April 2025

Queensland has copped some damaging weather during March with Alfred smashing the coast and the latest all time record deluge covering a huge area of the inland the size of 2 Victorias. So tragic, all those animals lost and no hope of saving them. I can’t imagine how devastating it would be. So sorry for all those affected, including clients.

 

Firstly some timely advice to those with pups from Tony McCallum who puts things nicely and wisely: “Using discipline before cultivating desire….” can lead to pups disinterested in working. Or as I prefer to say,  Don’t stop them before they’ve started!

A pup should be allowed develop a desire to work before we interfere too much, safety of sheep being respected, of course. So many people running puppy schools these days.

March was a busy month for the girls, Speedy whelped a couple of days early on 8/3, Gossip was a worry as she was huge and first mated on the same day as Speedy. She finally popped 5 days ‘late’ and had 10 pups, 9 survived with only two girls which is about my luck!

I’m so glad that many are choosing to get a dog pup but a bit perplexed as to the colour preferences… the most popular on order are red/tan bitches with black/tan dogs catching up, but I have quite a few red/tan and blue/tan dog pups! It’s hard to work out why red/tan dogs are unpopular, I guess people relate the colour to their past dogs and forget that ability is genetic, not colour coded…! 

LibbyT whelped to Snooker a week after Gossip so I have 3,2 and week old pups at present. 

Below: Libby with her Snooker pups. 

Gossip’s Barney litter, 2 b/t girls, 3 blue/tan boys, 4 black/tan boys.

Snooker x Speedy pups, 3 weeks. 3 red girls, 1 black boy, 1 red boy

Emma and Rose came down for a few days mid month and we had a look at some of the older pups on sheep. The fawn/tan boy Justice (K. Jester x K.Spring) was the nicest; of course we were hoping his black/tan sister Juice would have worked like him but she didn’t!

Another little hopeful is K.McCoy (Sid X McKenzie), a very smart little girl. Click on ’35’ below.

35

I have quite a few older pups here at present. The two bitch pups from Cruise x Naka showed glimpses of nice work but need to settle; this was a closer mating because it was Naka’s last one and I really wanted a bitch to take her place. Margarita is very like mum but like her sister Mojito, is desperate to be close to you and a bit noisy when she sees you.

  

The three pups by Cruise from Midnight, an unintended mating, are similar…they’d love you to death! Not sure how this will work out long term as ‘Mo’ is a bit slow working out boundaries, she’ll put up with very strict corrections which is a bit tricky to manage as I’m totally against ‘child’ abuse! Click on ‘2’ below….seriously? Really?! After this effort they don’t get to run together!

2

Then there are three still here from the Jack x Sun litter, Sol, Sundae and Sundown(bottom) who is off to the Riverina next week.

The big red/tan boy has been the stand out pup in this litter from day one…I was hanging out for a nice red/tan bitch who looked like mum, but maybe a Gibson clone is a better option! Sol has made eye contact with me almost since he opened his eyes, he’s a special boy. Can’t wait to see him work.

Em brought Wills home when she came down. He’s settled in pretty well and I think might even be relieved that he’s not being frustrated at being left home when the others go to work. He looks very well and I’m tempted to freeze a few pellets; as one of the few Working Kelpie sires to have progeny on three continents it seems selfish not to share him with the few breeders keen to preserve the old style mustering dogs. 

Short vid below, click on 10

Wills 10 yo

An interesting discussion ensued on Facebook when I posted a photo of Gossip’s teeth, blaming the mess on kibble, as she was sold and reared a litter of ten pups before we got her back. Well, I wasn’t entirely wrong but that wasn’t the whole story. (The dog in the centre is Wills aged 10.) It was pointed out that when bitches are fed a low calcium diet when breeding,  the calcium is leached out of their teeth and bones to provide for the pups. I’d never seen it before because I feed raw and bitches get plenty of soft bones. Dogs aren’t affected much on kibble for that reason. Poor Gossip is only 8 years old. Midnight is on the RHS. She’s had about 7 smallish litters and is 11 this year. Dogs are designed to absorb calcium well from bones, not artificial calcium syrup. No surprises there. Some bitches are allergic to the syrup, I learned that the hard way.

 

  

I was sent a lovely photo of Karmala Tirari/Dusty who was busy picking grapes in SA! He’s coming north to live in the Sunshine state soon and will be getting some cattle work. He was from the Gibson x Sheps Sandy litter.

Rose and Coy  <<<Click    Rose has the same knack of getting along with pups as her big brother Frank!

Well April looks like being pretty much a non event with an election coming up, we’ve already had Albow campaigning since January! I read today that every single living person in Australia, man woman and child,  owes $40,000 if you divvy up the National Debt. Queensland is about to add a very big chunk to that with the Olympic Games and recovery from the huge floods we’ve suffered this summer. What a mess. Paul Keating’s prediction has come to pass well and truly(apart from the ‘republic’ bit): for those too young to remember “In 1986, then Treasurer Paul Keating said that Australia risked becoming a third-rate economy – a ‘banana republic’ – if it allowed the sophisticated industrial side of the country to fall away. “We must let Australians know truthfully, honestly, earnestly, just what sort of international hole Australia is in,” he said.

In 2019 the situation had become enormously worse with 38% of our exports going to China, then Covid arrived. This quote from James Barrie, Freelancer chief exec. in 2019…

Paul Keating was right, the Freelancer chief says. Australia’s neglect of its ability to develop, build and sell complex products and services to the world has pushed the economy into BananaLand.

Certainly 2019 has has had a heavier banana republic vibe since Harvard published its Atlas of Economic Complexity last month. Australia ranks 93rd in the world for economic complexity, down from 57th in 1995. The downward trajectory has been consistent and strong.

Australia ranks just below Senegal, which commands 92nd on this league table of international competitors, and just ahead of Pakistan. Regardless of the Harvard ranking attracting criticism from some quarters, both the ranking and shocking downward trend should be worrying our national leadership a lot more than it is.

 

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