Cattle Dogs have high energy levels and active minds. They need plenty of exercise and a job to do, such as participating in dog sports, learning tricks, or other activities that engage their minds. Some individuals find repetitive training frustrating and dull, so owners should aim to make training sessions varied and more exciting in order to keep their dog interested. Cattle Dogs who do not receive the appropriate exercise and entertainment will invent their own, often destructive, activities. These dogs are, by nature, wary. They are naturally cautious, and grow more so as they age. Their cautious nature towards strangers make them perfect guard dogs, when trained for this task. Cattle Dogs drive cattle by nipping at their heels, but they have also been known to herd other animals, such as ducks, chickens and flocks of ground-feeding parrots without instruction when left to their own devices. When around people, their instinct to herd is sometimes hard to suppress and they can nip at people to herd them. If these dogs are around children, they and their owners must have sufficient training to know how to manage or avoid such situations. When walking with their master, they will often follow close behind, with their nose at the heel. To relieve the urge to nip, the ACD can be encouraged to pick up and chew a toy or stick that is thrown for them. The ACD, given a toy that would last another dog for an extended time, will happily sit down with the object between its paws and skilfully shred it into small pieces. An ACD will remove the fuzz from a tennis ball as neatly as it would skin a rabbit. Any toy left with the ACD needs to be extremely robust if it is to last.

ACD has maintained many instincts from the Dingo. The ACD is an outdoor dog rather than an indoor dog and even on a frosty night will scorn the comfort of a box in the laundry in favour of a shallow depression that they have dug for themselves. They are habitual diggers. In the dry outback of Australia, it is often necessary for their antecedent, the Dingo to dig in creek beds to find water. Dingoes also dig lairs for themselves, to escape the heat and cold. Likewise, the ACD, regardless of how comfortable its kennel, prefers a hollow in the ground. They will invariably excavate underneath the kennel, if the ground is sufficiently soft to do so. This tendency, and the ability to climb, means that an ACD is difficult to keep in a suburban yard.

For this reason, and because on the very large country properties where they work, the whereabouts of the dog must be known, the ACD is often kept on a chain. While this is distressing to some animal rights activists, it seems to cause very little distress to the dogs in question, provided the chain is not too restricting and they are let off during the day for a period of exercise, either with their owner, or playing with the other working dogs. For the rest of the time, they are content to loll in the shade, or sit perched on top of the kennel from where they can survey the road, the gate, the back door, the chook pen and the poddy calves. ACD’s will go out of their way to find shade, even if it’s their owners shadow.

The ACD is gregarious to other dogs with whom it is familiar, working well in combination with other ACDs, Kelpies and Border Collies. Because of their plucky nature, the establishing of an order can result in a few scuffles and bites, because a young ACD is not easy to subdue and will rarely just roll over and allow itself to be sniffed, even if the sniffing dog is as large as a pony.

It is important for an owner to quickly establish a hierarchy in which they are the dog’s pack leader, otherwise the young ACD may bond to a senior dog, rather than to its owner. As an urban pet, if the young ACD is allowed to bond too strongly with some senior dog in the neighbourhood, it can be very difficult for the owner to then establish control. With unknown dogs, particularly males, the ACD can be aggressive and fearless.

Another tendency inherent from the Dingo is foraging. An ACD will typically dig up and devour fungi, eat fallen fruit, pull down bunches of bananas and expertly skin them, nip neat holes in passion fruit to extract the interior and sit under a Flame Tree or a tropical Fig Tree eating the left-overs dropped by White Cockatoos and Fruit Bats. It is probable that a ACD kept as a house pet benefits by a high proportion of vegetable matter in their diet. Because of their tendency to shred things and to rip off “skins” such as upolstery fabrics to get at the innards, the ideal bedding material for an ACD is straw, combined with a few rags so that they can happily arrange their own bed, without inciting the ire of the owner.