Dog Community

Kelpie ?

Posted : 7/31/2006 10:04:49 AM

Hi,

We adopted a dog from the shelter two years ago. She was found wandering the streets of Camden, NJ. The shelter thought she was a corgi mix but the trainer we worked with thought she was may be kelpie mix though she had never worked with one. I will try and get a picture posted but she is extremely camera shy and cowers and flattens her ears when ever she sees it. She looks alittle like this with white on her belly.

http://www.puppypurebred.com/index.php/cPath/1_49

She is tri-colored (brown, white, tan) with big upright ears that are in constant motion like radar antennae. She is about 20 inches high at the shoulder and weighs 35 pounds. She has a double coat and sheds loads twice a year. She has a long full tall that frequently curls up and over her back.

She is exceptionally smart and calm. She can go all day but behaves herself alone in the house when we are gone. She will fetch people by name if you ask her to, wakes me up when my daughter has an asthma attack, has learned to operate the window buttons in the car, she rounds up other dogs, she isn#%92t happy at night until everyone in the family is home. She can climb anything can jump straight up about four feet. She is wary of people until she is introduced yet will let little kids come right up to her and will lay automatically so they can pet her. The trainer said she was fairly dominant. She has problems with some dogs. The trainer said she was reacting to dogs that were poorly socialized and didn#%92t have good doggy manners. She can look very fierce yet and it looks like she is biting but she has never broken any skin on any dog she has had an altercation with. She love puppies and will spend hours herding them around the yard. She is totally gentle with them even when they are chewing on her ears and pulling her tail. When they go to far she pins them and just holds her open mouth over their necks and growls a little. The trainer has actually brought over a couple of young dogs that were taken away from their mothers too early to she if she could teach them bite inhibition. She is obedient and would be better if we worked with her more. Even though she seems to be able to open doors, cupboards and climb every thing she doesn#%92t once you have told her not to. She resists and pulls on the leash at times but will walk right by my side if it is off (can#%92t do that because of the other dogs she sometime reacts too.) and always keeps me in her sight when she is off leash for a run in an open field and comes when called. She has never run off and doesn't even try to when the gate has been left open.

A number of people have said they would take her in and instant if we ever needed to rehome her including the trainer and our vet. There is definitely something very special about her. When a strange man came into our back yard she was between him and the kids in an instance hackles raised teeth barred and he jumped over the fence. Yet she just keeps her distance and wags her tail at a new mail carrier. She has never even growled at a known person. I trust her instincts completely when it comes to people I don#%92t know, she will get in between me and the stranger and give me the eye if she is uncomfortable and keep her distance, sit and wag her tag if she thinks they are okay. She seems content just to watch over us.

Kelpies are not common dogs around here, are they known for being such wonderful family companions/gardians. Does anyone have experience with Kelpies that can comment on their temperament and behavior. I just can#%92t believe that this incredible dog came from the shelter.

Danielle Beinke

Posted : 7/31/2006 1:24:26 PM

I have had kelpies all my life they are great. People think they need lots of excersice being a working dog but that is not always the case, mine have always been very laid back. The timids one usually make better pets but is not something a breeder looks for or will usually strive for, my last two have been timid girls, one thing if dog is being frightened of something do not comfort her this will only make things worse, my girl Molly was scared of the camera when she was a pup but I ingnored it, did not make a fuss of it buy putting it in her face constantly, I slowly let her get used to seeing me use it all the time but not buy pointing it at her as if to take a picture but to take picture of everything else around her and eventualy she didn't care. I do stongly recommened dog obedience though espeically with a timid dog they need plenty of training and socialisation with other dogs and people, then you will have the best dog anyone could have imagined. One more thing they usually really bond with the person who trains them the most but not to say they won't listen to others they will, just they will do better for that one person that has been my experience with timid kelpies anyway.

Danielle

sue fitzpatrick FITZPATRICK

Posted : 8/1/2006 10:22:26 AM

What are the origins of the kelpie-I have heard of it, but am not very familiar-are they herders in the working class????

Danielle Beinke

Posted : 8/1/2006 3:59:00 PM

Yes a Kelpie is a sheep dog bred in Australia. The myth is told many different ways that there is dingo in them, I have heard the story threee differnet ways.
But the origin of the dog goes back to the collie although they now do not look nothing like a collie now. There are two types the working kelpie and the show kelpie, the colours are black and tan, red and tan, red,black and they can be a blue colour or a mustard colour but the most popular being blackand tan,red and tan and red or black, they are very loyal to there owner.

Danielle

corvus

Posted : 8/1/2006 10:08:56 PM

I'm pretty convinced they have dingo in them. They're the same shape as a dingo and move in just the same way. They're extremely agile and light on their feet, just like dingoes. I've seen working kelpies on sheep farms in Australia and they are supremely happy when they've got lots of work to do. The sheep farmers chain or kennel them when there's not enough work to do or else they get into the flocks and chase them into a corner or something, which can kill the sheep that get stuck at the bottom of the flock. They're total workaholics, but a lot of people in Australia keep them as pets in urban backyards. They do all right if they get plenty of exercise, but they can get aggressive or neurotic if they don't get out and about enough. They're super smart and crave things to do. I've seen a lot of content kelpies, but I've never seen a kelpie quite as deliriously happy as those working dogs on the sheep farms. I believe they're starting to breed less active ones as a pet strain because the working strain was a bit demanding for urban living.

Danielle Beinke

Posted : 8/2/2006 2:38:51 AM

I disagree with the coment they can get aggressive if they do not get out and about I am on to my third kelpie all I have had untill they were of very old ages all back yard dogs and none were aggressive , the girl I have at the moment is from full on working parents and she is very content at being a backyard dog but at the same time she has never seen a sheep either . I have never heard of them ever been discribed of as aggresive in any form . I have been back through some of my kelpie books and no where is the kelpie described as being aggresive or can be aggresive in any form.
Kelpies love to please their owner what ever they are doing
Danielle

Karen

Posted : 8/2/2006 2:35:41 PM

I have never known a Kelpie to be agressive unless it was trained that way.

My oldest Brother had one growing up he adopted when she was 12 months old ( we were her third owners) , she was just a backyard dog and she was great. She was treated by her first owner very badly, so it took my brothers friend a little to re-train her and get her to trust people.Once she was trained she was great. She was given to us as her second owner moved and could not take her.One dog I was glad to have be apart of my life.

All my mothers family have properties and they have kelpies also. Some are just yard dogs that lay around the property all day others working dogs. I consider them a great family pet. Not all are chained or in kennels either.

corvus

Posted : 8/4/2006 6:44:49 PM

I'm not saying they're aggressive by nature, but I've known one or two cooped up in small yards that went a bit bizarre. One in particular would roar up and down the fence line hackles up and teeth bared every time you went by. He wasn't aggressive in the sense that he'd bite you, but he was, by definition, aggressive in that he was in your face and making lots of noise and communicating aggression. That's an extreme case, though. He never got out of the yard and he was bored out of his mind. My mother has a kelpie cross that makes a great family pet and I know a lot of other pure breds and crossbreeds that have been great yard dogs, but I still maintain that they're happiest when they have loads of work to do. And they are very active. They have to be to round up sheep all day.

Danielle Beinke

Posted : 8/7/2006 4:37:00 AM

muddymuttdog your dog sounds very inteligent, everything you have desrscirbed sounds like a kelpie as a pet, only thing is the coat, I usually find they do not shed much hair and did you mean her tail is curly so I would say she is a cross, but anyway you are one lucky family. My first kelpie I had when I was a child ,she would protect the family especially myself, everywhere I went she would go, she was the best, you never forget a dog like that even 20 years on.

Danielle