Fair Mate Catahoulas Australia

26/06/2024

I do not know of any other breed, who can have such an intense look at you!

Fair Mate's Dixie , daughter of our Sally,... can you tell they're related?
And Besavej Ares aka Troy, Sally's sire! They are mind readers 😅

Does is scare you, or doesn't it? 🤗

24/06/2024

What do you think was happening here? 👹

Update: **Raine coming off heat, but the "baby daddy" didn't get that message 🤣🤣**

21/06/2024

This was Raine, two days prior giving birth of 9 pups! You would not have thought 9 pups at all, looking at her petit belly
All pups had decent weights of 400gr and up

14/06/2024

Catahoulas CAN be social, but doesn't mean they always will be!

Some dogs will be tolerated, some dogs will not be tolerated, some will be tolerated one day and not the other day, and that's all ok!

We don't have to like all other people either, do we? 🤭

Pictured Sally some years ago, and grandson Tango this week

14/06/2024

We are getting a lot of enquiries for pups.

Last year, we retired from breeding, and had our last litter of Catahoula pups!

However, we support our friends who have breeding plans with their females, born in our kennel.

This year, there will be three upcoming/ planned litters.
One in Victoria, one in NSW and one in Qld.

To get on the waitlist, please contact the owners of the dogs.
You can find all information under the photo's.

11/06/2024

**Sally had 11 pups in her first litter. Mack, Titus, Jet, Tux, Cree, Marley, Frankie, Mia, Juno & Cheyenne. One pup was stillborn. She actually had 11 pups in all her three litters 😳)**

Guess how many puppies Sally had in her first litter. This was back in August 2016, the photo before pregnancy was two year prior her litter.

11/06/2024

Great advice from Ryan, once again!

TOP TIP FOR NEW PUPPY OWNERS 👉

Think about the kind of dog you want your puppy to be as an adult and the situations you want them to feel comfortable in.

Are you hoping that one day they will accompany you on a walk to the local cafe and relax beside you while you sip a latte and catch up with a friend? If this scenario sounds like the dog owning dream, start by doing this.. 👇👇

Go for an on lead walk around your garden. Let them sniff, p*e and burn off a bit of steam and then tether your puppy to the dining table while you have your morning cuppa. Pop their bed underneath them and sit right beside them and start to make this a normal part of life.

If a dog can’t handle being tethered in a familiar setting like your dining room, we can guarantee you they will be feeling anxious and uncomfortable being tethered underneath you in a busy cafe environment.

Once they are happy being tethered and stationary in your home, then you can slowly start to add in ‘life’s bigger picture’, by varying the locations where you sit and observe the world:

🌳 A seat in the garden
👩🏻‍🦰 A friend’s porch
🤼‍♀️ A park bench
☕️ And eventually, your favourite cafe.

A confident puppy will be capable of accompanying you on many adventures for years to come, but it takes a lot of little steps to harbour that confidence on lead, rather than throwing them in the deep end.

Important info:
👉 Never leave a puppy unattended while tethered somewhere.
👉 Research puppy body language prior to attempting this exercise in new locations so you can better interpret how they are handling the new environment.

This is Piper, a now 3 year old therapy dog. The ‘cafe dog exercise’ was something we did with her at least a few times every day between exercise, cuddles and play. It’s all about the balance. 😊

08/06/2024

R.I.P Fair Mate's Frankie
You were so loved by us the first 8 weeks of your life, and also extremely loved by your family for the following years!

We wish their owners Hunter Valley Catahoula’s lots of strenght!

🐾 14-08-2016
🌟 08-06-2024

07/06/2024

🐕 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 ‘𝗱𝗼𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲’?

👉🏽 It’s taken me such a long time to really understand herding breeds and why they are the way they are, and even so, I still feel like I have so much to learn.

☝🏽 However, what I have learnt is that a lot of herding breeds may not be dog selective, they just prefer a particular style of interaction.

🐩 Dog selective usually means to me that there is only a small group of dogs your dog is happy interacting with. They possibly don’t have the neutrality or patience to meet new dogs, particular breeds or make their social circle larger. Firstly let me tell you, 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚.

👉🏽 I believe that herding breeds just have a preference with how they interact. They are dogs that like and use spacial pressure to navigate the world. They watch every single micro movement, they like to control the situation. They are smart, they see and perceive things that we don’t even realise.

🤔 I think a huge part of this is that we need to understand what healthy dog communication looks like.

👀 There are times where on the off lead section of our walk, a dog will come off a little too strong (maybe fine for a Labrador or Cavoodle) and V***n will grumble, disengage, then go back in to sniff the dog and they are cool. And I think that’s totally acceptable.

☝🏽If I had a person that came super close into my bubble and was like “HEY! How the heck are ya?” I’d probably say, “Wow, you are enthusiastic!” And immediately take a step back.

👉🏽 That is exactly what V***n did. Why is that considered a moment where she is being dog selective? She is simply communicating in the way she knows best - firstly as a dog. Secondly as a Border Collie.

🐕 I think we need to treat our dogs like they are dogs and look at their individual personalities.

❌ This isn’t a post to encourage you to let an unsocial dog go off and be a jerk to everyone. It’s more so an observation of what I’ve learnt in my own dog.

➡️ When I thought V***n was dog selective I’d really micromanaged her, and I think it made her worse. She is SO much more dog social now that I’ve given her some liberty to dictate her pace in her own language (with obviously suitable dogs [I still control this]).

💭 What are your thoughts?

06/06/2024

Mia & Finn all cuddled up on a cold morning

03/06/2024

Cully's Willow by Fair Mate's Rufus out of Currants Buffy.

She was the first fawn in Australia. There were Blue dogs (steel blue) but not fawn. She definitely left that colour to others 🥰.

She's a great dog, with a very clownish temperament. All of her pups and grandpups, have been great dogs so far. Willow had two litters. Both on March 12, one in 2019 and in 2020.

01/06/2024

Fair Mate's Amity aka Spetter, 10 years ago in Denmark

30/05/2024

Catahoulas doing sheep yard work.

Raine & daughter Oi
If only farmers accepted the loudness in this breed, they'd be very pleased with their way of working stock. Whether it's sheep or cattle.

30/05/2024

How much Catahoulas can change colour, over the years. Here Fair Mate's Zarah, very dark brown as a pup, now at the age of 6.5yo, nearly all grey.

28/05/2024

Guess the number of puppies Ziva was carrying here. Her third and last litter in 2014.

The answer was 9! 9 fat pups she was carrying. 5 males, 4 females. They just turned 10yo on May 19 of this year.

28/05/2024

Sunday was a beautiful day for the beach. One son, one daughter, one aunty, one niece, two half sisters, a half brother and a mother 🤗
And one unrelated!

24/05/2024

A great read, some people will learn from this post 😊

https://www.facebook.com/share/gtpbb1sDQeFdY8Vu/?mibextid=oFDknk

“You cannot reward or punish your dog’s emotional state.”

Let’s break down what this means -

The latest scientific research indicates you cannot reward or punish emotions, you can only reward or punish behaviour, or actions.

When a dog has developed a behavioural issue, it’s crucially important before trying to fix the problem, that you fully understand what’s driving your dog to act this way.

Here’s a couple of commonly misinterpreted scenarios:

Case study 1 - A dog barks or growls at children.

Every time the dog does this, his owner yanks on the leash and reprimands the dog. The owner believes they are punishing the dog for being aggressive and with a few repetitions the dog will probably learn not to act in this way. Problem fixed? No – unfortunately, it’s worse. The dog still hates kids, possibly even more, but he’s now learned that he shouldn’t show this with a bark or growl. The behaviour (vocalisation) has been punished and may cease, but the underlying emotional state (a hatred of children) will remain. This means we’ve now lost a very clear warning signal from the dog and he is also more likely to bite instead of bark or growl next time. �
Case study 2 - A dog runs around the house frightened, pacing and panting every time there is a thunderstorm.

Owners in this situation often worry that if they give the dog any attention or rewards, they will reward him for being scared. However, if they give the dog a few treats for lying down on his bed, the dog may learn, ‘If I go to my bed during a thunderstorm, I get treats and attention.’ There is a bonus here: the dog may start to feel calmer as a result of the training and the act of lying down. When the dog feels good, the fear that was driving the behaviour of running around fades, which means you have helped your dog to feel less scared.

20/05/2024

THIS ⬇️ is what breeding perfection looks like.. if we're talking about build.
Some breeders don't really know how it looks like to have a great build dog 🫢

A beautiful natural stack from Fair Mate's Dusty
2022 Fair Mate's Duke x Fair Mate's Raine's litter

18/05/2024

Happy Birthday Fair Mate's Jagger.
Having a great time in Townsville

Also happy birthday to his siblings, some still here some crossed the rainbow bridge
Digga, Jax, Zulu, Rufus, Jazzy, Meeka, Jeda & Lexi

(Besavej's Ares/Windridge's Aphrodite last litter)

15/05/2024

Dally!! What a beautiful photo

13/05/2024

What an Extremely special girl. Fair Mate's Jupiter (Fred x Dixie)

12/05/2024

One of the pups out of our last litter.. how cool to see her change weekly 😊

Fair Mate's Jupiter in Victoria

11/05/2024

Fair Mate's Oak in Tasmania 🏞🌌

10/05/2024

11 years ago.. when we had better trained dogs 😅
They weren't happy, it shows on their posture 🤭

Left to right
Besavej Ares aka Troy
Fair Mate's Arindi aka Abby
Windridge's Aphrodite aka Ziva
Sunnydog's Amy
(Millie the Chihuahua cross)

08/05/2024

💯

05/05/2024

04/05/2024

Windridge's Aphrodite aka Ziva back in 2013.

She was such a sweet dog 💜
31.10.2009 USA- 11.06.2021 Australia

01/05/2024

Fair Mate's MOJO as a pup. How cute was he?! He has grown into a beautiful big boy!

30/04/2024

Scatter feeding 🤣

29/04/2024

They can't find me here, nope they can't... oh bugger..they found me!

Sally 🩷