Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, commonly known as the Stumpy, is a naturally bobtailed or tailless medium-sized cattle dog closely related to the Australian Cattle Dog. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog and the Australian Cattle Dog share Halls Heeler origin.
History
The first domestic dogs to arrive in Australia came with the First Fleet in 1788 and later convict fleets. A thriving stray dog population soon grew. Some of the strays, those with stock work potential, apparently found home with the free settler, George Hall. Thomas Hall, a son of George, developed them into working dogs. Robert Kaleski, who wrote the first standard for the Cattle Dog breed, called Hall's dogs Halls Heelers.The Halls Heelers were later developed into the two modern breeds, Australian Cattle Dog and Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog. Kaleski also suggested that Thomas Hall imported dogs from England.
The Sydney-based Kaleski described only long-tailed cattle dogs in his breed standard, published in 1902. The short, or absent, tail is an inherited defect. In Queensland, however, the two types were originally exhibited as two varieties of the one Cattle Dog breed, but by the 1950s, separate classes – Cattle Dog and Cattle Dog – were more usual.
During the 1950s administrative decisions taken by the Canine Control Council (Queensland), and consequent legal proceedings, threatened the future of the Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog as an exhibited breed. Iris Heale, Glen Iris kennels, became the only registered Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog breeder. She exercised her monopoly by refusing to sell registered animals. During the 1980 some members of the Australian working dog fancy realised Heale’s death would also be the death of the Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog as an exhibited breed. In 1988 the Australian National Kennel Council introduced a "Development Breeding Programme" to perpetuate the breed. The success of the scheme, to which Iris Heale gave active support, is evident in the growing popularity of the breed.