I have always wanted an hurding breed but I was tired of everyone just acquired Border collies  (though I probably will own one in the future...  ), But for now I like standing out from the crowd, so I read about the breed, cattledog. They seemed to fit my personality and I like challenges! Plus they are much more good-looking!

The problem was that I wanted to work whit my dog and I had never seen a cattledog in action... It´s hard to judge a dog just by watching them in a show ring... So I cheked out some of the swedish breeders and visited 3 of them. Third time´s a charm, they say! Because there I found a male (Sydneys father, Bosse) which was awfully handsome, very pleasant and happy, much action! and had a carisma that I never will forget! 

Sydneys mother (Flamma/Flame) isn´t so bad her self... You could see that little extra in her gaze and she is equally beautiful as my Sydney!...
Sydney was extremly cute as a puppy and I fell in love with her immediately! 

Don´t no how many times people came up to me and "warned" me about the breed. (they are mean to both people and other dogs, stubborn, to strong and clumsy to be an agility dog etc...

Sydney is none of these things! instead she is: A little bit crazy (just how I like it!), Extremely easy to train, extremely responsive, very fast and lithe, never makes charges at any other dogs, people she considers friendly - she has no problem with, do not hunt any wild animals, loves to cuddle and last but not least she likes to EAT!  The latter has it´s advantages and disadvantages... She´s easy to train this way but if you leave something eatable that she can reach, then thats my problem according to Sydney...  

Except for the stealing of anything "eatable" I can not really say that I´ve had any major problems whit her during her growing up!
Now, of course I understand that all cattledogs are not as Sydney (met a few now... ) but this is how I think a cattledog should be! Of couse Sydney has her flaws (no dog is perfect!) But overall I would not want to change a thing about her! No, (I changed my mind) a not so shrill bark woldn´t be so wrong...

When you now are an cattledog and especially like Sydney- A bit crazy... You can come up with very bad and stupid ideas!...  Such as when we left home to go to a baptism, we where a bit late but I was very careful to close all the windows and locked the door (because Gizmo can open doors).
The church is located 5 minutes by car from our house and it couldn´t have taken more than a hour for us to come home... When we arive at home I can see Sydney standing in the garden?! She was really happy to see us and was runnning around as normal...
How the hell did she get out!!!??? I went back and forth in the whole house until I found an open window on the TOP FLOOR! That stupid dog had in other words jumped out of the window and landed on the deck, approx. 13 feet down!!! It´s an miracle that she wasn´t the slightest injured! Became of course very worried that it might come later in life but so far we haven´t noticed anything.  
However, this seems very common in cattle dogs. They don´t care if is a precipice, a large stone or an tree in there way, they just keep on running!

That is way it is so good that they are strong and stable dogs. Don´t think Sydney has injured her self ever!

Sydney and I like to try new things that´s why we are engaged in many different dog sports...  In addition to exhibitions (that in my veiw dosn´t really count) we train /compete in: Agility, Freestyle, Obedience, Search, field tracking and above all, Hurding!
Sydney is a natural heeler but I am not so good yet...

                                    
                                                                                          Sydney hurding as a puppy