KELPIE TEMPERAMENT

The kelpie is an extremely active sheep dog bred to work for long hours in the searing heat of the Australian summer. It is capable of great endurance, has tremendous stamina and a keen, inquisitive intelligence. The breed is totally unsuited to a sedentary lifestyle as it needs to channel this energy into some form of work and dogs with insufficient outlet for their energy can be both destructive and noisy.

Kelpies are generally very good-natured dogs, quick to learn and keen to work. However, generations of breeding a dog that thinks for itself when working without command in the Australian bush has produced a dog that can appear stubborn if it doesn't understand the job required. Also, like any strong-minded sheepdog most kelpies require firm but fair disipline to bring out their best qualities.

KELPIE APPEARANCE

There is no official breed standard for the looks of the kelpie as its ability to work efficiently with a flock of sheep is deemed far more important than its physical appearance. However, as a rough guide most kelpies are medium-sized dogs, ranging in height from about 15 - 22 inches at the shoulder. They are usually prick-eared although a small proportion have dropped ears and their coat is almost always short, sometimes quite thin with little or no undercoat. Sound unexaggarerated conformation is vital to any dog required to work for such long hours. Later in this article there is a description of yard and paddock-type kelpies and in general the yard-type dogs are smaller and more short-coupled than the paddock-type dogs.

The Australian Show kelpie - In the 1920s and 30s people began showing the kelpie in Australia and a rift in type gradually developed. Show kelpies are now seen as a different breed from the working kelpie. They are usually solid red or solid black in colour, are often stockier and no longer retain the same working style as their working cousins

THE KELPIE AS A WORKING DOG

The ideal allrounder kelpie should be able to work small or large flocks, have a wide outrun, plenty of natural balance on the flock, a good straight walk up on sheep and the ability to bark when required. Enough eye is needed to hold a small number of sheep but not enough to make the dog sticky on a flock and the dog should have a natural instinct to run across the backs of sheep in order to move them through the yards. The kelpie should also have plenty of power for moving both sheep and cattle and should not use a bite unless absolutely necessary. Unlike the huntaway the kelpie should only bark on command as a method of forcing sheep, either through a yard or through a gateway, kelpies should not bark continually.

However, as the job for working dogs changed in Australia with the arrival of the quad bike and the helicopter for gathering the vast flocks some dogs have been bred more specifically to be yard or paddock dogs. The yard-type dogs are free-backing and natural barking dogs, usually with a lot of power and presence. These dogs will often be used exclusively in the yards in Australia while paddock dogs will be used to gather the flocks and will be more inclined to have large scopey outruns and a bit more eye and style than the yard working dogs but may well have no natural bark and slightly less power.

The different trials in Australia also encouraged different types of dogs to develop. Yard trials test the ability of the dogs to move sheep through yards, races and trailers while three-sheep trials require a dog with less push, more natural distance off the sheep and a lot of balance. The recent arrival of the Utility trial marries these two types of trials together, incorporating an outrun, lift and fetch, yard work and an Australian drive through obstacles, finishing with a pen and is perhaps the best practical test of an all-round sheepdog.