New Zealand Heading Dog

The New Zealand Heading Dog is the silent counterpart to the Huntaway — it gathers sheep by eye where the other drives them by voice.

History

New Zealand's high-country runs need two kinds of dog, and farmers bred both: the Huntaway barks stock away from the handler, the Heading Dog works silently ahead and brings them back. It comes from Border Collie stock imported in the nineteenth century, bred on strictly for that gathering work and registered on ability rather than appearance.

Temperament

The breed is known for being intense, biddable and enormously focused on stock, closely bonded to its handler and quiet at work by design.

Care and training

It needs a great deal of exercise and genuine work; without sheep the eye and the drive find another target. The medium coat is easy.

Health

Generally robust from working selection, with hip dysplasia and the collie eye conditions among the known tendencies. These are patterns for the breed rather than a forecast for one dog; the measured facts are in the panel.