The first Australian dog breed ever created, was the Australian Kangaroo dog, today known as a Staghound. Another names these dogs is ‘roo dog’.
The first Australian dog breed ever created, was the Australian Kangaroo dog, today known as a Staghound. Other names these dogs go by is roo dog.
The kangaroo dog type was created by the early settlers by a need to supply fresh meat and to protect their livestock. Had it not been for the roo dogs, many a family would of starved, and it is to the roo dog we owe what this country is today, for had they not been around we would not of advanced as quickly as we have. The roo dogs are almost a forgotten breed by so many, so often I hear the comments “what is that” or “I haven’t seen one of them in 40 years”, but alas they are around, one just needs to know where and who to talk to.
The Goss family at Tea in Wittenoom Street Boulder.
The dogs continued to be popular as family pets, as the above photograph shows.
The earliest accounts of these dogs go back to the late 1700’s. Today while not overly common they are working as well as ever. There is not a huge amount of information on these dogs available as far as history goes, but the general consensus is they are based on a deerhound x greyhound mix, then from there depending on where/who/what was available they bred to suit the conditions. In Tasmania it is documented that the roo dogs were so popular it really held back the agricultural side of things, as everyone was too busy out hunting with their roo dogs! They even attempted to force people to work, but this did not work, and the people crossed them out and still hunted with these functional hounds.
The Below picture dates back to 1932.
Moya Sharp
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Hi Moya, Photo of days catch , I noticed the name of Tovey in the photo. My Mother maiden name was Ethel Tovey from Mt Barker. I was wondering if you have any more information on Tovey .
Thank You RAY Bounsell.
Hi Moya,great story about roo dogs,i grew up on a farm at Grass Patch,and we had several roo dogs,yes they are a great pet and never a naste or savage dog,,unless you are a kangaroo/ emu,!!!,
Hi Robert Glad you liked the story, they are a breed that are not often seen these days, beautiful dogs indeed.
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to comment because we had a much beloved Roo Dog “Roobitch” (Ruby for short) and I’ve searched to see if they are still around, but silly me, I was looking under “roo dog” instead of Kangaroo dog! We had her when we lived in Guildford in the early 70’s and she easily jumped the 6 foot picket fence, and her boyfriend “Bones”could also jump it, hence she had 12 puppies! Yhey were about knee high by the time they were 6 weeks old and our Mum had a hard time keeping them all out of our shop. Ruby was such a lovely, quiet, gentle girl
You don’t see many purebred ‘Roo Dogs’ these day but I have seen a few. Wonderful dogs!!! (as all dogs are).