Great Mates specializes in medium and miniature Australian Cobberdogs who love human company and they are suited to families, singles, older people, and as therapy and service dogs. Australian Cobberdogs seek out eye contact with humans and look deeply into your eyes. They never “stare” at you. They give you the feeling that they are in tune with your emotions. They bring a feeling of empathy for grief; they want to cheer you up when you are sad or ill. They do this by being attentive, gentle and close and bringing a smile to your face. This attentiveness helps make them exceptional Therapy, Assistance and Service Dogs.
We have selected our breeding dogs by how easily trained they are and by their potential to do service, assistance, therapy and medic alert work.
We find that because of our temperament selection our puppies make excellent therapy dogs and family pets.
THE ORIGIN OF THE AUSTRALIAN COBBERDOG
The Australian Cobberdog originated in Australia, where there was a perceived need for a specialist breed with a low- to non-shedding coat and a therapy/service dog-type temperament.
It has been developed over decades of infusions and timely combinations of many breeds to ” fine-tune” the temperament and breed characteristics. Some were kept, and others were considered failures. As a result, the Australian Cobberdog has some ancestors in common with many different breeds.
There is no definitive list of dogs that have gone into the development as part of the selection was for temperament and health.
The Master Dog Breeders and Associates [MDBA], which registers canines from all countries, has been selected as the ONLY registry to keep the Australian Cobberdog stud registry, to ensure it has unique DNA, and protect it from potential splinter groups.
THE TEMPERAMENT
Even tempered, trusting, happy, loyal, confident and sociable, eager to please, observant, and adapts well to new situations and environments. Easily trained but can appear to be stubborn when confused. Full of vitality, energy and playfulness with clown like behaviour when free but subdued and gentle when handled. Has the ability to make the humans in its life feel that it has a unique intuition, a mutual connection and that it can display an appropriate response to their emotional and physical needs. The Australian Cobberdog is easy to live with, an ideal family member and an excellent emotional support companion for those with special needs. It is this temperament that sets the Australian Cobberdog apart from other breeds.
All Australian Cobberdogs are registered with the MDBA and our puppy buyers will receive an MDBA pedigree with their pups full ancestry on it.
COAT
The ideal is soft, luxurious, and smooth textured, single coat [no undercoat]. Very low to no shedding with very low to no odour. It is a visual straight or wavy coat without curl with furnishings. Neither visually straight nor wavy should be given preference when judging.
Our Australian Cobberdog’s have low-shedding coats. That means that you may find a few hairs now and then on the floor or on your clothing.
The Australian Cobberdog coat seems to repel dirt and they rarely have a doggy odour. We have noticed that when our dogs play in the mud when their coats dry most of the mud drops out of their coat when it dries. As Australian Cobberdogs are low shedding dogs they must be clipped at least twice per year with some needing to be clipped every 2 months.
SIZE
The Australian Cobberdog is a breed in development and the sizes can be inconsistent. It is difficult for even the most experienced breeder to accurately predict the size a puppy will grow to.
The height of a dog is measured from the top of the shoulder to the ground. The sizes are as follows:
Miniature: Over 33 cm and No Taller than 42 cm
Medium: Over 42 cm and No Taller than 51 cm
Standard: Over 51 cm and No Taller than 61 cm
COLOURS
The Australian Cobberdog breeed standard states all colours are acceptable. It is important that puppy buyers understand that the colour of their puppy can change over time. The colour may get darker or lighter as the pup grows into adulthood.
Australian Cobberdogs as Pets
The Australian Cobberdog is affectionate, full of personality and gentle with children.
It is selected for a therapy type temperament. They are great as part of a family and they get on well with people and other dogs they are intelligent and easy to train. We suggest that you use positive reinforcement to train your puppy as this is the most successful training method for this breed. As with all dogs, they should get some basic obedience training from a young age to ensure they have good manners. The Australian Cobberdog does not bark excessively and they are suited to both indoor and outdoor homes.
Australian Cobberdogs seek eye contact with humans, they look deeply into your eyes, rather than ‘at’ you and this makes you feel that they are in tune with your emotions.
They bring a feeling of empathy for you; they help cheer you up when you are sad or ill by being attentive, gentle and close and making you feel they understand and care about you.Australian Cobberdogs have a desire and a need to be near their humans. They need to be treated like a true family member and they learn how to please you and know you by watching your body language.
They also love water and will happily play in it.
GROOMING
Great Mates Australian Cobberdog love to share the family home and best of all the are low shedding.
We recommend keeping the fur around the eyes and in the ears clipped short which can be done at home every few weeks. The coat rarely has a doggy odour and the dirt falls off quite miraculously so they don’t need to be bathed very often. With a low shedding coat, your puppy needs to be brushed with the appropriate grooming tools, otherwise matting will occur which then requires the coat to be completely shaved off. The puppy to adult change of coat can begin any time from ten months old through to fourteen or fifteen months in the Australian Cobberdog and this period is a time of high coat maintenance. Full grooming notes are provided as part of our puppy pack.
COBBERDOGS AT WORK
Therapy dogs are loving companions that are non-judgmental; assist with cognitive function; increase self-confidence and social interaction; and make a huge impact on an individual’s lifestyle.
Service/Assistance Dogs offer a person with a disability the opportunity of increased independence and support by carrying out certain tasks that assist their owner to cope with every-day life events.
Medic Alert dogs can alert their owners when they sense an adverse event may happen, for example they often know before their humans when a diabetic person has a high sugar level or when a person with epilepsy is about to have a seizure. The Australian Cobberdogs ability to sense medical events before they happen helps their owners manage their lifestyle. It also reduces their owner’s
anxiety around the medical condition.
Australian Cobberdogs make exceptional Therapy, Assistance, Service and Medic Alert dogs and are easy to train using positive reinforcement principals.
Australian Cobberdogs have a desire and a need to be near and please you. They excel in obedience and are easily trained as Service Dogs who retrieve objects for the disabled.