Breeding for performance

As late as during the first decades of the 20th century Kelpies were bred solely for their working ability. The breeders were farmers and used their dogs daily in their work, but showed them sometimes at dog shows.

Breeding for conformation splits the breed

As dog shows increased in popularity more and more breeders , mostly from the cities, began to breed merely for beauty. The colour became important, they began to prefer only whole coloured dogs, black or chocolate. The farmers on their part went on as before, choosing their their stud dogs and brood bitches exclusively with regard to their working ability, and soon stopped showing them at dog shows.

However, pups from the show lines were still being sold to the farmers, who soon found that their performance as working dogs had seriously deteriorated after generations of breeding for conformation. At that point the breeders who were working with the original working lines (the Working Kelpies) felt that something had to be done about it.

Working Kelpies get their own stud book

For this reason seven breeders got together in 1965 and founded the Working Kelpie Council (WKC) whose main objective is to promote ‘the breed known as the Australian Working Kelpie (the Kelpie)’ and to maintain the unique ability of the original lines to work stock. WKC keeps a stud book for Working Kelpies and has now registered more than 42,000 dogs in their main register.

Two separate breeds

The difference between the two kinds of Kelpies in time grew so great that there are in fact now two completely different breeds. The final split was accomplished in 1978 when the then chairman of the Australian Kelpie Club of NSW sent in a motion to the Kennel Club that only Kelpies whose parents were registered with the RASKC (the Kennel Club of NSW) should be accepted for registration and at shows, and the motion was carried. In Australia Working Kelpies are now registered with the WKC while the show variety ‘Australian Kelpie’ are registered with the state kennel clubs under the umbrella of the Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC). There is no interbreeding between the two types.