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"Jessica and Luke are doing very well. ...Jessica is more intense when working, Luke wants to give more space to the sheep. At one (early) stage Jessica was very much intensive and liked to come in and pull out some wool when she had the chance but as she has matured this has changed. She now works very stylish and have not respect for any sheep She has strong walk up to the stock.

Luke have not been so intensive when working as Jessica but I like his way of working too. He gives more space to the sheep, has good cover and if the sheep tries to attack he will walk up and snap on the nose. Both are very calm when coming into the house and behaved very well. Luke is at this stage much more independent but this is changing all the time. It is very interesting to follow the development of the two pups from the same litter.

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"Hello, Have just returned from a sheep training with Luke. He just is a great dog, very calm in every situation, and moves easily single sheep, big mobs etc. If sheeps/mobs tries to escape in the corner of the fence there is no problem for him to take them out again."

 "Jessica had a different style in working. She was more stylish and kept longer distance to the sheep. After my opinion Luke naturally comes a bit closer. In praticial work he has good control but for trial he is still a bit to close. I will now work him on three or four wild sheep trying to develop more natural distance."

"I just noticed that You also often have started and trained dogs for sale can You please give me an up to date information on those. As You know I am always looking for kelpies who can compare with the BC in our trails. And  we have to search for only the best kelpies. After working Jessica and Luke and seen Your video I am sure that You have just the right bloodlines to search for a real good trial dog."

Noonbarra Luke II as a small puppy on the backs of the sheep

Noonbarra Luke II showing good eye on sheep at a very young age!!

Noonbarra Luke II working in a big paddock being assisted by an adult Kelpie in background

Noonbarra Luke II backing the sheep

Noonbarra Luke II getting a cuddle from Laura

Noonbarra Luke II walking up on the sheep

These two young Kelpies were sent to the Norinvale Stud Norway, in 2001. A lot of people were very interested in Noonbarra Sarah as she is naturally a wide working dog with the classic style of the old time Kelpies but she has a lot of strength to come in close and push or work the Stockyards with backing etc. No sooner did we mate her then we were inundated with enquiries. Staale wrote to us within days of us doing the mating....

Noonbarra Casey In Australia

"Hallo: I recognised just now from internet that you have mated Noonbarra Sarah, from the video I liked very well how she worked...This is in a hurry, but this seems so interested that I want to book pups from this litter primary one female, but one female and one male can also bee possible. This due to the transport."

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Noonbarra Prince II before going to Norway

Hello to You both, I should have sent You a mail many weeks ago (or months), but it is a rather busy time from early spring to late summer. It has been very much rain during the season and that gives complicated to the work situation. So now we are hoping for a long and dry period up to Christmas.

 First we have a bad news. Jessica has passed away. She was hit by a car and died immediately. That was a big loss. I was just going to take her to her first trial. She worked very well, very stylish and confident and could cope with any kind of sheep. She was a bit more naturale than Luke so I had put more trial exercise into her than Luke.

Luke is also coming very well, but he is not so stylish and have more oscillated ? work behind the sheep. I intend to start in a trial with him next month. I have used a new training method on him. This is based on "backwards chaining" learning the last movement first and going backwards.

Example: first learning the dog to pass an obstacle with the sheep and give it a command, then goes a bit backward and gives the order. We have cross driving in our trials with much commanding.  I am now trying a new method with seems to suit the kelpies much more. I give the directions and the command for the obstacles and let the dog do the most of the job. With dogs as Luke and Jessica that communicated so well with sheep and never stressed this seems to be a success.  For myself I have to take small steps for to learn how to train this. But the dogs is learning very fast. They now know the aim and therefore I just need to give only a few corrections in the beginning. I just have to ensure that the dog is confident in every situation and can handle most situation by himself.

The dogs I liked most (for our conditions) was Tina, Judy and Sarah. Especially I liked the way Sarah worked and my first intention was to try to buy her. Now as I have learn that Your kelpies can handle our most stubborn and also shy sheep, I could not resist to booked two more kelpies from You when I saw that combination.

Noonbarra Casey

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"Hi, It is a long time since I have been in contact with You so I should like to send a report from Norway. It is going very well with the dogs."

"Here it is not possible to train on sheep all year because of snow etc. Last summer Prince and Casey was a bit to young to be trained properly so I just introduced them to sheep etc."

"This summer the dogs have developed to bee very good in handling sheep. Casey is now just that dog I have been looking for in many years. She have it all naturally. She has style, she is calm, have distance when needed and power. She finds naturally the point of balance where she can control the sheep. Prince also works very well have full control over the sheeps but he uses a bit more energy and tends to go nearer the sheep. I am aware that this is just a training. Luke had just the same kind of  working when he was younger."

They are all extreme easy to train. They are calm, never stressed and very faithful.   I have mated Luke to 3 different females and he has produced some really good pups. Due to working situation I have not been able  to take any of them to trial yet, but I am sure they will do a good figure.

We have a working kelpie club in Norway. I am in the board and just now also responsible for the clubs internet site.

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Noonbarra Casey as a puppy in Australia

Noonbarra Casey just before she left Australia