Best dog I ever had is in my avatar, a heeler/sheepdog mutt purchased for $15 as a puppy at a South Texas feed store. Easy to train, completely devoted, in the woods all day I never had to say a word, she read hand signals and gestures.
My one sister bred the blue heeler I gave her to an Australian Shepherd, both good dogs, a great litter of pups. One of them saved its owner when she got cornered in a stall by a beef heifer that was repeatedly butting her. Attracted by her yelling the dog came running, jumped on the heifer and started biting it around the ears, causing it to back off. It wasn’t trained for that, just did it on the spur of the moment.
These generic heeler/herding breed mutts are common in ranch country, recently given the moniker “Texas Heeler”. Were I looking for a dog that’s where I’d look first.
In the days of newspapers the classifieds down here were the place to look, typically “working parents, on site.”, less than $200.
https://usserviceanimals.org/blog/texas-heeler-breed-overview/
