About the Working Kelpie

Background of the Working Kelpie

Australia.
Land of vast distances.

It takes a very special kind of dog to handle such large numbers of sheep, vast distances and scorching heat.

This is: the Working Kelpie.

Many people do not know that there is a big difference between the Australian Kelpie and the Working Kelpie.

Below is an explanation by Working Kelpie legend Tony Parsons.

Working and show Kelpies: two lines of dogs

It is very understandable that someone who becomes interested in Kelpies for the first time does not immediately realize how great the differences are between the show lines and the working lines of the Kelpie breed. I am not too proud to admit that I was misled when I started with Kelpies 58 years ago. Fortunately, I was soon put on the right track and since then I have always been an advocate of the Working Kelpie.

To explain the differences more clearly and to keep it as simple as possible, I will use the letter Y as an example. Imagine that the lower part of this letter represents the Kelpies bred by John Quinn, the Maiden brothers, King and McLeod, and several other early breeders of the Working Kelpie. In 1902 the late Robert Kaleski drew up the first standard for Kelpies and Barbs, and for Cattle Dogs. These standards were recognized by the original Kennel Club of NSW. Kaleski's standards remained in force for many years. It is worth mentioning that his Kelpie standard was based on the black-and-tan Kelpie, which was regarded as the most original colour and also as the most important original colour of the emerging Kelpie breed.

Once the standards for Kelpies and Cattle Dogs had been established, people began showing them. Old show catalogues clearly show that some of the original dogs in the show ring came from true Working Kelpies. In fact, there was no other type of Kelpie. In the early years after shows began, there was not yet much decline in working ability, because many people who showed Kelpies were genuine stockmen. But by the 1930s, and perhaps even earlier, there was a clear decline in the working ability of show dogs compared with the qualities of Kelpies worked by people such as Frank Scanlon, Jack Goodfellow and others. Simply put: the show breeders had lost their way.

During this period, from about 1902 to 1930, show breeders had, for some strange reason, almost abandoned the original black-and-tan in favour of red or chocolate-coloured Kelpies, with black dogs taking a distant second place.

What I want to make clear to all readers, both in Australia and internationally, is that the original Working Kelpie was a magnificent creation. It came into being almost by chance, through a combination of factors that will never occur in the same way again. The fact that we still have good Working Kelpies today proves the quality of those early working dogs. Despite the many thousands of good Working Kelpies that were lost through accidents, poor treatment and ignorant breeders, the breed has continued to produce excellent dogs. That is because they have been bred on the basis of performance. By performance I mean the way a Kelpie works. The true and great Kelpies had a wonderful feel for sheep, plenty of cover and good footwork, and the best of them had drive-and-hold. That last quality in particular made them so different from the Border Collies that came later.

A few, a very small number of stockmen, have managed over the years to preserve the unique qualities of the Working Kelpie. But when Kelpie lines were developed for the show ring, these unique qualities were lost. As a result, today there is no show-bred Kelpie that comes anywhere near the original Working Kelpie. Footwork, cover, feel for sheep and the ability to drive-and-hold have all disappeared from these show lines.

It is important to point out that working ability can decline in a single generation if one is not careful. How can working ability remain high when, as in many show lines, there has been no selection for work for years? Moreover, I know from conversations with many show people that they have no idea what a good break means, let alone good footwork. They see a dog running aimlessly around sheep and think that this is work. There is work and there is work, and the bench dogs have lost true working ability.

If we go back to the letter Y, we see that the two arms have grown further and further apart over the years. This is not surprising, because almost every utility dog breed has been damaged by show breeding and its original purpose has been forgotten. Show people talk about the purity of show dogs, but what is that purity worth if the show dogs are merely a caricature of the Working Kelpie? What matters is what a Kelpie does, not whether it has a beautiful chocolate-coloured coat.

Because most people who show Kelpies are not stockmen, it is not surprising that they do not know what makes a good working dog. To appreciate a working dog, you must have worked with livestock and know what is required of a working dog. You must be able to recognize natural working ability and select for it.

That is why one can understand Swedish and other European breeders who have taken the trouble to travel to Australia to find genuine working dogs, when they see their dogs being given breed labels that do not do them justice, while show lines that merely pretend to be true Kelpies are favoured. Even here in Australia, where there is less excuse for breeders and enthusiasts of show Kelpies not to know that their dogs are seriously lacking in working ability, there is very little understanding of the unique qualities that distinguish the true Working Kelpie.

At the risk of sounding immodest, but because I want to make clear what I mean, I consider myself one of the keepers of the flame. That is to say: I try to preserve a core of Kelpies that still show some of the qualities of the dogs of the past. Not because I want to sell many dogs, because I have stopped being a commercial breeder, but because the welfare of the Working Kelpie is close to my heart and there is nothing I would rather see than a top-class Kelpie at work. Despite the fact that many Working Kelpies are bred, it is becoming increasingly rare to find truly outstanding Kelpies. The quality of Kelpies bred in my state of Queensland, for example, is the lowest I have seen in my lifetime. I am not the only one with that opinion. If we, after generations of breeding on the basis of performance, cannot easily produce top-class Working Kelpies, how could breeders of show dogs produce such dogs when they have almost never selected for performance, but only for appearance?

Show breeders seem to understand nothing of the above. They never have in my lifetime, but they have constantly criticized me for pointing out how wrong their judgment is about what a true Kelpie is. They fall back on the argument that the Working Kelpie is a crossbreed. All Kelpies were originally crossbreeds, because they largely came from lines of working Collies.

The show Kelpie descends from these dogs just as much as the Working Kelpie does. All Kelpies come from the same source. What show breeders have done is breed a line of mainly red dogs that lack the qualities of the dogs from which they originated. They do not understand that moving sheep is about what a dog does, not just what it looks like.

The people who try to breed genuine, high-quality Working Kelpies, whether they live in Sweden, the United States or here in Australia, have understood it correctly. The show people are completely wrong. We could lose every show Kelpie in this country and it would matter little, but we cannot afford to lose what remains of the Working Kelpie lines. Their contribution to Australia's wealth through our great wool industry cannot be calculated.

By Tony Parsons

Previously published in KELPIE NEWS magazine of the Purebred Working Kelpie Club.

* added by the editors

Working Kelpies are registered with the Working Kelpie Council in Australia (WKC).

Breeders affiliated with the WKC guarantee the working ability of the dog. In short, this means that if the dog does not meet expectations at around one year of age, it should be replaced by the breeder.

The FCI does not concern itself with whether or not a dog works. Australian Kelpies with an FCI pedigree are bred according to a breed standard, based on appearance.

There are also Working Kelpies with FCI recognition. These are dual-registered Kelpies. They are registered with both the WKC and the FCI.

This site is devoted exclusively to the Working Kelpie.

Use

The Kelpie is without doubt a remarkable breed. It is capable of working tirelessly in scorching heat, freezing cold and over great distances, all day long. A good Kelpie can do more work than a large number of people, especially in hilly terrain or over long distances.

A Kelpie is extremely valuable in the paddock, in open country and in the yards, within the fences. It can gather a mob of sheep, drive them to the handling yards, move the sheep through races and load them into trailers. Always alert and attentive, the Kelpie must be able to work independently, but also respond to voice and whistle commands. There are around six basic commands to which the dog learns to respond in order to carry out its task.

Some terms used by Kelpie handlers:

Cast, also called outrun: a Kelpie is sent out to gather a mob of sheep when the handler wants them brought to a certain point, such as the handling race. The dog must be able to be sent out over a long distance and bring the sheep in. The best dogs have a natural ability for this.

Hold: Working Kelpies must be able to keep the gathered sheep together. Sheep have a flocking instinct, but under pressure or stress one may sometimes break away. The dog must immediately bring it back.

Keeping distance: Sheep do not need to be pushed by the dog all the time, certainly not over longer distances in the heat. A Kelpie must keep some distance from the stock so that the mob can move at a calm pace. A dog with a natural feel for this is very useful. The Kelpie must also respond to commands such as walk in or stay.

Backing: when a dog has to walk over the backs of sheep when they are jammed in the race.

Eye: A dog with eye moves slowly towards one or more sheep, with its head and shoulders held low and its gaze fixed firmly on the animals. Often the dog moves exceptionally slowly. A dog with flexible eye focuses on more than one sheep and controls them with its intense gaze.

Appearance

Since its origin, the Kelpie has existed in two varieties: the original Working Kelpie and the Australian Kelpie, a breed specifically bred for the show ring and more often kept as a pet than as a working dog.

The working dog is not bred for colour. Black and tan is regarded as the original colour, but there are also red, blue, fawn and yellow Kelpies.

Temperament

Working Kelpies work hard and tirelessly; their intelligence is obvious when you see them at work. Working sheep is an innate talent.

This breed needs space, and the more the better. Working Kelpies are workaholics and can easily run 50 to 60 kilometres a day: an extremely active breed.

The Australian Kelpie is somewhat less active than the Working Kelpie, but no longer has the innate working qualities required to actually work livestock.

Health and life expectancy

The Working Kelpie is a very healthy breed. It is bred not only for temperament and intelligence, but also for health and build. This is in contrast to show dogs, which must be bred according to the breed standard. The life expectancy of the Working Kelpie is 12 to 15 years.