March 2022

Puppies born in Dec’21, Jan. ’22 are now ready to go, please contact me if you ordered one. I often have trouble getting in touch with you pup buyers!  I have a few unanswered emails already. 

We’ve been very, very wet but luckily a lot better off than many who have been flooded out; some for the second time this year. How heart breaking. People like the Grantham couple who were lifted from their roof in the big Toowoomba floods, just having got their lives back on track in a new house, to get stuck on the roof of their ute and have to be rescued again. I felt so sad for the poor man who was in tears. Those with livestock have a different level of grief; think dairy farmers with their herd washed away. Tragic scenes in a country so often suffering from lack of rain. When will our leaders begin to think and innovate? When will councils think harder about housing estates? All our major cities are sited on rivers, climate change will make this sort of thing more common….

Little Maddie had the right idea, climbed out of her muddy yard and slept all day on the deck.

 I was minding some young dogs for friends and it rained incessantly for three days! Of course Naka was ready to mate as well, and after twenty minutes with Brock on Saturday morning she told him where to go on Sunday and stood at the gate, looking pathetically at me to get her out! Pretty excited about this mating of two of my favourite dogs.

Barney X Heli litter

Remy and Wiggle have also been on heat and are hopefully in pup to Cap, now recovered from a broken leg. I’m anxious to get some pups by him as Lynnton Martin has kindly agreed to give him some sheep work. I’m hoping to mate Livvy to Barney and deliver Lynnton’s BarneyxHeli pup when I take Livvy down. I’m very impressed with Heli’s litter, she’s done a great job rearing them and I feel there’s also a bit of hybrid vigour happening. Her pups are quite a bit bigger than Bim’s and Mustard’s. This is a litter bred back to a lot of the old Riana dogs.

There have been a lot of hungry little mouths to feed with seventeen little Walkabout Tim pups as well as Heli’s seven. We’re really lucky to have these three litters by Tim as he developed stomach cancer and had to be put down; not surprising, as he’d been badly damaged before we got him. A lovely brave dog. Em said he was always willing to try his hardest for her, despite hurting much of the time. His pups all have the same happy, confident personality as their sire. Mustard has a really nice dog pup we might keep, and it’s been hard choosing between the bitch pups. Frank is playing with the Tim x Sass litter below.

I’ve been on a mission to get a couple of bitches suitable to mate back to Avenpart Wump via frozen semen, and mated Koonamara Nitro to Killili Tap with this is mind. You’ll be able to check out the pedigree on my Pups for Sale page and see why. Well, she whelped on March 7 and has NINE BITCH PUPS! So I should be able to find a good one!  She’s been working with Tim McKeogh and he kindly took her up to mate. Tap is now owned by Melissa Spencer who has a nice litter by him from Karmala Witch. Photos of Tap and Nitro below.

    

It’s been pretty busy here for the last week or so with Emma here with the children and Tim McK and Brooke Parker having a few days off before heading out to Cunnamulla to their new jobs. They attended a Jim Lindsay school recently and are full of enthusiasm to try out some of his ideas.This week we all went down to Leyburn for a master class from Arthur Crumblin. I took a couple of very nice pups by Wills and a few wethers for them to work. The dog pup K.Gibson(Wills x Fizz) is exceptional, IMO. The bitch K.Min, is from Mindy who was electrocuted by lightning. She’s a super smart pup, was working very nicely but got very hot as she’d been waiting for ages without a drink…so very sensibly went and hopped in the trough, which she remembered from her previous short visit!

 

Gibs couldn’t see what was going on very well when Arthur worked his pup, and carefully stepped up onto the trailer draw bar and balanced there for a bit, then stepped up onto the tailgate! He’s so calm, and works with a lovely relaxed long lope, tail right down.

 

I’ve had some interesting reports on pups I’ve sold who are now earning their keep. A young Brock x Heli dog came back to visit when his owner collected another Brock pup. This is how Tom describes ‘Buster’.

Hi jan, just thought I’d give you an update on buster now he is just over a year old. Myself and other handlers at dog schools etc have been super impressed with busters natural ability. It’s hard for me to not have a bias since he’s my first dog. But other experienced handlers have made great comments on his ability. Really smooth around sheep in a round pen. Naturally wide smooth cast in the paddock. And very good at reading stock. Very independent thinker.

We have already started working big mobs together with other stockman in glen innes nsw. We even moved a mob of 500 head of cattle just myself and him. I am super impressed with him and his abilities.
 
He has really stepped up from working goats and sheep to heavy dull European Cattle that require more pressure. Especially since I only have the one dog. He’s not as hard as some other other collie dogs I’ve seen but none the less, he has stepped up in confidence. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him.”Photo below.
 
 
                                                                                  
Another lovely client up north sent me this photo of his best mate helping him out with legal matters.