies, because we thought we knew what we were getting ourselves into and didn’t want the need for mental stimulation. We tried to be responsible, and get a dog that showed we were considerate of breeds and our lifestyle, whilst also getting a breed that would suit future lifestyles. We ended up with a puppy from two beautiful, laid back dogs. The parents had a medium sized yard and thrived as cuddly family pets. The mum was staffy x collie (looked much more staffy but with some extra long legs), and the dad was a pure bred blue heeler, and HUGE.

Our Millie, well, she turned out looking like neither of her parents. As a pup everyone thought she was a tiny rotty. As her proportions evened out and she was no longer a squishy little fur ball, she became a little kelpie look alike, black, tan and the body and attitude to match. My only guess is that the kelpie came out from her father’s blue heeler genes (she was the only one in the litter with that colouring, all the rest were a mix of the mum and dad, and most had the blue heeler pattern).

Her temperament is kelpie. Bark and run and attention and all. Could be the heeler x collie mix, but either way we had a working dog in a cheap rental. But taking a Dog Psychology course, I felt slightly more prepared. All we needed was the mental and physical stimulation she’d require. She still had the puppy crazies until she was fully vaccinated, where she’d release all her pent-up energy bolting around the yard and going mad for a good half hour before settling down. We’ve slowly learnt to incorporate different things in to help her.

We have a kong that has a heavy bottom and a hole in the side, and her food goes in there. She has to knock the kong a certain way to retrieve her food, and she loves it. Even with food in her bowl she still knocks the kong as she goes past sometimes. She has been learning obedience training since she was 6 weeks old; she knew sit within a few days of getting her. At puppy school when they were learning the basics, the teacher was explaining the technique and said the word ‘sit’ in a sentence… and Millie promptly sat, ears perked up ready for praise.

Now with exams we’ve slackened recently with the obedience training, and focused more on the walks, but she still has a whole list of commands at her disposal. Her best combo is sit, down (lie down), sit (back up), hi five (shake), speak (bark) and stay. She also knows short sentences that we’ve said on repeat. “Gentle” she takes as either calm down when she’s being overly crazy, or if she’s play biting and bites too hard she’ll lick you better as a sort of apology.

She’s just learnt to jump up places, and is now learning ‘hop off’ and ‘get down’. She’s learning all her different toys names, and knows ‘go get it’. She also knows “who’s here?” or “who is it?”, where she’ll run to the door and wait (followed by either excited puppy mode where she tries her best to sit in greeting, or by an alert bark if she’s not sure who it is). She knows ‘attack’, which basically means run at the person you’re pointing to and give them a big excited greeting.

She is also learning all our names, especially ‘Meeka’ and ‘Storm’, and now is learning our housemates as well. If you say “Where’s Meeka?” she’ll perk up her ears and either look between you and the direction Meeka is in, or get up and find Meeka if she isn’t sure. She also knows ‘go nuneyes’ from when she was a puppy learning to settle at night, and that will get her settled and lying down on occasion. She’s also learning “in your bed” and “out of the kitchen”.

She’s 4.5 months old. She has a sandpit for digging and a shallow pool for swimming and a yard for short distance puppy sprints. She’s destroyed the garden and has gotten to a lot of toilet rolls, one book, a pack of Cards Against Humanities and one PS4 remote. But she’s learnt quick. Now she will bolt into the toilet, go straight for any empty toilet rolls and run off with them, but knows not to touch the rolls with paper on them. She has problems, but she’s still a puppy and she’s still learning. She’ll slowly resolve them all. She goes for walks and we are building up to walking daily for longer and longer each time.

When she’s older, we’ll start teaching her agility as well as obedience. Since she was little, she’s always been around other dogs. Elderly dogs and puppies at puppy school. Then after her vaccinations she met dogs on walks at the park and at the beach, and has recently spent a few days playing with my mums big, bulky staffy, Jasper. She also came with me to a dairy farm, where she met three other dogs, one an adult pure bred kelpie, one a jack Russell puppy and the other a weird mix breed that looked kelpie x bull arab. During that visit she learnt to explore off leash without overly pushing boundaries and limits, to stay close enough for my peace of mind whilst having her own independence. She also got introduced to the cattle, and learnt to run beside the quads properly (road rules are always good for a puppy to know).

She’s been introduced to every environment we can think of, every trick we can teach, and every toy and game we can get our hands on. She’s a very content, smart puppy, and she’s settling right into a great suburban life despite our fears.

Millie on a dairy farm adventure

Check out some of the comments below to come to your own conclusions:

“This is Tim Austin. He and his famed Elfinvale Kelpie stud in Western Victoria probably did more to extol and publicise the worth and abilities of Kelpies than other Australian. In the mid 80s he brought a big mob of Merinos into the centre of Melbourne as part of a promotion for the wool industry. And there were plenty of Kelpies present naturally. Tim is going strong at 82 and has just published his book about Kelpie genetics-and his thesis on the role of mitochondrial DNA from the female side as being the critical factor in determining the qualities of a dog. It’s called The Female Phenomenon, abailaofrom the author in Port Fairy, Vic.”

ABC Landline

“Working Dogs should never be kept in a suburban backyard. No on should be allowed to own them unless they are working. It’s in their blood and DNA. They need to herd. And kept in a yard with no work sends them crazy. That’s when people surrender them to shelters.”

Stephanie Johnson

“Stephanie Johnson ive gotta say at the local pound nine out of ten in there are kelpies you whistle and ten heads all pop up smiling it’s a pity owners dont take a lot more care.”

Marty Muir

“Herding dogs are way, way to versatile to limit to people with livestock.” – Greg Black

“I definitely agree that most working dogs should be working but not all of them are best suited to working. […] If you had your way he would have had a bullet in his head because he’s not a worker [in regards to an ex working dog not suited to the herding life that she adopted into her home]. He is the perfect family pet.”

Jodi Bussell

“Jodi Bussell several years ago a guy near where we lived had a red cattle pup, beautiful little dog but didn’t want to work so the owner did just what you said, he shot him.. we were devastated.”

Lynne Bofinger

“There are a lot of farm dogs that end up in the pound or let loose too… but I understand your point. A large number of farm, city, and suburban people alike just don’t seem to value or understand a dog’s needs.”

Jeffrey Rodriguez

“Most pure bred dogs were bred for a job Does this mean that these other dogs also should not be kept as pets?”

Daniel Tyson

To see the video, look here. To check out the breeders of this beautiful pup that started all this, look at Elfinvale Stud Kelpies.