Border Collies are intelligent, obedient, eager to please, and easily trained. They have genetic herding abilities, athleticism and tremendous drive. Border Collies instinctively go to the heads of livestock to prevent their escape.  This basic heading instinct is the basis for the Border Collie’s renowned gathering ability – rounding up a group of animals and bringing them to the shepherd. Gathering is surely the most useful and common task a dog can help with on the farm. Yet a good work dog can also help with many other tasks. Sorting, driving, holding stock in a corner so the farmer can catch particular animals, or holding stock off feeders so they can be filled.

AMERICAN BORDER COLLIE ASSOCIATION

The Australian Shepherd is categorized as one of the Loose-Eyed breeds of stockdogs. He is a confident, authoritative worker with a unique style that differs from Strong-Eyed breeds. He is agile, upright and close-working, and exhibits these distinctive traits while maintaining the ability and versatility to control all types of livestock in an efficient and deliberate manner. The Australian Shepherd excels at controlling large and/or slow-moving flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and is highly regarded for his superior ability to effectively manage livestock in tightly confined spaces. The Australian Shepherd is powerful and intense by nature easily learning the appropriate force and distance needed for the type of livestock being worked. Utilizing a loose-eyed approach to stock, a working Australian Shepherd will often display wear, grip, and/or an authoritative bark, as well as eye when necessary, to handle their stock.

AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD CLUB OF AMERICA

The Australian Kelpie is a lithe, active dog, capable of untiring work. He is extremely intelligent, alert, and eager with unlimited energy. As a herding dog, the Australian Kelpie is intensely loyal and devoted to duty. He has a natural instinct and aptitude for working in sheep, whether it be in open fields or enclosed yards. This breed originated from Collie type dogs imported from Scotland, but was developed to withstand the harsh heat and dry conditions of the vast open spaces of Australia.

AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB

The Australian Cattle Dog was developed to control wild cattle in groups of several hundred on drives through the inhospitable wilderness of Australia. These drives sometimes lasted weeks and crossed from the vast grazing lands of the outback, over the pass in the great dividing range, and through the streets of Sydney to the stockyards. The wild cattle and extremely harsh conditions were such that traditional working breeds were of no use. By crossing smooth-coated blue merle Scottish highland collies to selected dingoes in the 1840's; a drover named Thomas Hall developed a cattle dog that combined the hardiness of the dingo type, and the herding abilities of the highland collie. This cross reinforced the heeling instinct of the collie and eliminated their tendency to bark at the head.

AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG CLUB OF AMERICA