Blue Heeler Puppies

Several years ago we had a red heeler named Rusty that we intended to cross with Daisy, our favorite dog ever, to raise some puppies. Unfortunately, we had to move Rusty to a new home because he became aggressive with the goats. His new owner told us that he could get as aggressive as he wanted with the cattle. 🙂 But raising some farm puppies was an idea we couldn’t get rid of, and we decided to give it another try. That’s why, a year ago, we purchased a Australian Cattle Dog (blue heeler) pup named Pepper to pair with Daisy.

The day after Christmas, 2022, Daisy’s pups were born. She gave us five little black and white balls of fur. Imagine our surprise to find they were all girls! According to my understanding of probabilities, the chance of five girl puppies out of a litter of five is just over 3%, or 1 in 32.

The children quickly began playing with the puppies. Of course the first thing a puppy needs is a name, and our creative children soon supplied them. We have Tadpole, Bundle-bun, Paws (or pause, because it’s a pun, this being the pup with three dots on her back), Poppy, and Bentley (so named because she ALMOST doesn’t have the traditional Bentley mark on top of her head. If you look closely it is just barely there). When it comes to naming puppies, we parents just try to stay out of the way.

Each of the pups has their own personality that is beginning to show: Tadpole is a bit more quiet, but up for an adventure and can stick up for herself. She has more black patches on her than the rest. Bundle-bun is all out, and isn’t afraid of anything. Paws is very quiet and shy, like her mom. Poppy is a nice mix of fun and frolic, but is not always after attention. She and Paws have some of the prettiest, most symmetrical facial marks of the batch. Bentley has a mostly black head and hangs back. If she were one of the seven dwarfs her name would be Grumpy.

We’d love to see these pups find good homes, but if you’ve never had a Heeler you should do some research to see if they will be right for you. They are typically high-energy dogs who need things to do and want to be with their people. Once they latch onto you, they will stick as close to you as you allow them to. They’re fierce, fun, frolicsome, friendly, foolish, and sometimes fearsome. If you have other animals they will be interested. And their natural instinct is to “heel” herd animals. Both Pepper and Daisy have been completely safe around our goats, but we have had a few chickens die under suspicious circumstances. Their murders are unsolved and currently in our cold case file.