STUD PROFILE:
Woollys Border Collies est. 1983
Guy and Tricia Thomas – East Rossgole – ABERDEEN NSW
O
ur knowledge of the working Border Collie when we first had the privilege to work with them was very limited. Both of us had grown up in country New South Wales and the go to working dog for most farmers that we knew of was the Australian Kelpie. As a young working man, Guy had a menagerie of dogs around him always, ranging from the family Labrador Retrievers, the red cattle dog, the black barb and the Dobermann. All had a purpose and all were much loved. I personally only ever had a smoky red kelpie (Ripper Jack) who was the family pet. (He did drive the postman mad as my Dad had cut a hole in the paling fence just so he could see him coming – in hindsight it was rather cruel because all he ever wanted to do was work).
Article and Photos provided by Guy & Tricia Thomas
Our journey with working border collies and the Australian Working Border Collie Registry are intertwined. As our respect and appreciation grew for this wonderful breed, I was driven to find out more about their provenance. We were lucky to have met Alan Gordon at Glensloy with his wonderful imported dogs and to be able to purchase a young bitch out Carra ISDS 106115 by Ted Gaby’s Bengeo Scamp T446. Her name was Glensloy Jan and she was smooth coated prick eared black and white. Alan’s advice to Guy at the time was to always give her a bit of work every day whilst getting to know her, keep her keen and never set your dog up to fail. It was to become one of the most profound pieces of advice he ever received. She wasn’t friendly and was highly work focused. We became best mates when Guy was in the USA working as a farrier for 8 weeks and I was tasked to look after her and saved her from being badly tangled up with her chain. The people looking after her weren’t dog people and they had asked me to check in on her. I took her home with me and handed her back when Guy returned from his trip. Jan was smart, loyal and clever. She knew all our habits and she stayed with us until she was nearly 15. Her one and only pup that we kept was a bitch called Woollys Bingo from a mating with Tony McCallums’ Alibi the Boss (Bengeo Mackie x Kenton Snow) and she subsequently became number 1 in the stud book. Woollys Bingo threw the myth that you can’t teach old dog new tricks out the window. At the age of seven she
