My heeler boy just turned 15 months..LOTTA energy. He's been hiking up to 10,000 ft elevation, many miles on trails in the mountains, hiking and camping nearly every weekend. He is wonderful...and Needy, be prepared or don't get one, these are NOT hang around the house type normal dogs.
My puppy blue healer is so smart.She has me trained already.I know exactly what she likes when she likes it and how she likes it. She is also in charge of her 7-year-old lab brother (who is her playmate) and makes sure that he retrieves and gives the ball back when I toss it. She is amazing
they are exceptionally smart my 11 yea old daughter said dad come and see what sue can do i said i know what she can do my daughter said no you dont, every time sue completed a trick she got a reward and sue was tired of this routine so she did all of tricks and wanted all the treats at once smart is the word
To anyone that has a blue heeler, how often to they need to be brushed and taken to the groomers? Also, how bad is the hip dysplasia, is it as bad with german shepherds? And how is their aggressiveness? Thank you to anyone that can answer.
They shed only once a year. It starts in January and finnishes in December.🤣 They can have inherant health problems. But not hip displasia. What they can suffer from is retna atrophy and hearing issues. The retina atrophy will send them blind. Do some back ground checks on the linneage that you maybe looking at. Google "skid boot" an amazing ACD from Texas. He went blind as did our Ned. See if this trait is present in the pups parents and grand parents. The aggressiveness needs to be acknowledged. We have had 3 ACD's. (here is Australia) The one male Ned was a big teddy bear. The two females were chalk and cheese. One aggressive, the other not. The usual training and acclimation with other dogs and people at the earliest oppurtunity is the best resolution of this potential issue. They aren't found in pounds on a regular basis for no good reason. Put in the effort and the pay back is tremendous.
Mine sheds quite a bit so he needs to be brushed every other day it seems. The hip dysplasia so far we haven't had that problem so I can't answer that. If you socialize them then they are fine. Mine will stand near me if there are strangers around and if they start to walk towards me he will hop around me in between me and the stranger. He's not vicious he just let's it be known you have to go through him to get to me. I hope this helps.
