Stump Double Cattle Dog

The Stump Double Cattle Dog is a combination of two different variations of cattle dog that were both developed to help cattlemen in the rugged outback of Australia. The more commonly known of the two parent breeds is the Australian Cattle Dog, a tireless and agile worker with a strong will and a robust, bold temperament. The lesser known of the two parent breeds is the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, known until recently as just the Stumpy Tail Cattle dog, a breed nearly unheard of outside of Australia. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a tireless and agile worker with a strong will, a robust, bold temperament, and a noticeable lack of tail. The two breeds are close enough in appearance and in personality that they could easily be mistaken for one another, and frequently are, but when you stand the two side by side there are some notable differences due to the slight differences in breeding preferences between the breeds. The first dogs used for herding in Australia were a type of long-haired herding dog that had been imported from Britain, the Smithfield, an unrecognized dog breed that can still be found in parts of Australia today. Unfortunately, the long coat of fur that is characteristic of the Smithfield is a liability in the hot, dry working conditions that are found throughout much of Australia, so breeders began experimenting with crossing the Smithfield with local Australian dingoes. These dogs were known as Australian Cattle Dogs, and some were born with tails, and others were born with natural bobtails like the Smithfield dogs. A subsection of these cattle dogs with stumpy tails was preferred on certain areas of the continent, and the occasional smooth coated Collie was introduced to the gene pool; these dogs were known as Stumpy Tail Cattle Dogs until Queenland’s Kennel Club de-registered all of the Stumpy Tail breeders in the late 1960s. A development breeding program was created in the late 1980s to resurrect the breed under the name of Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog. This is a rare breed and finding trustworthy breeders of Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dogs or their hybrids may be extremely difficult outside of Australia itself.