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2006
15 July 2006
You can't keep the price of a good dog down - ON THE LAND
THERE is rivalry between western Victoria's Casterton and the NSW town of Ardlethan, in the northern Riverina, over which one is the true birthplace of the kelpie.
Casterton celebrates its claim with an annual kelpie muster and brands itself "Kelpie Country". Ardlethan boasts a bronze kelpie statue, and has the Kelpie Caravan Park and a kelpie festival each March.
Beyond debate is the record-breaking prices that have recently been paid for Australia's home-grown sheepdog, which was bred from a bitch called Kelpie more than a century ago.
Winona Kelpie Stud at Gulgong is one of Australia's biggest, and its annual sale last November saw eight dogs sell for a record average price of $3000.
At the Casterton Kelpie Muster last month, a 20-month-old fully trained dog called Bagalla Mick fetched what is believed to be a word record price of $5400.
Winona's Colin Seis, who has 10 kelpies for sale at this week's Mudgee Small Farm Field Days (July 14-15), reckons that in tough times, people on the land are again recognising the value of a good dog, but "a lot of the younger generation don't have the knowledge to train dogs, or don't have the time".
With his sons Jason and Nick, Mr Seis also exports kelpies to Europe and the Americas.
While it is graziers with thousands of sheep who pay top dollar for trained dogs, Mr Seis said even tree-change hobby farmers were happy to pay $600 for untrained pups.
"They find out fairly quickly that it's almost impossible to get even 100 sheep into a yard without a dog," he said.
There are more than 60,000 dogs on the national stud register of the Working Kelpie Council, but its vice-president, Barbara Cooper, agrees that "there's a shortage of broken-in dogs and broken-in dogs save a fair bit of labour on the farm".
Pip Hudson, a veteran Dubbo dog man, is at the field days giving tips on everything from how to pick a good dog to telling if your dog is left- or right-handed.
Properly "educating" a working dog is crucial, he said, because "two minutes of the right way is worth six months of the incorrect way".
Robert Cox, from Manilla, is senior vice-president of the NSW Yard Dog Association and a judge at the yard dog trial state championships also being held at the field days.
Yard dog trialling is a booming sport and 95 per cent of participants are kelpies because "the kelpie, he's a bit of a do-it-yourself dog", Mr Cox said.
"You want dogs that can just get on and do the business, no fuss - just move the sheep."
Greg Reeves, from the Orana Sheep Dog Workers Club, said 95 dogs were entered in the maiden-novice section at Mudgee and 88 in the improver-open section - so many dogs it was hard getting enough sheep donated.
"There's a lot of new faces," Mr Reeves said. "It generally used to be guys off the land but there's now a lot of people from the towns and from Sydney."
Each trialling dog has to move a mob of sheep through a set of yards, simulating farm work. Handlers use words, whistles and body language to guide them.
Mr Reeves manages the sheep and cattle on a rugged 3000-hectare property between Mudgee and Lithgow with nothing but the help of 10 dogs, and says good dogs need breeding and training.
"They have got to have the instinct to work. You are using the dog's natural ability. If it's a good dog, $4000 is quite a reasonable price1 ."