He is adorable and yes Heelers are VERY smart. My Late Jazz was a cattle dog X border collie and was by far the smartest dog I have ever met . She has been dead 4 yrs now and people still talk about her and how smart she was. A very loyal dog too. She did do agility and she also mastered many tricks so if we were out on a walk or playing fetch I tossed in lots of obedience or trick commands to keep her mentally stimulated and that would also tire her out as did I mention energy? As a puppy she never slept if I was awake! A typical game of fetch at the park would be me putting her on a down stay tossing the ball releasing her to go get it, then making her drop in a down half way and upon release asking for a spin or maybe a roll over then releasing her to move forward and maybe stopping her one or two more times with similar commands before she got to the ball. I could do all those commands from a distance and we usually drew crowds when we played
. She was really amazing to watch. In a park if she took her ball to someone and they just tossed it without asking more she usually would return it to someone else in hopes that they knew the real game.
Another game she loved was herding groups of kids, I found that out quite by accident when she got set loose by one of the school kids that had stopped to watch me practice agility with Jazz and Dash. It was a class that stopped at the park on a filed trip and within minutes she rounded up all the kids ( 5th-6th graders) and would not let any of them out of her herd then she started teasing them with her ball yet still making sure none left the herd, the teachers just stood watching in amazement at her control of the kids. It was quite funny and I do think she was hoping the herd was hers to take home
as she loved kids!
She was forever inventing games. She had a buster cube that you put treats in and rolling it around they come out well after having that a few days she realized she could take an empty box put her toys in it then toss the box around and the toys came out and that would entertain her for hours! She also had a puzzle ball which is a large ball with about 6 holes in it and a ball inside that does not fit the holes so stays inside,by days end she knew that was a teaser so she started putting her own tennis balls in through the holes as they would come out when she rolled the ball.
I use to stuff about 6 bones with a mixture of dry /wet food when I went to work then hide them for both dogs to find.Well she made that into her own game that I still miss to this very day. They would find them eat about 1/2 the stuffing from each one . I worked nights so when I came home we all ate and then minute I finished my breakfast off Jazz would go and one by one bring me the bones and I would poke out the remaining treat and she and Dash would do a trick and get the treats as rewards. Dash was not allowed to touch the bones and sometimes Jazz would race around pretending she could not find one that was right in front of her so Dash would go standby it and bark " here it is here it is" and she would then pick it up and bring it to me to be poked. I called the game Pokey bones and breakfast just has never been the same without it. For 14.5 years she entertained me like no other dog ever has. How I do miss my girl so I thank you for allowing me to tell you about her as for these past few minutes she has been sitting right here beside my heart giving me her best lets play smile.
I hope your adorable dog brings as much love and joy to you as Jazz brought to me as it is hard not to love the quirks of a cattle dog or mix of one
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