The foundation of the Autralian Kelpie breed is now well documented. The breed originated from the intermixing of the progeny of three pairs of 'Working Collies' imported into Australia by three early landholders. The foundation female, born of black and tan working collies on Mr George Robertson's 'Warrock' Station on the Glenelg River, Victoria, eventually came into the possession of Mr J.D.’Jack’ Gleeson, who named her Kelpie. "Jack" Gleeson was employed on the Murray's 'Dunrobbin' station, which adjoined 'Warrock' Station, at the time of Autralian Kelpie birth. Leaving 'Dunrobbin' shortly afterwards he worked on 'Ballarook' Station where he broke in Kelpie to sheep work. He then accepted the position of overseer on 'North Bolero' Station in the Merool now Ardlethan] district of New South Wales. Of the original pairs imported only the Rutherford strain dogs made a name for themselves in their own right.
These dogs had been bred by the family in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, for a great number of generations, and they appear to have been immediately suitable to the hard Australian conditions. Since the turn of the century the majority of 'Kelpie like' dogs have been described as Kelpies whether they were directly traceable to the foundation or not. There is little question that the Kelpie is an Australian version of the short and/or smooth coated 'Working Collie', the foundation being mainly black and tan or black dogs carrying very little white. At the same time the Border Collie was usually referred to as the black and white rough-coated Working Collie.
The very restricted intermixing of the strain in the early days established the strain to a large extent; being closely bred they would have tended to dominate when out crosses occurred. Down through the history of the Breed, when out crosses have been made the progeny have been returned to the foundation strains, and this has no doubt minimised the loss of breed characteristics. Selection from the beginning was for a sheepdog that could cope with the conditions. This having been obtained with the early crossings the features have been rigorously retained.
The modern, top quality Working Kelpie is traceable to the early foundation stock in the 1870's. He is a short-coated, prick-eared dog who revels in hard going. Established specially for local conditions he is able to muster huge areas under extreme conditions, often having to do without water for hours on end. Derived from a long line of dogs and capable of handling thousands of sheep at a time, the Kelpie has a highly developed ability to solve problems for himself, and actually prefers to do so. Like the modern Border Collie, the majority shows a fair degree of eye and style. However, the Kelpie rarely 'claps' or goes flat to the ground, preferring to manage his sheep in a standing or crouching position.
In Finland, we have about 100 Australian Kelpie altogether at the moment. Annual registration is about 15 and showing a little increase. Last year, 22 new Kelpie puppies were registered, of which six were imports; two from Sweden, three from Hungary and one from Australia. We Kelpie enthusiasts belong to the same breed club as Border Collies. The name of the club is the Finnish Border Collies and Autralian Kelpies Society. It was founded in 1990 and has about 450 members, with about 20% of them Kelpie owners.
Finnish Kelpie history began in 1975 when the first Kelpie, Stormkappans Red Effend, was imported to Finland from Sweden. However, it took ten years before Finland’s first Kelpie litter was born, with Evallens Chokolate Leading Lady having six puppies. The popularity of Kelpies remained very small until 1995 with annual registration of some five dogs a year. Altogether, 256 Kelpies have been registered in Finland since 1975. The number of imported Kelpies totals 66, including 50 from Sweden and 5 from Australia. Most of our Kelpies are descendants of Swedish Kelpies. When looking back 3 to 5 generations, the typical names of the ancestors are Kelpies that were imported to Sweden in the 80’s, some of the most important being Nymagee Oongarra, Noongah Black Attack, Ballure Leehalf and Ballure Swedish Dream.
A typical Autralian Kelpie owner is a 25-year-old female student, who looks for an alert and active dog to train. She probably has one older dog and has been impressed by seeing a Kelpie in action. What do we do with our Kelpies? Agility is the most popular hobby with Kelpies; more than 50% of Kelpie owners train in agility! The most famous Finnish agility Kelpie, Swingtail Sheep’s Eye (Mari Kaplas), has represented Finland several times at the Agility World Championships. The dog’s best placing was 5th at World Championships in 2000. That is the best Kelpie record ever in agility. Still at the age of nine years, Swingtail Sheep’s Eye is in top condition and easily beats most of the younger competitors. So far, five Kelpies have achieved a Fin Agility Ch title. Australian import, Karte Yarup Dd’s Kid (Tuija Saari), won the Finnish Championship title this year. Agility is very popular in Nordic Europe: here in Finland we had 45,000 agility starts in a year! Although the Kelpie is quite a rare breed here, everybody who knows agility, knows Kelpies. We have many young and very promising Kelpies in agility.
We have also a couple of very successful obedience Autralian Kelpies: Bestseller Last Warning (Heidi Hakola), Olters Koala Kid (Maarit Pirinen) and Cefeus Voltti (Terhi Pohjamo). They all have taken part in Word Championships in Obedience several times and have also achieved many medals in Finnish Championship competitions.
The two most important shows for Autralian Kelpies are the Finnish Winner Show in December and our Special Championship Show in summer. In both of these shows we have approximately 10-20 entries. In a typical dog show, an average of three or four Kelpies are presented. Unfortunately, since Kelpies are numerically a small breed, they are very often judged by all-round judges. We very seldom have the opportunity to present our Kelpies to judges from their native country or to breed specialists. In May 2003, we were lucky to have Mrs Camilla Allnutt visit our land and judge our open show, with a record number of 45 Kelpies taking part. This year, we had the honour to have Mrs Wendye Slatyer judge our special show. It is always very valuable to hear what ‘a native land judge’ says about our Kelpies; whether we are going in the right direction with breeding and what we have to pay attention to in the future. That is why one of the main aims of our breed club is to have judges who are acquainted with Kelpies more often.
In Finland, dogs need three certificates to become a show champion. The certificates are given to the best male and bitch of the breed. To become a champion, the Kelpie has to be merited in a working dog trial or pass a mental test. Herding tests are also accepted but in Finland there are no official herding tests. Each year, one or two Kelpies achieve a Fin Show Ch title. Some of us like to travel abroad with our Kelpies to take part in foreign shows. A couple of our Kelpies have very long titles; the longest I have ever seen is Int/Fin/S/Dk/Rus/LV/Ukr/Est/Rfk Ch EstW-01, Balt W-01 Bestseller Jack-in-The-Box (Heli Rossi). This Kelpie is a champion in eight different countries. Six Finnish born Kelpies have won the World Winner title: Bestseller Pumppernikkeli (in 1989), Bestseller Robinson Crusoe and Bestseller Vidal Sassoon (1998), Bestseller Nemo The Captain (2000), Bestseller Nordic Ace and Bestseller X-File (2001).
In Finland we have our own national breed, the Lapponian Herder. I wonder how many of you would think it is a Kelpie if you saw one. The two dogs have a very similar outlook and original task; one to herd sheep and the other to herd reindeer. Our herder is a Spitz, so nature separates these two.
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