our 7 month old blue heeler has appointed herself sheriff of the living room and yesterday she escalated to nipping my running 6 year olds ankle, the kid cried, the dog looked deeply satisfied with her work, and i realized two 45 minute walks a day is not touching the sides of whatever this dog is, so heeler people i need the real answers, what does "give her a job" actually mean in a suburb with no cattle, and is the nipping a warning sign or just the factory settings

Juno came from a "farm collie mix" listing that, seven months later, is very obviously a purebred australian cattle dog, blue, speckled, the whole catalog picture. we are a normal suburban family, me, my husband, a 6 year old and a 9 year old, a fenced quarter acre, and we did research before getting a dog, just apparently not the research that would have flagged what a heeler actually is. she is brilliant, she learned sit, down, spin and "go to your mat" in about a week each, she is glued to me all day in a way i genuinely love, and she is also, increasingly, a problem we do not have the manual for.

the herding started small, circling the kids in the yard, cutting them off, little body blocks that honestly looked like playing. the last month its gotten organized. she gathers them. if the kids run she drops into this low stalking trot, loops wide, and pushes them back toward the middle of the yard, and you can see her doing math the whole time. yesterday my 6 year old took off running for the swing and Juno clipped her ankle with her teeth, quick pinch, no broken skin but a bruise and a lot of crying, and the part that unsettled me most is the dog was not upset or wound up afterward, she looked like an employee who had handled a situation. she also herds the roomba, the neighbors bikes through the fence, and on one memorable occasion my mother in law toward the kitchen, which nobody in the family has agreed to call a coincidence.

exercise wise she gets a 45 minute walk in the morning, another in the evening, fetch in the yard, and it is very clearly not enough, or maybe not the right kind of anything, because at 8pm she is doing laps of the couch like something is chasing her. everyone keeps telling me "that breed needs a job" in the tone of people quoting a bumper sticker and then wandering off, and i need actual specifics from people who live with these dogs off a ranch.

so, real questions. 1. is the ankle nip herding equipment or is it the start of something worse, like how do i tell the difference between instinct and an actual bite risk to my kids. 2. what does a "job" concretely look like for a suburban heeler, like tell me what your tuesday looks like. 3. has anyone done the herding lesson thing, or treibball, or agility with one of these, did it actually change the dog at home or is it just an expensive hobby. 4. honest answers accepted, did we get the wrong dog for our life, because i look at her staring at me right now waiting for instructions and i want to be the right house for her