The Global Distribution of The ACDs

In Australia and New Zeeland the Australian Cattle Dog belongs to the most popular breeds. Every year more than 1000 ACDs are registered in the United States. In Europe Finland, Sweden and Germany exists the biggest number of Cattle Dogs. Through the past decade the numbers of ACD registrations seem to be growing also in other countries.

The Australian Cattle Dog in Finland

The first Australian Cattle Dog was imported by Paula Riekki in 1984 from the Swedish kennel "Ligras". The first Finnish litter was born in Paula’s kennel "Cranefield’s" in 1985. In the beginning dogs were mainly imported from Sweden and used to be quite strongly line bred. Later on dogs were also imported from Australia, Canada, Germany and United States, which widened the genetic gene pool of the breed in Finland. Thanks to the continuous imports breeding lines are widely spread today. Nowadays Finnish bred Australian Cattle Dogs are even exported to a number of countries due to their considerably good health situation and sound conformation. In 1999 the Australian Cattle Dog was among the 100 most popular dog breeds in Finland.

(Photo: Maije Dolmatoff)