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This colour is fairly rare compared to the black & tans and red & tans, but has been around since the very early Kelpies in the 1800's.  As our Noonbarra Fawn & Tans go back in a direct line to the great fawns of the old Kalari bloodlines, they tend to be very popular when they are available for sale.

The silver - fawn colour in Kelpies, like the Masked, Saddled, Blues and Creams, are not so common these days. Some people don't realise that they even exist. Some of the famous Kelpies in the past have been Fawn Kelpies. As a colour, we have always had a preference for fawns. We find them quite striking.

The fawn colour has different shades, some are very silver while others are a nice dusty sort of light brown. Most have tan markings,  just like a Red & Tan or a Black & Tan Kelpie.

Some Kelpie Studs are well known for their Fawn Kelpies in the past such as Scanlons, Koonawarra Downs, Spinifex, Glenville, Riana, Kalari etc.

There are quite a few famous and influential fawn Kelpies of the past. Legendary names such as Glenville Dot, Scanlons Flash, Newton Fawn, and Scanlon's Dell. A newspaper report on Scanlon's Dell once wrote; " Scanlon's Dell is dead now, but to this fawn Kelpie must go supreme place among the Kelpies of the past 20 years. Kelpie breeders should erect a monument to the memory of Scanlon's Dell."

More detailed information on Dell, Dot, Flash and Fawn can be found in our book, 'Famous Kelpies'. See information at bottom of page.

See photos below.

We have had a few litters with fawn Kelpies over the years but not many. Noonbarra Griff, born in 1985, was one of our favourites. Noonbarra Luke was a major trial winner and sire. Others were Noonbarra Dawson, Noonbarra Pekoe, Noonbarra Cooper, Dusty I, Noonbarra Meg IV, Noonbarra Tosca, Noonbarra Max IV, Noonbarra Sandy, Noonbarra Bronco, Noonbarra Cricket, Noonbarra Finn,  and Noonbarra Ned I. (Check these Kelpies out on our customer review lists). We might get a couple every few years.

One of our top sires, Noonbarra Jackaroo carries the Fawn gene. However he has to be mated to the right females to produce Fawns and even then the chance can be slight.

We always get very strong interest when we have Fawn & Tans or Cream puppies. We once had a customer wait three years to get a Fawn & Tan from us but we never had any during that period. Recently we had five customers in a week wanting Fawn & tans. Unfortunately, we can have long periods without ever getting a fawn or cream puppy so we don't encourage people to lock themselves into a colour. Remember that the puppy has to be suitable for your situation and your needs and this is more important than colour. If you really want a Fawn and we have a fawn puppy that we think is suitable, then we'll do our best to match you up!

One of our good customers in South Australia, Cate, has Noonbarra Frankie, a Cream Kelpie and she has turned into a marvellous dog especially with her young twins. It's worth reading some of her stories about Frankie. She's done a great job training her.

Cate tried to get the Fawn & Tan male from the Jackaroo X Becky litter in late 2006 but just missed out. She is now waiting for a future litter.

"I would like to get Frankie a companion.... So why not go back to you guys who breed beautiful dogs, where I know I will get a pup of terrific working ability with a lovely temperament and the best start in life."

"Frankie has turned into a wonderful dog, a great companion, terrific with the kids and a good worker in a paddock situation. She is not at all pushy when it comes to yard type work though – not that I expected her to be as you sold her to me as a wide working paddock type dog, and that is exactly how she has turned out. We don’t do incredible amounts of sheep work though, maybe once or twice a month, so of course the pup also ends up being a family companion. I have talked to a few other kelpie studs that are closer to us here in SA and none of them want to sell us a pup to be part of a family. Frankie is just terrific in the house and around the kids so I definitely want to get those traits again – another reason why I am contacting you guys!

" We are happy to wait for the right pup. We have both fallen in love with that unusual silver colour and are happy to wait for that to crop up again, we get so many comments about our dingo, goodness knows what people would do if we had a blue or silver one too!!!

More on Noonbarra Frankie & the children

Many of the great Kelpies of the past were Fawn & Tans including Scanlon's Flash. Lynne who owns Noonbarra Meg IV, a Fawn & Tan Kelpie, sent us this interesting story...

"I should also mention that I was walking Meg in Morpeth the other week and an elderly gentleman got out of a car and came over to speak to us.  I was with a friend (who lives in Morpeth) and Leah had her mini schnauzer 'Harriet' with her.  Morpeth is an historic town on the Hunter River near Maitland.  It has become a bit of a tourist stop with old stores with lots of craft and cafes, etc.  Just the place for a pup to go walking - lots of cars, people, sights & sounds! 

"Anyway, back to the story.... The man came over to me and told me that my dog was too good for me!  I begged his pardon and he repeated that Meg was a good lookin' dog and was too good for me to have!  Long story short:  It turned out that Frank originated from Forbes (his brother still lives there and runs sheep) and he doesn't believe in good working dogs being couped up in town.  He told me that I should get one of those fluffy lap dogs like my friend has.  I thanked him for his compliment about Meg and agreed with him that she is a good looking dog but she doesn't live in town and has lots of things to do even though she doesn't work stock.  He turned out to be a bit of a character and we ended up yarning for about 15 minutes."