The ongoing University of Sydney survey will measure and record behavioural and health attributes of Australian working dogs for the first time.

AgriFutures Australia Emerging Industries program manager Duncan Farquhar said the survey would help create a  database of Australian and international livestock working dogs with their particular temperament and working traits.

“This will be a powerful resource for working dog societies to learn more about how these traits are passed on from parents to progeny and also to investigate the genes responsible for the valuable behaviours,” Mr Farquhar said.

“We urge farm dog owners to get involved.

“Dogs are assigned a number to de-identify them from their names and their information goes into a pool of data comparing dog behaviour and genes.”

University of Sydney chair of Computational Biology and Animal Genomics Claire Wade said there were 83,000 dogs working on farms and their contribution to the rural economy was significant but poorly understood.

“We are looking to improve the selection process of livestock working dogs to better suit the needs of the farmer and breeding community,” Professor Wade said.

“Behavioural attributes have considerable impact on the success of young dogs, the length of the dog’s working life, and whether it is chosen as a breeding animal.

“Similarly, health considerations have profound economic impact on the individual dog’s working life.”

The study will determine how dogs reflect characteristics of parents, and traits such as barking will be mapped so breeders and farmers can select dogs to suit their needs.

“What suits one person may not suit another and if a dog is required for loading trucks that will be different to a dog needed to muster a large paddock alone while the farmer waits at the gate,” Professor Wade said.

The project builds on a previous AgriFutures Australia project – Valuable behavioural phenotypes in Australian farm dogs – in 2015 to support and increase the contribution working dogs as an industry make to Australian farmers. 

This latest project is funded by AgriFutures Australia and the Working Kelpie Council of Australia.