Australian Cattle Dog Training
The model Australian Cattle Dog comes without any trace of weakness or fragility.[citation needed] Excessively heavy or cumbersome build is also undesirable as it limits agility, a necessity for any good cattle working dog. Symmetry and balance are also essential and no individual part of the dog should be exaggerated or draw excessive attention. Even when bred for companion or show purposes, it should have well-conditioned, hard muscles.
A female Australian Cattle Dog should measure approximately 43 to 48 cm (17 to 19 inches) at the withers. A male Australian Cattle Dog should measure about 46 to 51 cm (18 to 20 inches) at the withers. An Australian Cattle Dog is a well-muscled, compact dog with a dense coat of coarse, rather oily hair with a slight ruff and fine, almost woolly, winter undercoat. It has a naturally long tail, generally carried low, with a slight white tip. An Australian Cattle Dog in good condition should weigh approximately 14 to 19 kg (30 to 45 pounds).
Australian Cattle Dogs exhibit two primary coat colours: blue and red. In both cases the colouration is not solid. The distinctive colouration of the Australian cattle dog is the result of white and grey hairs closely interspersed with red or black hairs. This is not a roan or merle colouration but rather the result of the ticking gene, the same gene found in Dalmatian (dog). In addition to the primary colouration, Australian Cattle Dogs also display some patches of solid or near-solid colour, most notably a mask over one or both eyes.
Red is the genetically dominant colour in Australian Cattle Dogs and consists of a mix of red and white hairs leading to a ginger colouration. The mask of red cattle dogs is solid or nearly solid red. Any patches on the body should be red also, with an ideal red dog having no blue or black markings whatsoever. However, a strongly disfavoured marking occasionally appears wherein a red animal exhibits black 'saddles'.
The more common colour of the Cattle Dog is blue, where the coat has a bluish appearance, where it gets its name 'blue mill' from, caused by the mottling of black, grey and white hairs all over the dog's body. Blue dogs may have either blue coats with black spots or blue coats with black spots and some red markings. Acceptable red markings on blue dogs include ginger feet, ginger spots on the legs, and some of the ginger colour on the face and underparts. The ginger colouration should not extend up the face, or high above the legs; when it does it is called a "creeping tan." This is not accepted in the breed standard.
The coat of a cattle dog should show an even disposition of colour, save in the coat patterns of 'speckle' and 'mottle'. These two patterns show in dogs with both red and blue coats and are less common than even coat colouration. A 'speckle' is a dark coat with a heavy mix of white speckles or small spots. A 'mottle' is a light or white coat with regularly-placed denser areas of dark colour showing up as spots. Both of these coat variations are considered unusual and uncommon, but acceptable, by breeders.
The mask is one of the most distinctive features of an Australian Cattle Dog. This mask consists of a blue-black patch over one or both eyes (for the blue coat colour) or a red patch over one or both eyes (for the red coat colour). The blue variety may also show some red on the face. Depending on whether one eye or both have a patch, these are called, respectively, single (or 'half') mask and double (or 'full') mask. Australian Cattle Dogs without a mask are called plain-faced and may have small red "eyebrows". Any of these are correct according to the breed standard, and the only limitation is the owner's preference.
This Australian Cattle Dog's markings are an example of a double mask.
Most Australian Cattle Dogs have a stripe or spot of white hair in the centre of the forehead, usually 1/2 inch to 1 inch by 2 inches to 3 inches (about 2 cm by 7 cm) called the Bentley Mark. This is similar in appearance to the blaze or star markings sometimes found on horses. This mark can be traced to a purebred dog owned by Thomas Bentley. According to legend, a popular dog owned by Tom Bentley passed on this distinctive mark to all Australian Cattle Dogs. They also frequently have a white tip to the tail and a small white patch on the chest.
Cattle Dog pups are born white (save for any solid colored body or face markings) and grow darker as they mature. This characteristic is believed to be inherited from a posited Dalmatian ancestry.
For dog owners whose interest is primarily in their qualification for conformation shows, even markings are preferred over uneven markings, and large solid-color marks on the body are undesirable. For owners who are more interested in their dogs' performance in activities such as herding or dog sports, the breed's strong work ethic and intelligence are of more importance than the exact coat markings.