Hello from Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Together with my wife I live in a pretty small village in the northern part of Switzerland. Beside two cats four dogs live with us in our house:

- Gem, a Flat Coated Retriever (Male)
- Finnja, an Australian Cattle Dog (Female)
- Laro, a Giant Schnauzer (Male)
- Rijon, a Shetland Sheepdog (Male)

where only the Cattle Dog is my real own one. Even if my wife works as an instructor in a dog school, both of us also have a "real" job to earn some money. My wife Claudia works part time at a veterinary, I work as a software architect in our own little company. So with a number of four our dog herd is really complete for the moment. As I like to plan things early (if possible) I thought about what breed would be possible for me having beside my Cattle Dog bitch if one of our elder dog has passed the rainbow bridge some day? I thought about different breeds but wasn't satisfied with all the ideas. A couple of weeks ago my wife arrived with a new book that describes different breeds, also such which are not known very well or not registered at FCI, and has shown me the Koolie. So here I am to find out more about this fascinating, in Europe almost unknown, breed of dogs.

I'll try to find out what your experiences are with Koolies, how there characters are compared with other (Australian) breeds like Kelpies or Cattle Dogs and what goes on with them, especially in Europe (read about some of them in Finland which is not really near to me but much less away then Australia ;-).

With my Cattle Dog I'm working in search and rescue (her job) and also did Agility (her hobby). And I could imagine to do both of these activites also with a Koolie (if I ever will have one...).

I'm looking forward to get in touch with you!

Welcome to the Koolie Forum!

Hope you enjoy the forum and get lots of information!

Would love to see some photos of your dogs... i love giant schnauzers!

Welcome to the forum. Anything a cattle dog or kelpie can do, a koolie can do better.

They are just lovely dogs to live with, lots of fun, intelligent, loyal, striking looks, and they work with you as a partner which is just great.

Servus! Wie gehts?

Yes, my German is pretty bad, and knowing my luck you probably speak French Suisse, although your village name does sound very German :) . I have spend quite a bit of time in the Engadine, very pretty place (cold in winter too!)

I read a story a few years ago about a Coolie/Koolie being trained in rescue. This dog is the only non northern hemisphere registered and recognised rescue dog. I'm looking for the article now. Great read. And yes, Coolies/Koolies do better than most working dogs on their tasks, they really are thinking dogs. Once I find the article, I'll post details on it, unless someone else finds it first (be my guest) and posts it.

Hello and welcome. Im sure with further research the Koolie will 'hook' you also, they are a very addictive breed and extremely intelligent, definately top of my list as far as working breeds go, and im only relatively new to koolies. i have an old klelpie dog who is an awesome worker the best worker i have infact (my koolies are not yet trained) but i will still say koolies are better.

Wow, thanks for the friendly welcome!

@Shane: Nice to hear that you lived for a while in the valley of Engadin. This is one of my favorite places in Switzerland (even if it could be really cold in winter). I guess your German is much better than my English or French is. So if it makes communication easier we can change to German…
It would be great to get the article about the Koolie rescue dog you mentioned!

@treen: Please find below a picture of our complete herd. Hope you enjoy it!


@all: Sorry, I forgot to mention my own name which is Matthias, perhaps because my first thoughts are always about my wife and the dogs (in that order…)...

Have a nice day and thanks again for the warmly welcome.

Oh they are all so beautiful... my Mum has two mini schnauzers but I love the giants!

WELCOME WELCOME. Yes the Koolie is very addictive and such a nice dog.

yes what can i say that has not already been said lol i have read about 2 koolies working in rescue one i remember was in America can't remember were the other dog was, koolies are very addictive because they are very friendly loving loyal soft and easy to train just your love is enough of a training tool for them but treats help lol, they like to please you and hate getting into trouble they have great personality's and are real clowns at play time but they love to work no matter what job they are trained to do

Sorry, I didn't live there, just spent time there for sport (in St Moritz). I also have a good friend who lives near Zurich at Fehraltorf. I have only been there in January or February, no other months, so I haven't seen it without snow.

I still can't find the article on the Search and Rescue dog, but I have found another on a dog called Huck in Jew Jersey that does Urban Search and Rescue. Read about him at http://www.coolieregistry.com/SAR.html

The other SAR dog lives and works in the Aussie Ski Fields and can be seen on the slopes from time to time...

Welcome to the forum Matthias :-)What a lovely photo of your dogs!
It's true, Koolies are addictive, they're like potato chips - you can't stop at just one!
I would say they are a lot like the Australian Shepherd in temprement, soft natured, would sell their soul for you, if you treat them right. :-)

From my personal experience - limited admittedly - (two dogs)they are: Less intense than a Border collie - but with all the concentration and drive to work
and an off switch.
: less wired than a Kelpie - but with all the speed
: less self willed than a Cattledog, and none of the "yeah right, I'll do it my way" attitude

I have found my two very easy to live with, relaxed and easygoing in the home situation, very sociable and easygoing around other dogs, of either sex, intact or not, (my Dice is an intact male) easy to control, even when trying to herd stock, and very easy to teach things to.

When he's working (agility) Dice is very intense and focused, and concentrates 100% on me and what we're doing, he will do his utmost to do what I want. He doesn't always get it right, but he's always trying to get it right. :-) Distractions simply don't exist for him when he's working. I had a dog run into the ring after him, once. It didn't like him at all, and he never even acknowledged it.

Even baby Haze will call off playing with her "best mate", on a verbal recall only, I don't have to tug the lead!

They hate being yelled or growled at, if I get mad at something Dice gets all upset and grovels, trying to apologise, even if I am mad at say for example, the vacuum cleaner! If I am chopping firewood, they all think I am REALLY ANGRY and hitting things, and they better vanish until I am finished In case I am angry at them :-)

At least it keeps them from being hit by bits of flying firewood!

Good to see you made it Mattias, all your questions will be answered here. Love the photo of your dogs and that your wife still has priority over them. Things might change if you get a koolie...you had better warn her of that.

I like that one Sil

Haha Penny I like your description of the Cattle Dog, you have it down to a "T".

Matthias to the Koolie Forum!!

Love the pic of all your dogs sitting in the yellow flower field. What a great mix of breeds you have there! Hope you have fun reading all about koolies on here! Ask away any questions and I'm sure you'll get lots of answers!

Yeah Jackie, I think you have to have a pretty relaxed personality to get along with Cattle Dogs, 'cos they have "Attitude" <grin> (all the ones I've met do anyway...)

I'd like to thank all of you for your prompt answers and very interesting replies. That really helps to get a better understanding of the Koolie.


Just one question about the comment of Penny where she compares the Koolie to the Kelpie: I understand the words "Less wired than the Kelpie", but unfortunately not the meaning of them. Can you please explain that to me (sorry, as you already noticed English is not my native language...).

And finally two additional comments:

1. I can confirm, that you have to be a "pretty relaxed personality" to get along with Cattle Dogs! And this might be a special interesting challenge for some peoples...

2. I did as you have suggested: my wife is informed that priorities might change if we get a Koolie once ;-)

So long!

Other words that mean the same as 'less wired' in this context might include:-
Less highly strung
Less intense
Less likely to to go off its head
Less likely to bounce off walls
and
Less borderline psychotic

Hope this helps as well as increasing your knowledge of Australian slang.

Welcome to the Forum.

I think if you choose a Koolie you will have chosen well. After our Sheltie/Border Collie passed we had a tough time figuring out what kind of dog to get. Like most newbies to the Koolie breed, we had to Google 'Koolie' to find out what they were.

We had a few needs for a dog on our list:

1. Must be good with kids. Our Mac is wonderful with children. With my son he always trys to lick him (because he knows he can get away with it), yet with other kids he sits quiet and allows them to pat him, even though he is taller than most of them when he sits. He also is good with kids with special needs.

2. Friendly with other animals. He is awesome. Took him to the vet yesterday and with a waiting room full of other dogs he was great. Gets on well with cats also.

3. An all round family dog with character and some energy to match. Where ever we are our Mac has to be. Whether it be out the front working on cars or what ever, running around like a loony with a squeaky toy trying to stop me from talking to the next door neighbour or relaxing inside.

With your patience and your experience in training your other dogs, I don't think you would have any trouble having a Koolie in your herd. And from the picture of your beautiful herd of lovable canines, I think a Koolie would fit in perfectly when the time comes.

Yep, that's about what I meant Matt :-)Hope that helps Matthias :-) you do a lot better in English than I could in German. Is German the language of the Swiss people? Or is it something I don't know of...
I do know a little German, a very little... about 10 words actually! I visited Heidelberg to see a German friend I met in America.

Although I don't know any borderline psychotic Kelpies, <grin> most of the psychotic dogs I know are Border collies, and bearded collies.

I actually know a border so psychotic that she chases her tail and catches it. The tail is now about 4 inches shorter than when she was a young dog, as she has chewed the end off. :-(

Hi all

Sorry for the delay since my last post in the forum, did have a very busy time in business!

During that period a thought a few times about coming to Australia next year to get in personal touch with some of you and learn more about the Koolie, get some (live) impressions about this interesting breed.

What do you think would be the best time to do so and how much time would it take? Do I have to use the airplane to travel from one breeder to the others or does it make sense to rent a car?

This might be funny questions to you, but most things are a little bit different here in Switzerland, espacially distances ;-)

Best regards
Matthias

Matthias were you able to contact Sandra in Germany?

Hi Matthias,

Kerrie is currently putting together a calendar for next year - if you receive a copy as a club member it will help you.

@Jackie:
Yes, I had e-mail contact with Sandra and she also answered me some question. I asked here if it would be possible to meet each other to exchange some more information and of course see here Koolie. Unfortunately I didn't get any response since then, but I will try to reach her again.

@Matt:
It would be great to get some information about the activities of your club!

Greetings from Switzerland
Matthias

Hi Matthias
It would be fantastic if you could come to visit,you would certainly get the chance to experience Koolies if you could.
Unfortunately we are fairly spread out with flying being the only way to travel between the furthest.
One option would be April, when there might be a workshop where you could see koolies working sheep and cattle and get to met several people in one place.