Inyati, Eli is the first blue heeler I've ever owned and I've noticed the same thing about him and his "watching". Not to highjack the thread but this sortof goes along with your question. Eli, like Blue, loves to hunt. Sometimes he wants to cut through the chase and get things moving too quickly not understanding we must be patient but he's learning when he does this he doesn't get to go hunting with me so he is getting better.
When I pull the rifle out of the truck he gets all excited and starts looking in the distance for deer. For the most part he does really good and will sit right there with me not making a sound. But to get to the purpose of my intrusion I noticed something really interesting with him the other day when we were hunting. We got started a little early and as we were walking to the stand I told him he better behave else I'd put him in the barn. He healed the whole way to the stand then jumped in the stand and took his seat. The comfortable one. The one I had planned on sitting in but he left me with a hard wooden chair. Anyway, he looked at me with this odd look and curled up in the seat and fell asleep. I sat there for about an hour and saw nothing then all of a sudden his nose got to moving funny and he sat up at attention and began "watching" intently out over the field as if he knew something was there. Here is a picture I snapped of him and you can tell he is studying something hard.
After about 20 minutes of this and nothing showed, he curled back up and went back to sleep. The sun was just a few inches off the trees when he suddenly sat up again and got in the same pose. It was so abrupt it startled me out of my mindless daze. I began looking close as well. A minute or so passed when a doe stepped out 230 yards from us. He watched it with pure covetous want. It walked further in the field then a six point buck stepped out and followed her. She ran a bit as if playing hard to get then stopped and looked back at the buck and gave him a taunting hard to get gaze. This brought back memories of soreness in my younger days so I put one in her neck and she fell to the ground. I told Eli to fetch and he ran out and was happily lapping the wonderful red stuff when I reached him.
I don't know if this is just him or the breed but I'm beginning to think its the breed and the characteristic of them to bond so closely to a certain person they learn the ropes so to speak. If only I could teach him to climb a ladder stand he would be in heaven.
