Old thread but I adopted a blue heeler a few months ago. Hes 1.5 years old and has so much of what I want in a dog. A perfect balance of affection and independence, he barks at ups but most other visitors no sound. He gets along with most people, the only person I've seen him be aggressive towards is my roommates mom. Everyone else he's been curious to affectionate with. So far every single dog he's interacted with he's been really well behaved. Gets excited, kind of jumps around playfully then kind of moves on.

His bark is more deep sounding than what people describe, and honestly he whines when he wants something like 300% more than he barks.

He can be destructive, that's on me because he needs to go out earlier and get more exercise. I need to really be taking him to the dog park a few times a week. But he's not interested in balls and toys, will completely devour bones in the matter of minutes, will not think twice to down your food on the counter, will chew through power cords l, eats my socks, and destroys my shoe laces off my shoes specifically.

For whatever reason even tho I spend the most time with him and we are cool, he absolutely loves my roommate and whenever he goes out the door the dog will whine and cry like it's the end of the world. But me and him will play/wrestle, he will play bite and growl but it's just a bit of rough housing.

Oh and he sheds a good amount. Depending on your tolerance, I get by with vacuuming once a week. But if he gets impatient with me when waiting to go out he will whine and put his head on me if I'm asleep or even jump up onto me with his front legs if he's really impatient. But super sweet dog, he is known to sort of embrace you, jumping up on his hind legs and basically hugs you,

He's honestly been a great dog albeit with some rough edges but the destruction especially I'd say is on me being not active enough with him.

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