The typical heeler personality is forceful, energetic, highly
intelligent, and intently focussed. Handling beef cattle takes a
lot of force of will and heelers have no shortage there. They
focus on whatever they're doing at the moment as if their lives
depended on it, and of course, when working a 1.5 ton steer, their
lives do depend on it.
You will often hear that heelers are very stubborn dogs. While
they can be difficult, I think 'stubborn' isn't quite the right
description. Heelers have very strong personalities, and they are
often very dominant dogs. You have to establish who is boss and
you have to maintain that status.
Heelers are very demonstrative in their body language so it's
pretty easy to learn to read them. A heeler who knows his place
is actually very eager to please but a heeler who thinks he's your
boss will be a royal pain and potentially a threat.
If you try to train your heeler with force he may well just refuse
to comply and actually fight back. If you train you dog
consistently with positive reinforcement, ie operant conditioning,
you'll find that heelers are very quick to learn and extremely
eager to please.
Heelers thrive on hard physical exercise. Clovis, at 4.5, still
wants at least 1.5 hours of fetch every day. They need activity
and they thrive on company (the most severe punishment I can
inflict on Clovis, from his point of view, is force him to be in a
different room than me.) A bored heeler will find something to
keep him busy, and they can be amazing engines of destruction.
Heelers typically are extremely confident in their own physical
capabilities and throw themselves into everything with gusto and
abandonment. Fortunately, their physical toughness matches their
personalities.
This same forcefulness is the one real concern with heelers and
kids. They need to be carefully taught that kids must be treated
gently. A heeler who lives with children shouldn't have any
trouble with this, provided he gets consistent training. Heelers
tend to have no qualms about telling off a child who annoys them,
though, by nipping them gently. This is not the sort of dog which
is a complete pushover for kids.
Heelers tend to be very one-mannish, that is they latch on to one
or two people very strongly and are more or less indifferent to
others. They are routinely aloof or even suspicious of
strangers. In fact, the standard says that a suspicious glint in
the eye is expected.
Heelers are often aggressive with other dogs, for pretty much the
same reasons. They tend to be picky about their friends and pack
and not really like anyone who isn't part of their normal circle.
And heelers tend to be very dominance-oriented. Many domesticated
dogs, while they display the standard dominance-submission
behaviors of wild dogs, do so sort of lackadaisically and it isn't
all that important to them. Many heelers find this posturing an
essential part of meeting any new dog.
Heelers also tend to be officious. They seem to have an
understanding of the concept of rules and will follow them when
learned. They also love to enforce the household rules on other
animals in the house.
