koalathebear

Also, tigers12 is getting a border collie soon ... Hopefully names are being picked out. OH and I are still in the course of 'debating' prospective puppy names. He is very conscientious in his adherence to two rules: cannot rhyme with Elbie cannot rhyme with 'no' He gave a hilarious re-enactment of trying to tell a dog named Nono not to savage another dog. :D

Welcome!!! Don't lurk! Come back, come back! You have two gorgeous fur kids who are very photogenic and would make many contributions to this thread. :D Maverick's expression frequently reminds me of Elbie and Hector is sooooo cute. *pets him* Poor Elbie and his crazy ear ... There are some days when he's all bat-eared and alert and we go: "Oh - his ears are standing up now." We turn around, turn back and they've wilted again. ;) Other times he stares at his with his crazy demented wonky ears that seem to reflect how puzzled he is feeling about life. Who knows how they'll turn out in the end? Even funnier though is Max - his ears were REALLY REALLY straight for a bit - reaching for the sky. Then they flopped again. ;)

KumaAkita: Beautiful story! *sympathy* I hope that we never, ever have to rent again. Having our own place gives us such freedom ... we got Elbie towards the tail end of our lease and I must confess he was ahem a Stealth Dog for a little while until we finally settled and moved. :D We DID keep him confined to the kitchen and yard though. Have you read The Ducks Are Not Mine? Such an awesome read for any frustrated pet-owner renter. Maybe breeders don't do email ... I have to admit it is a little frustrating trying to do the right thing and get a purebred pup! I am emailing and phoning. Tabatha sounds wonderful and her dogs are beautiful. Sniper and Code are gorgeous - no wonder Kuma's so handsome!! This photo of Kuma makes me melt: I love hearing stories of why people ended up with the doggy they did.

wizzle: those youtube videos are hilarious!!! But whatever you do, do not post them anywhere else on DOL but here. :D

Poor you ... poor Mindy - it must be awful being cooped up like that, I guess she's going to a bit stir-crazy. I hope she settles down soon. The whole desexing process for females does sound a bit problematic - you take a normally active puppy and expect it to be more sedate for 10 days afterwards ... With Elbie, we sectioned off all the stairs and stopped him running around TOO much (as best we could) but that was only for a few days post-surgery. I really don't know if we could have done it for 10 days given his customary liveliness. Can you tether her for a bit? Elbie usually goes into motionless statute mode if we tether him - and we remain in eyesight. She might chill out then ... Other than that, all I can do is wish you the best with Mindy's wildness and your thesis. I hated doing my thesis :D We didn't get a separate year to do it and had to do it at the same time as the final year of studies and I found it quite a painful process. When I was given the option to do a thesis in my other degree as well, I was like

Thanks for all the recommendations. I'm still researching. I have done a little update here in the Kelpie thread.

ReadySetGo: They are sooooooooo beautiful. Not sure you could refuse them anything if they look up at you that way. OH absolutely refuses to let me get an SBT for our next dog even though the two we know at Dog School (Ducky and Bella) are super adorable, but even he had to admit when he saw this photo that they can look gorgeous: Particularly the doggy on the far right ... So cuddly!

wuffles - great story! I love the Blob. Who knew she'd grow so big? Did you pick 'Ava' because of Mists of Avalon? or were you a fan of Ava Gardner? Also, I look forward to seeing photos of your puli pup one day. Niques: I'm a little traumatised by Oscar's one eye - that blue green cross-stitching is very ... poignant. Alas, I am in possession of my own little Destructor. Following Elbie's latest stoush with badger, badger was grievously injured and badger had to seek urgent medical attention. There wasn't a lot that could be done and a difficult decision had to be made. Badger is now sans head. Poor badger.

I keep meaning to post and say that your doggies are so beautiful - their colouring and expressions. Such beautiful, beautiful dogs!

Glad Earl is ok - and how extra-stressful to have it happen on the long weekend! Elbie used to be addicted to tanbark so I sympathise about having a dog that eats things that he oughtn't

That sounds similar to Elbie's procedure. His was $280 for the desexing alone but we were also charged for surgery time - he was also being microchipped and having a small cut stitched up at the same time.

Elbie - the origin story Preamble Apologies for how long and boring this is - but there are photos The Beginning On 31 March 2010, my brother was walking to work and a kelpie cross kept following him. He couldn't get rid of it and it followed him all the way into Civic (Canberra's CBD) where he works. The poor dog was terrified by traffic but just kept following my brother. My brother had to go to work but the dog just wouldn't leave and when some other people tried to come along and help him, the dog flattened its ears and lowered its tail and looked very miserable. In the end, some friendly dog-lovers let my brother tie up the dog at the courtyard of their workplace and looked after him while they tried to call the RSPCA to find the owner. The RSPCA weren't interested and alas, later my brother found out that the kelpie had been taken to the Canberra pound. This was the dog. Doesn't he have the most beautiful eyes??? He was listed on the pound's website: His details were listed as follows: In the photograph of him taken by the pound he looked soooooooooooooooo sad. Look at his little paw and the sad expression on his face. I'm sure that being at the pound was very traumatising for him. The Middle We were calling him "Mort" because my brother encountered him on Mort Street. Unfortunately, Mort was found just before the Easter long weekend and I felt really badly that he would be trapped in the pound over the long weekend. I agonised about it for a while and my OH was basically saying: "I think I know where this is heading ..." So I decided that I wanted to try and see if there was any way we could at least 'foster' Mort over the Easter long weekend or even better, until the owner finally showed up. I tried to phone Domestic Animal Services but we were just put through to Canberra Connect who contacted DAS while I waited on the line. They told her nope, basically if you find a dog, you can choose to hang onto it until the owner's found and just notify DAS, but once you hand it in, they have it impound it for seven days. She sounded very sympathetic and was clearly a dog-lover because she said: "Maybe you can try another day and get someone else?" "But the poor dog will still be there over the long weekend ..." "I know," she said and sounded very sad. "Maybe you could try going there and asking in person? Maybe that would make a difference?" It was a bit crazy but we did even though the pound is on the other side of town - almost an hour's drive away. We drove over there and they were pretty firm. There was no way to 'foster' the dogs once they were impounded. They had to keep them there for seven days until the owner claimed them after which they could be sold or destroyed. They said no offence to us but if the dog got lost or hit by a car, they'd be responsible. I asked if we couldn't pay a deposit and sign an undertaking accepting full responsibility and promising to surrender the dog to the owner once found - they said nope They did let us visit the dog in the cages section, though. It was pretty sad, once we stepped out into the yard, the dogs went crazy and started barking wildly. OH said that he was trying to avoid eye contact with the dogs so that he didn't give them false hope because the two that he did look at had huge, sad eyes that seemed to say: "Pick me! Pick me!" We went to "yard 10" which was badly named because it's actually "cage 10" and unlike all the other dogs, Mort the little kelpie cross wasn't barking. He wasn't even standing up. He was lying down with his head on his paws, facing the front of the cage looking quite small, forlorn and resigned to his fate. At one point he got up and came over to the door to sniff at our hands but he didn't bark and he didn't jump about like the others. The DAS people said that after four days you could leave a deposit for the dog and collect it after 7 days. You got a refund if the owner collected the dog in the interim. DAS was closed over the Easter long weekend but by the Tuesday, it would have been 6-7 days so it would be possible to leave a deposit. We talked about it for a while. At that time, we were renting and we hadn't ever considered getting a dog before we had our own place. We had moved back to Australia because of my father's ill-health, we were still renting and until recently, I hadn't wanted another dog because ever since our family dog died, I didn't want another dog because it hurts too much when they die. My OH has always been a cat person but I'm allergic to cats so as a compromise, we had discussed that one day we might get a dog when we owned our own place - notwithstanding my trauma about how gutted you feel when your pet dies. Anyway, we decided to adopt Mort and read up lots about kelpies - given that neither of us knew much about them. OH was very impressed by the fact that some kelpies walk on the backs of sheep. He liked that they were described as intelligent and independent. While part of me should have been wishing that the owner came to claim his/her dog, the other part of me hoped that he/she wouldn't so that we could give the dog a new home. I didn't actually think that the previous owner deserved Mort: 1. He/she hadn't contacted the pound when the RSPCA and the pound are the first places you contact when you lose your dog. 2. Mort was unregistered, did not have a microchip and was not desexed. Still, I knew that it wasn't my place for for me to say ... the dog already had an owner and presumably it missed his owner. The End Over the weekend, my brother's friend contacted him and said that she had seen a "missing dog" poster at some local shops that were a couple of suburbs away, so my brother scooted over to those shops and examined the poster. The poster said that the dog was a miniature fox terrier rather than a kelpie but you'll see that they look extremely similar so seemed to be the same dog ... My brother had been very anxious about the Mort's fate from the start so he immediately phoned the woman to tell he that the dog was probably at the pound. The woman was extremely rude with him and said: "I'm not going to pay you the reward because I got it from the pound!" My brother said: "I don't want the reward, I just want to make sure the dog's ok. I was the one who was responsible for him being at the pound." Then the woman was even ruder and said: "Well it would have been a lot better if you'd called me earlier." Given that my brother had found the dog wandering around on Wednesday with no ID or microchip and he only found out about the "missing" poster on Friday and he had called the woman immediately, I'm not sure how he could have phoned her sooner Then she said again: "And I'm not paying you the reward." So my brother had to say again that he didn't want the reward. We think that the woman was cranky because she had been told that she as going to be fined for: 1. not microchipping her dog 2. not desexing her dog 3. not registering her dog Thus, she was probably just taking out her irritation on my brother. The pound probably told her that if she wanted her dog back she'd probably have to comply with the law etc It’s a little odd that the dog looked so kelpie-ish rather than mini fox but anyway. There was a happy ending of sorts with the dog being reunited with his owner - which was a nice thing even though she wasn’t very pleasant. Epilogue The thing is, both the OH and I had got ourselves so excited about the thought of owning a dog that we decided we’d get a kelpie/kelpie x anyway even though we were still renting We decided we'd get a dog and rapidly accelerate our plans to buy our own house - we had been looking at houses, just in a fairly leisurely manner and at house with tiny yards because we are both lazy slugs. This changed to more focussed search efforts plus houses with dog-suitable yards. Because we hadn't clicked with any of the other kelpie/kelpie crosses at the pound and I scoured the pet rescue web sites and didn’t find anything suitable. I emailed a bunch of places that had puppies that were already vaccinated and microchipped, none of them replied. At that time, I wasn't on DOL yet and knew zero about backyard breeders/registered breeders or anything like that. In the end, we found some kelpie crosses being given away for free ... Me: What if the dogs are from a puppy farm and we are contributing to the problem? OH: Err, the dogs are being given away ... it would be the worst puppy farm ever if it was trying to make a profit .. Poor thing was pretty ringwormy and wormy when we got him but he healed up very quickly and has become the rambunctious monster with the wonky ears. So that's our origin tale .. what's yours?

Poor you... Good luck with the essay... What's the topic? Addictive Qualities of dogzonline? I hate it when there's something that MUST be done but I just can't seem to get around to doing it. Also ... sympathy about the recalcitrant Ruby. Elbie has moments when he becomes total brat dog and lives up to his original name. OH will come in the room muttering: "He's being a Little Bastard this morning" - usually when he's gnawing on OH's toes. I think all of our dogs go through phases of behaving like angels and then behaving like little demons. That can be very annoying - when they're in zoomie mode it's like they're possessed or something. When Elbie was like that before, nothing would snap him out of it except a spray bottle of water to the face. I know using an adversive is not nice, but sometimes, it's the only thing that let Elbie know that: "this is not acceptable behaviour". He'd look a bit startled and then back off and behave. It was the only way we were able to make him stop biting/nipping. He's totally stopped now and he is very gentle with his teeth. He has developed the funniest behaviour of late when if he's very excited, he knows he's not allowed to jump up and so he'll plant his bum on the ground but his front paws will march impatiently on the ground - he totally looks like he's marching or keeping some sort of drum beat. Absolutely hilarious. Oh dear. Don't worry .... read this post. It doesn't matter WHAT you do, someone will think it's not right. Some of the Americans on the forum I used to frequent would never leave their dogs alone - check out the woman who said she only left her dogs alone when she went to the loo and the dogs were 2 and 3 years old. Then if you never left your dog alone, people would say you were just encouraging it to be a sook and over-dependent! Elbie doesn't like being left outside alone at night, even for an hour and my family have basically said that this is my fault for not making him be tough from the beginning. The reality is that many of us have to work and so the dog must be outside in the yard. Even if we didn't work, we still have to run errands, study, have non-dog time so the dog must be alone from time to time. All you can do is make sure you do spend time together during the day so that the dog isn't alone ALL the time. That photo of Roo is hilarious ... I love how she has a few photos of her on her clamshell like a queen on a throne. This is my take on her Thought Bubbles in those photos: And then in that final photo, she's all regal and magnanimous: "All right - you are forgiven. We give you permission to approach for a cuddle and a kiss." In other news, my morning alarm is "Guns 'n Roses Sweet Child o'Mine". Sometimes we let Elbie sleep in our room in his dog bed and not in the crate. When he hears the alarm, he knows it's time to get up and leaps out of his dog bed like a torpedo - so as soon as we hear the Gunners, we see Elbie. It's going to be Pavlovian now, every time I hear that song ... I'll look around for a hyperactive black dog

:p I feel a bit spoiled. We woke up this morning briefly at 7.30am to let the dog out for his morning toileting, then popped him back in his crate so that we could do a long weekend sleep-in till 9.30am ;) No doubt he was thinking: "Why can't you get up early like Mindy's owner???"

Yes! One day it would be nice to have James and Ruby in the same photo. The camera might implode from an excess of The Cute. Heh, origin stories are due all 'round from everybody - including the lurkders! ;) wuffles once mentioned to me that they hadn't intended to end up with an Australian Shepherd but did. There is clearly a story to be told there! I will compile my Elbie Origin Story - it is a convoluted little tale. As to puppy #2 ... it's going to be a lot trickier than I thought and will depend on if any of the breeders get back to me It really isn't as 'easy' to get a good puppy from a reputable breeder as some of the DOLers would have you think. ;) *is envious* Oh my goodness. That's so scary - but the bit about the black ball coming crashing towards you is very funny. I can imagine it now - with theme music, too and in slow motion with a slow mo: "Jaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeesssss!!!!" as you lunge towards him. Yes, he is very cat-like with his pouncing and pawing of objects. We've been teaching him 'touch' (uses nose) and 'paw' (uses paw) to touch objects and he is very cute at it. Go on ... you know you want to ... :p And don't forget you will need to recount your Max Origin Story. I've seen 23 photos on wuffles' facebook of the herding - just Mars, though, not Ava. Mars looks very, very professional. One of the other dogs seems to have grabbed a mouthful of wool!!!

Thanks very much to everyone for their replies! Given the relatively low profile of the kelpie-lovers on DOL, I wasn't actually expecting much of a response ;) I've emailed a few breeders now - no response yet but I'll keep fingers, toes and eyes crossed. shortstep & 4kelpies: Thanks for your suggestion - I'll call the Working Kelpie Council on Tuesday for a chat and some advice. 4kelpies - the way you describe your dogs reminds me of Elbie. When he's excited, he is extremely hyperactive and can move incredibly fast and frantically ... by contrast, as long as he's in the same room or the next room, he is totally happy to loll on his dog bed and snooze or watch the world go by. He will also play on his own with his toys for ages. We play with him every day and he gets about an hour or so of training/obedience for his meals and then he'll just be tuckered out. When we got him, so many people tried to warn us off saying that he would be too active for our lifestyle but he seems to have fit in very well. We wondered whether or not we got some sort of strange mutant kelpie/border collie: "Once in every 5 generations comes ... a Couch Potato Kelpie ..." ;) Sheridan and Daisy: Thanks so much for posting. I keep a very close eye on the rescue section on DOL and it's extremely heart-breaking to see how many kelpies/kelpie crosses end up at the pound. They are such beautiful dogs and because of their nature and spirit, being at the pound must be extra awful for them. I agonised for a while about the choice between rescue or purebred from reputable breeder and have opted for the latter because our current dog is quite shy and it will be important to have a dog that gets along with him. We want to have relative certainty regarding temperament and health and that's not something I can be sure of with a rescue. Right now, I'm confining my poor efforts at rescue to simply making donations. When both pups are old enough, I hope to try my paw at fostering kelpies/kelpie crosses, which will be my small attempt at helping out at rescue in a more substantive manner. kelpiechick: Thanks for your post. I'd prefer working lines from a temperament and colouring perspective. I also like the leaner, leggier looks of the working lines. The show kelpies tend to be a bit more solid and chunky. We emailed Ringbarka because another thread had mentioned that they struck a nice balance between the two. Noonbarra was the very first website I ever read about kelpies and I always thought that if I got a purebred kelpie (unlikely because in my family, having a purebred dog is akin to being wasteful and buying a yacht or something ), it would be a Noonburra. Thus when we decided that we really DID want to get a purebred kelpie, we immediately thought of Noonburra. I'm really glad you have positive feedback about them and hope to hear back from them - perhaps they're very busy, which is why I haven't heard back yet. As mentioned before, they are the only 'working kelpie' website I've found that specifically refer to their kelpies being suitable as pets in the suburbs as well. Most of the other sites emphasise that the kelpies are for sheep work only. Mystiqview: Thanks for your recommendation. Will check out the website!

Beautiful as always! I have to admit, I was never a whippet fan before but we have a lovely lady at Dog School who is patrician, elegant and gentle and she's made me love them. The first and second photos look like they belong in a high fashion magazine - for doggies. ;)

OK, now Evil Koala (closely related to me, but not the same person ;) is dying to see poor Kuma on the balance beam. :D We should try for a get-together with wuffles, clastic et al at some point whether at Forde or at BDOC grounds. Elbie does not like being chased, unfortunately, but in a group - he'll kind of sniff his way around and gradually get used to other dogs. The photos would be gorgeous. Thanks! We looked at a dog park that was much closer but it seemed to be just ... dirt ... which presumably is very exciting for dogs but not so much for us. Also, it wasn't until after we left the park today that we saw the sign that said no toys and no food. We wouldn't have pulled those out if there were any other dogs there but we had no idea they were prohibited substances in dog parks. Oops. oh dear. There was much discussion in the household over the last few days ... reminders of how nightmarish puppyhood was for us but in the end, we agreed that it would be nice to have a second dog in the house. One day, I shall tell you Elbie's Origin Story and how He Came To Be Here given that my OH is actually a cat person ... Awwww ... that signature is beautiful ... and Ruby is just like a squishy, cuddly, beautiful little (?) teddy bear ... Also, while I cannot speak for the DOL Mob err mod ... I can confirm that given that your signature is 550px × 145px (yes I measured it) and DOL guidelines say that a signature can be no more than 150 pixels high by 550 pixels wide - you are definitely in compliance and may use it! ;) Heh heh. Lovely story about Bert. We are hoping that we get a working lines dud ... a kelpie useless at the sheep herding but happy to be a household doggy. I love the lean, leggy looks of the working lines and the red and tan colour is gorgeous. The bench kelpies are also beautiful but they are generally more solid in colour and almost more solid in build. I didn't know that brown was red either until recently when I was doing my kelpie research. Then again, whenever anyone talks about 'blue', I think: "Looks more like a black or a grey to me ..." I'm just a dog colour dope ;) Then when people start talking about merles, I get all confuzzed and nod knowledgeably and pretend I know what they're talking about and pray that they don't give me a link to one of those complicated dog colour web sites that makes my brain implode. Actually, worse is when they link to those genetic websites ... what does it mean when a dog has 16 infusions of the blah blah strain? Sounds like arcane tea-making jargon! Niques: So glad that James had fun at the park - did he make you feel any guilt about wagging obedience today? The scary ears photo is hilarious. I love flopsy dog ears so much and James looks so happy and shiny as he gallops across the field. You're not feeding him Demonic Hills Science Diet are you? I also love this photo: "OK - phew ... just gotta catch my breath ..." PS: I'm so embarrassed. DOL didn't let me post this the first time around because I had exceeded the number of emoticons permitted in a post!!! Wow and gadzooks, that's gotta be even worse than owning a crossbreed on a purebred forum ...

Thanks catherine. Our current puppy is 3/4 kelpie, 1/4 border collie ... a backyard bred "free to a good home" combo probably from working lines. Border collies are lovely but our puppy's mostly kelpie in his ways and we love that about him. He's very active and playful but we've found that he isn't particularly demanding so far. He goes to obedience, gets walks every couple of days, plays fetch in the backyard with us, he's been herding once and will probably go again. We work a LOT with him in terms of training and obedience and find that that tires him out a lot more than walking does so we haven't had any problems with destructive behaviour so far (touch wood!) We like how eager to please and smart kelpies are - the steady expression in their eyes and the funny division they have between 'work' and 'playtime'. We're aware that kelpies can be a tough gig in terms of having one as a pet but believe that we are psychologically willing and able. ;) One of the attractive features of the Noonbarra kelpies was that the website said that although they were working dogs, some of them were suited to being pets as well - a lot of the working kelpie websites don't say that ... i.e. make it very clear that the dogs are only 'designed' to work sheep.

Thanks PF! Will investigate. Not wedded to the agility thing, just want to make sure the doggy isn't bored. We have been looking at a lot of breeder websites and my OH is a web designer and quite bemused by a lot of the websites. The Spinifex site refers to a litter born in 1998! ;) Must have been a while between updates! ;)

Rather than starting a new thread, I did try to post to this old thread but alas it's too old so I can no longer post to it. OH and I are beginning our search for a second dog. Our current dog is a crossbreed - 3/4 kelpie, 1/4 border collie. After considering a shiba inu or a beagle, we have decided we would like a red and tan female kelpie. The kelpie thread in the subforums is becoming more active, but it's still pretty quiet, which is why I'm also posting here. The dog would be a pet only - obedience trained, possibly some agility and recreational herding but just for fun. We have no interest in showing the dog. It would be living in the suburbs with Elbie. We are aware of the activity requirements for kelpies - physical and intellectual stimulation. We have emailed Noonbarra and Ringbarka so far. Does anyone have any other recommendations as well as feedback? Preferably NSW because we'd love to be able to go and pick up the puppy in person. Also, if anyone has any cautionary tales about breeders that can't shared on the open forum, please PM me because we are very anxious to find the most suitable dog possible. Thanks very much in advance. ETA: I did look at the DOL breeders listing on the main DOL page but they seemed to mostly be the show kelpies with solid colours. I know Callicoma is highly regarded but again, they seem to be solid colours as well and while it's shallow to like colour - we really do love the look of the red and tans.

Pensive doggy And of course, Elbie's

Racing around like a porkchop He enjoyed racing around - thank goodness he's kicked his tanbark habit otherwise he would have gone into tanbark thrall Elbie pretending to be a greyhound He ran through the tunnels quite happily He also got the hang of the balance beam very quickly He also seemed to enjoy the hoops Is this right?

We took Elbie to the dog park out at Forde today. We went quite early in the morning and it was overcast, so we were the only ones there - which was what we wanted. At first, Elbie just wanted to sniff But then he took an interest in the equipment. Speedy dog Elbie look as though he's performing a karate chop - or being a DJ. Spin that wheel! Leaping dog He looks like he's dive-bombing here Wheeeee!!!!! So fast, his head disappeared

I am very intrigued now. Were the other dogs really badly behaved or just very excitable? Were they mostly herding dogs - any funny out of placers ... like a maltese or something Have fun tomorrow! You guys are truly dedicated! Elbie's herding stint was only 2 hours and the next one will probably only be 1-2 hours.