The Working Kelpie Council of Australia

The Glenville Stud was first started in 1959 when I purchased a 5 month old pup from Walter King for 15 pounds; the last dog Walter had. He was an old man then living in retirement in Albury. This dog, Kyleston Cobber was a red and tan bred by Gordon Richmond at Bombala in the Monaro District by Scanlons Bill a litter brother to Scanlons Polly and from Karawarra Jill.

He turned out to be a very good station dog, he would work sheep or cattle as well as being a very good yard and shed dog. I was not interested in working trials then as I was too busy trying to make a living to support my wife and two young children. At the time I had a very good black bitch named Jess, bred from station dogs, who produced some very good station workers until she was poisoned with a bait.

In December 1959 I purchased a small black and tan pup for ten pounds from Gordon Richmond. I called her Betsy. She was also by Bill (by Porters Don out of Tippy) and out of Karrawarra Christine who was by Woombi Silver. This little bitch showed a bit of class and was very easy to handle. When she was about 12 months old my mate Roy Wheeler from Holbrook talked me into going in a trial at Euroa, in Victoria taking our dogs. He had a couple also.

I had never seen a trial before and after getting a few instructions from Bill Marshall and a few others I went out with Betsy. She did everything I asked of her. We didn’t finish the course, but I won the Encourage Trial. For first place I received a lovely pair of silver salt and pepper shakers and they are one of my most prized trophies. That was the start of trials for me.

Later on in 1962, I purchased a 6 weeks old bitch pup from Tony Parsons for 25 pounds which was a big price then for a pup. She was Karrawarra Tammy (by Kanimbla Darby out of Shanahans Loo). I bred a litter of pups from her by Cobber, but she was not what I was looking for. Tony wanted her back to breed from, so I sent her back and he sent me down a 6 week old pup in exchange for her.

This pup, Karrawarra Patti by Cudgee Nap out of Shanahans Loo turned out a very good brood bitch for me. She was a very good casting bitch but wouldn’t hold tight enough at an obstacle. I mated her to Shanahans Ben that Chris Howe had at the time. I sent Chris a dog, Glenville Gun, and a bitch for the service. I kept a black and tan dog pup for my own and a black and tan bitch which I later sold to Geoff Jolliffe at Werribee.

The dog pup, I called Glenville Tex, was just starting to show interest at a young age and I liked him a lot. Another good friend of ours, Ted Rutland didn’t have anything to go on with and in a very weak moment I gave him this pup.

Ted had him going fairly well and as I didn’t have a Novice to take to Canberra, and Cooma on the way up, I took him with me after taking about 4 weeks to put a finish on him. He won Cooma Novice and then I gave him back to Ted. He turned out to be one of the top dogs at that time. Ted won a lot of trials with him and sired a lot of very good dogs.

I mated Patti to my dog, Karrawarra Sargeant which produced Glenville Dot, the top breeding bitch of my stud. Patti produced some very good dogs by Glenville Spike ( by Sargeant out of Betsy) and some very good ones by Scanlons Butch, including Glenville Jerry, a young dog I gave to Frank Scanlon who in turn sold him to Tom Doonan and I think Barry Doonan finished up this dog.

Tony Parsons wanted Patti to breed to a dog he had up there. I was to get her back as I wanted to breed a litter from her by Taj. I transferred her to Tony so he could register his litter. When I got her back to join to Taj she had 7 pups at my place but he never transferred her back to me and he said the pups had to be registered as Karrawarra. All I got out of the litter was 2 dog pups, Flipper a black and tan, and Sharky a fawn dog. So I sent her and 4 pups up to Tony and I don’t know where they went or what happened to Patti. I sold the dog known as Karrawarra Flipper to Mary McCrabb who did very well with him in trials and as a sire. The other dog I called Sharky turned out a fairly handy dog and I bred a litter by him from Glenville Jean. Then I sold him to Geoff Jolly who wanted him as he had seen Flipper work for Mary. I think Mary may have finished up with Sharky.

In 1963 I purchased another bitch pup from Tony Parsons, Karrawarra Lena ( by Karrawarra Bronze out of Karrawarra Lottie I). This bitch turned out a handy little bitch, and by this time I was getting interested in trials and going to a few local ones. I had 10 or 11 placings with her. She had bred some handy pups by Sargeant and I bred a litter by Shananhans Ben which were also handy and I sent a bitch pup up to Tony, Glenville Cindy that he used in his stud. I also had a litter from her by Darby. Tony wanted her back to breed from so I sent her back on condition that I was to get a bitch pup back from her which I picked up from Jack Body in Holbrook. This pup by Ceasar, I called Karrawarra Lottie II. She turned out to be a very good brood bitch. I only ran her in a couple of trials for a couple of placings. I joined her to Sargeant first up and they produced Glenville Jean and Gem. Jean was a very good bitch winning at Holbrook and Tumbarumba, second Canberra Seat of Government Trial, third National Novice Championship Canberra, second Monaro Championship, second Riverina Improver Championship, third NSW Novice Championship, third at Cootamundra and a few more.

I had a couple of placings with Gem and then sold her to Carl Carlon. Lottie produce a lot of good dogs by Glenville Peter. Some of them were Candy, sold to Graham O’Bree and Glenville Rex sold to Jim Parker in WA. This dog was second in the Improver in the WA Championship. Glenville Smokey was sold to Mary McCrabb and was a very good stud dog for her. Glenville Silver, a bitch was sold to Lance Clifford in Tasmania. She won trials for him and bred some good dogs. Glenville Jenny was sold to J. Kennedy of Tasmania and also bred some good dogs to Scanlons Glen.

It was 1963 or 64 I purchased Karrawarra Sargeant from Frank Scanlon as a well started dog for 50 pounds. Sargeant turned out to be a very good dog for me. He won 12 trials and was placed in 25 others. The first trial I won with him was the Riverina Novice Championship at Cootamundra. He then won Tumbarumba twice, Wagga, Gundagai, Trundle, Forbes, Denni, and others.

He ran second to his daughter Glenville Dot a couple of times and also to Taj who I was also running at the time. He won top Kelpie Trophy three or four times at Canberra and at that time he won nearly every Kelpie Trophy where he competed.

He was a nice big red and tan dog. I retired him from trials in 1973. He sired some very good pups, the best I had were: Glenville Dot and Glenville Jean. G. Dot had 7 first placings and 21 other placings and placed second to Sargeant several times. She won her Novice at Trundle and then went out and won the Open against some of the best dogs in the country. She won the Riverina Open Championship at Cootamundra. She won the Noakes Memorial Trophy for Kelpies three years running in Sydney when the State Championships were held there. She ran second places at Holbrook, Cootamundra, Taralga, Narrandera, Cootamundra again, Tumbarumba, Wagga, all Open Trials.

Dot bred some very good pups by Scanlons Butch. In her first litter she had Glenville
Rip, who won the Riverina Open Championships at Cootamundra and Glenville Mac and Glenville Maud who was one of Mary McCrabb’s foundation bitches and Glenville Tessie, a brood bitch for Jim Harper in Wagga. In later litters, by Butch, pups went to several other studs. Dot also had Glenville Rocky, a young dog that I won the Riverina Novice Championships with, and then sold to Carl Carlon.

Glenville Jean was from Karrawarra Lottie II. She was every nice red and tan bitch. She had an equal first at Tumbarumba and also a first at Holbrook. She ran second at Narrandera, the Monaro Championship and Cootamundra, as well as coming second to her son Jed in the Riverina Improvers Championship. At the Seat Of Government Trials at Canberra Nationals she ran second and third in the National Novice. She bred some good pups by Scanlons Glen; Glenville Jed from her first litter as well as Glenville Dinah from a later litter. Jed was the best cast, lift and draw dog I had. He won all trophies at Holbrook for cast, lift and draw in the local Novice and Open. In the Riverina Championship in 1977 he was third in the novice and on the same day he won the Improver Championship and then ran second to Taj in the Open. He was second in the Manildra Novice and was placed in the National Kelpie Trial at Jindabyne, won by Taj in 1977.

I took Jed to New Zealand with Taj after Taj won the trip there to compete in the World Expo. He performed very well on the course but did not win anything. After I came home I sold him to Tim Austin for 1000 pounds which was a lot of money for me then. Tim bought him to put a bit more cast and cover into his dogs. He was used a lot in his stud.

Jean also bred a very good litter by Glenville Rip. ( Butch / Dot) One of these, Glenville Kate, a nice red and tan bitch I also bred a few good litters from. One of these produced Glenville Prince (by Glenville Bing). I sold him to Arthur Hazlett. He proved to be an excellent breeding sire for him.

Glenville Tag II by Taj from Kate, I considered one of the best dogs I bred. I sold him in a weak moment to Kevin Mc Kurrle. Tim Austin bought two pups from Kate by Taj and the same litter produced Glenville Blue Bell. Kate also produced a litter of very good station type dogs by Glenville Bob, a son of Scanlons Goldie, my very good bitch.

Another good bitch from Jean and Glen was Dinah, a bitch I used for a while and she won a novice at Yass, second at Wagga Open, second at Tumbarumba and fourth in NSW Improvers at Molong. I gave her to a good friend to look after and breed a few pups. I bred two pups from her by Frank Scanlon’s Riana Kim, one of these was Glenville Tim, the father of Glenville Swanee. Jean had some very good pups by Port Patrick Taj, one of them Glenville Tammy a beautiful black and tan bitch I liked a lot. She was going well and then at about 9 or 10 months I let Peter Austin have her to start his Kircaldi stud with. She breeds a lot of good pups for Peter. Glenville ‘Winnie the Poo’, I sold to Mary McCrabb. She did well for Mary. Glenville Blue, a blue dog pup I gave to Frank Scanlon who later sold him to Bob Seehusen in Victoria. Bob thought a lot of this dog and he did well with him. There were a lot more, all turned out good dogs.

In 1966 I purchased Rocky Bar Dulcie from Frank Scanlon. She was a very good casting bitch and had nice cover. I tried her in a few trials but she was not suitable for the sheep in this area. I bred a litter from her by Sargeant, Tex, Butch and Taj and then in 1970 I sold her to Gordon McMaster as she didn’t fit into my program for working cross bred sheep and cattle.

In 1967 Frank Scanlon sent me down two small pups from Karrawarra Zoe by Cudgee Banner. I named them Butch and Gift. It was unfortunate that they contracted distemper on the train coming down. I saved them both and Butch turned out a very good sire for me. He was a very good casting dog, easy to handle and a very good type of Kelpie with plenty of leg under him. I used him with a couple of bitches and took quite a few outside bitches to him. As I mentioned Dot had some very good pups by him and Pattie also. In January 1971 I sold him to Gordon McMaster for a very good price at that time. His litter sister, Gift was affected by the distemper and never came into season. I gave her to a neighbour to work, unfortunately she died later of snake bite.

In December 1969 I took Dot up to mate her to a young dog Frank had there, Port Patrick Taj. Frank said, for a young dog Taj was well above the average, and this coming from Frank was a very big complement. When we got there, he would not serve the bitch and Frank insisted that I bring him home. I said I would bring him home and spend a couple of weeks on him and enter him in the Canberra National Trial in Frank’s name. I entered him in Gundagai in February. He ran second in the Novice and then a couple of weeks later he won the Kelpie Trophy at Canberra in the Novice and Sargeant won the Kelpie Trophy in the Open. To my delight we were presented to the Queen. I took Taj back to Frank but he wouldn’t take him back, he wanted me to have him to run in trials. To make it all legal he only charged me a token price for him. It was only a few weeks after this, Taj won the Riverina Maiden Trial at Cootamundra for me. I considered Taj the best trial dog I ever worked, the smoothest and best balancing dog of all dogs working then. He won 11 Open Championships, 12 seconds, 6 thirds, 5 fourths and 1 sixth, from a limited Trial career as I could not afford to travel around to some of the more distant trials. He won the coveted Quinn Memorial Trophy at Cootamundra in 1976 and 77. This trophy had to be won two years running or 3 times in all. It has some top workers names on it. Also, in 1976 he won the National Bob Martin Kelpie trial at Jindabyne and the same Trial again in 1977, to win a trip to New Zealand to compete in the World Expo. At this same Trial Scanlons Glen was fourth and Glen’s son Glenville Jed sixth. The one family winning three of the six trophies for me. Taj also won Wagga twice as well as Gundagai, Coolamon, Tumbarumba and others. In the 1977 Riverina Championships at Cootamundra Taj and his offspring dominated the placings in all categories. In the Open Championship Taj won, Jed his grandson was second, Mary McCrabb was third with Avenpart Earl another grandson and fifth was Flipper (a son). In the Improver Championship Glenville Jed came first, with Avenpart Earl second. In the Novice Trial earlier in the day Glenville Jed was third. Glenville Jean was fourth in the Encourage Trial with Ron Harris first with Wyvelloe Badge another grandson. Taj also won the Trophy for the highest score in one run for the whole trial. A very good result for one dog and his progeny considering there were 72 entries with some of the best dogs in the state. Tony Parsons mentioned Taj in his book The Working Kelpie writing, “One of the best covering dogs of recent times was Port Patrick Taj. There has been criticism of Taj as he was not a really strong dog on the trial ground and because some of his progeny were not very strong either, but this dog had the foot work and the cover of some of the old dogs. There have been others but he was the most recent to exhibit it. Instead of criticising him, Kelpie breeders should have tried to maintain this cover by blending Taj’s blood with stronger blood.” With due respect to Tony, he only ever saw Taj work once and that was at Canberra in 1970 when he won the Kelpie Trophy in the Canberra Novice. Scanlons Glen by Taj was the strongest dog I ever had. I would like to state here and now, how this criticism of Taj all started.

We were working in the Wagga Trials on big Western wethers freshly shorn, full of ropel and just brought out of the Wagga Sale yards. They gave trouble all day. In the first run Taj was the only dog to pen his sheep. In the final they were worse. Taj was having trouble at the bridge, when one wether charged, hitting him and then raced out of the wings. He covered him and ran him up onto the bridge and followed him right up giving a couple of barks right at the tail of the sheep pushing them off the bridge. He then went on to pen again. He was the only dog to get his sheep over the bridge in the final run. One of the competitors rushed up to Clare Butt, who was the judge (considered the best judge in the country of his time) and said how many points did you take off Taj for barking, as that showed he was a weak dog. Clare just looked at him and said, none and if it was in my power, I would have given him 10 points extra as that showed he was a real sheep dog. This competitor, who at that time I considered a friend, spread it around the trials that Taj was a terribly weak dog because he barked on the bridge. I think all his results and his progeny speak for themselves. It took a few years for people to work it out. Even now I still have people ringing up wanting to know where they can get some Taj blood.

Early in the piece in the 1960’s Tony Parsons sent me down quite a few pups and young dogs for me to try and work in trials. Some of these were Karrawarra Coil, a brother to Pattie. I won two or three placings with him and won the Novice at Wangaratta and then sent him back to Tony to breed by. Karrawarra Darby won 2 second placings then I won the novice at Cootamundra Riverina Championship with him and then sent him back to Tony as I had some more young dogs to work. Karrawarra Scout won the novice at Holbrook. He won the Kelpie trophy at Canberra for highest scoring Kelpie and was equal third in the Canberra Open Championship and third in the Gundagai Open. I sent him back to Tony to breed by. Some of the others turned out to be handy dogs too, that I returned to Tony.

In 1973 we called in to see Frank and Essie Scanlon. He had a litter of pups about 5 weeks old by Glen from his very good bitch McCormacks Gloria. He insisted on me taking one and I brought home this little cream bitch that I called Scanlons Goldie. I considered her the best farm or station dog I ever had. She would work any number of sheep or cattle day or night. I never worked her in a trial as she was always too busy doing something and getting on with the job. She bred some very good station type dogs. She was very good with cows and calves, would push them then get out and leave them alone while they were going OK. She was very good at holding three or four sheep while training a pup, and would stay out of the way until needed. It was a sad day when she died with cancer in the stomach.

In 1977 Frank sent me down Scanlons Glen to breed from as he was getting up in years and he had no further use for him, as Frank liked breaking in pups and had other dogs to go on with. I gave him a run in the 1977 Bob Martin National Kelpie Trial and he ran fourth. I ran a couple of second places with him after this and then just let him live his life out. He sired some very good pups for me, Jed and Dinah and others from Jean and some very good pups from Dixi III who was a Dot / Taj bitch. One of these was a young dog called Glenville Bing, he won the Narrandera Novice, the NSW Improvers Championship at Molong, ran second in the Holbrook Open and was twice second in the Wagga Open. He had a couple of other places as well. I sold him to Ron Merrick to use as a stud dog. He had a double cross of Taj as Glen and Dixi were both by Taj.

In 1983 I purchased a bitch pup from Kevin McKurlee by Palladin Rex from Wyreema Bindi who was by Scanlons Butch and nearly all Scanlon blood. Kevin had just purchased a young dog about 12 months old from me called Glenville Tag II. I considered him at the time to be one of the best I had bred. He was by Taj out of Glenville Kate (by Glenville Rip and out of Glenville Jean). He had very good cover and plenty of style working one or two and a was a good barker in the yards. This dog in the right hands could have done anything, but Kevin wanted him, so I let him take him; never heard of him again. The pup I got from Kevin, Wongareena Kay bred a very nice litter for me by Glenville Tim. He was by Riana Kim, Frank Scanlon’s dog out of Glenville Dinah. This mating produced top dogs, some of them were Glenville Biddy, Glenville Lizzie and Glenville Swannee. Ron Merrick came down to pick up a couple of dogs from me and he told me that Frank had just lost Kim and his other dog. So, I sent Swannee back with Ron. He was a very nice cream pup about 5 months old and showing a lot of promise and I thought a lot of him, but Frank had been very good to me with dogs and I had no hesitation in sending him to Frank as I thought he was the sort of pup Frank would like.

He turned out a very good dog for Frank. He told me before he died, he considered Swannee up among the top dogs he had had. At the time Tom, Frank’s son said he considered him to be the best that Frank had. He sired a lot of very good dogs. When Frank died Tom used Swannee for some time working cattle. John Scanlon is still using Scanlons Duff by Swannee and is using a lot of Swannee blood in his stud. Swannee is still alive but living in retirement with one of Frank’s daughters. I sold Biddy to Ken Ward at Cootamundra who bred some very good pups from her. I sold Lizzie to Andy Withers who has a Short Horn cattle stud in SA. Andy told me he was the best dog he ever had.

I never bred a lot of pups. I averaged 5 or 6 litters a year and never bred with more than 2 or 3 bitches at one time. I only kept 10 or 12 dogs, that included my bitches, three or four trial dogs and 3 or 4 young dogs to start and try out, as that is all I preferred to have at one time. The trial dogs did all the work on the farm, as I was never interested in breeding for the sake of breeding and selling, only trying to improve what I had and sell the surplus. I always had orders for the pups coming along. Breeding pups is the same as breeding any other animals, you breed a few good ones, a lot of average ones and some failures. My biggest disappointment in breeding good pups is knowing that there is going to be a big percentage of them that will not be educated and trained to their full potential due to poor handling.

I must give Tony Parsons some credit for my success, as he started me off early in the piece by making some of his best pups available to me to try out. It was through Tony that I secured Sargeant from Frank Scanlon, as well as the ones I bought from Tony himself. I won 62 placings, (1, 2, 3 and 4), with dogs with the Karrawarra prefix and this included 37 by Sargeant. I give a lot of credit and thanks to my very good friend and mate Frank Scanlon and Mrs Scanlon. They were a wonderful couple and always welcomed us with open arms. It was always very difficult to get away and we always had to stay an extra day. Frank helped me a lot with dogs and with pups he gave me and made available any dog he had for a service free of charge. Money never entered into any of our pup transactions. He sent me pups and I sent him a lot of pups, some were good and some were not so good but they never had any strings attached to them. Whenever we called on them, if he had any pups there, we couldn’t come home without one. He helped me a lot with his knowledge of training and working my dogs.

The last dog I worked was Glenville Debbie, one of the nicest bitches I had worked. She had Taj, Glen and Dot on her mother’s side, Glenville Chimp, a bitch I gave to my brother and on her father’s side Scanlons Butch and Taj. She was only a young bitch when she won 2 first placings and ran top score at Tumbarumba in 1988. I gave her to my good friend Des Vincent to work and breed from. I never worked in another trial and we sold the farm and retired to Holbrook.

I also give a lot of credit to my good wife Peggy and to my son Geoffrey and daughter Jenny who always looked after the farm and the dogs while I was away.

I am transferring the stud and prefix to my nephew Noel Heinecke of Maragle via Tumbarumba, who is a very good hand with dogs. I wish him well and I hope he gets as much enjoyment out of the dogs as I have.