Woollys Border Collies est.

Guy and Tricia Thomas – East Rossgole – ABERDEEN NSW

Our 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 learnt how to back sheep as our employment circumstances changed and we needed to switch from cattle dogs to sheep dogs. Bingo just adapted. When Guy started sharpening his knives on the stone before he killed on Friday afternoons, smarty pants Bingo went and put the killers in and waited at the gate. Her last pup was a single bitch called Hilda. Hilda was born via caesarean after Bingo had gone 67 days. I still remember the Vet cautioning me not to get too excited as most likely the pups had died, his instructions were to save the bitch, as Bingo belonged to our daughter and she was away at boarding school at the time and no one in the family was going to ring her and tell her, that Bingo hadn’t made it. He was astounded to reveal a single pup, still alive, weighing 1.5 kilos with teeth and one eye opened. That was our Hilda. He said to me after the ordeal that none of his Irish wolfhound pups were ever that big at birth.

Bingo would have us awake all-night as she proceeded to wash the pup after feeding, Bingo never got the hang of the fact that she had only one, so she would roll Hilda around and around and around the whelping box as if she was cleaning all six.

The other myth is that you only get one good dog in your lifetime. Well, that’s just not true.

Guy’s motto is “you get what you give”. We have been breeding dogs since 1983, we are still learning. For us the association method is our first go to method, we use patience and time. Many handlers become anxious if a dog doesn’t start early, some really need to have the time, the best gift you give your dogs is confidence it’s the same one you give your children. Dogs like children need to mature and their maturation rates are all different. You create the right environment, food, shelter and opportunity and they will reward you with their loyalty and willingness to learn.

One of the things that really stood out to me in the early days, when researching pedigrees was how good the Australian lines were. They blended well with the imported ISDS and ABCA dogs and the new blood always infused more vigour into the breed. Further it must be said that the older Australian Border Collie which was most likely from imported stock added valuable genetics to the working dogs we all enjoy today.

For us in particular it was that mix of good Australian lines, like Bengeo crossed with Roma, it gave the dogs intelligence and stamina and finally mixed with imported blood to keep the gene pool strong and healthy that resulted in a working dog that suited both sheep and cattle and had the temperament to live with the family.

That is how the idea of the Registry started as the various state bodies were not strictly a Border Collie registry, which was fine. I wanted to know more about the dogs that came before and why they were so prevalent through the bloodlines. My respect for the early handlers and breeders was and still is immense as they seriously knew the value of a good working dog.

In our early days when researching pedigrees the prefixes of note were Alibi, Alphadale, Alroy, Bengeo, Bramichs, Bredbo, Bluebush, Camins, Dodges, Eulo, Gibsons, Glensloy, Herdsmans, Honeyvale, Kenton, Kingsley, Lyster, Moorlands, Moroko, Oldmill, Onnawinna, Princes, Riverdale, Roma, Rosedale, Sevils, Windeyer, Woodvale and Yarramine to name a few.

There were and are many more, so apologies to any I have left out, our early trialers and dog handlers had good dogs, they were well bred and they did excel. The problem was that it only mattered to them and they would record their pedigrees if they were interested. A good dog was a good dog and the provenance, didn’t really matter as long as it worked.

My interested was further piqued when I tried to register a fully imported sire Glensloy Gooch to export his puppies overseas and he wasn’t accepted into the “breed” register because he was predominately white. His full litter sister was accepted. This was stuff and nonsense; overseas breeders were looking to Australia to help keep the gene pool broad.

Thus the Australian Working Border Collie Registry was formed in 1996. It worked well for me as I loved to research pedigrees. Our working life would never have been as rich if it not for the wonderful dogs and their handlers we have met along the way.

Over the years we have been fortunate to meet many good handlers and passionate dog people.

For us it was a chance meeting with Tony McCallum that enriched our knowledge of training and trialing dogs, Tony is indeed a gifted man with his dogs. The other individual, who had a great influence on us both, was Tom Anderson from Bathurst. Tom was the most relaxed casual trainer of his collies and he never fused about what they did wrong and over time they fused, he barely gave a command because I am sure his dogs could read his mind. I do recall one incident when his dog “Joe” jumped over the pen at shearing and landed fair in the middle of the cake delivered for morning tea, one big paw print in the middle of the icing, needless to say Tom did curse but I think from memory “Joe” still got his piece of cake at morning tea.

For us it is a lifetime of memories and funny stories, of Bengeo Bambi who abandoned all good care in the middle of the night, when she was in the early stages of labour, I let her out for a toilet break and found her 3 days later with 5 pups down a wombat hole. Lesson learned.

I would like to acknowledge all our dogs over the years. Dot our imported lady from the USA who would tune up any mother who neglected their pups and howled all through labour until the first pup appeared. One particular whelping Guy had left his brand new Akubra Sombrero hanging on the hook in the laundry; needless to say it wasn’t there in the morning.

We have many stories, some sad, mostly happy. Woollys Border Collies was formed because of a need to have good working dogs, it was nurtured by both Guy and I as we had a common love and interest in the ability and intelligence of the Working Border Collie and they have given us so much joy over the subsequent 40 years.