Our hosts are so important to deliver livestock education around the world.

Catrinus Homan and Erika Visser

Netherlands

We are Catrinus Homan and Erika Visser. Together with our children we live on our farm in the middle of the National Park 'Drents Friese Wold', in the Netherlands. Catrinus is a 2nd generation shepherd and runs the sheepfold in Doldersum, while Erika runs the private flock. She is also a veterinary nurse and is a teacher in animal husbandry. Together we raise and train the dogs. Next to the main flocks from the sheepfolds and the cattle we look after, we also have a flock of 110 Scottish Blackface sheep and mixed breeds and we keep a few geese for training purposes. With almost 1000 sheep in the folds, divided over 8 different locations, our dogs get plenty of work. We got to know the Working Kelpie as a great stockdog that fits right into our way of handling stock. The Working Kelpie does what needs to be done in order to move the sheep or cattle. A good, balanced way of handling the dog makes sure all of its good traits will come out. This is what we stand for: a good, natural working dog that works because it wants to work, not because it has to work.

Sara Jones

Sweden

My name's Sara Jones, I live with my partner on a farm in southeast Sweden. Together with three other families we rent an 800 ha military shooting range along with about 200 ha of pasture and farmland. On the land we run sheep, cattle and horses.

We have five Working Kelpies which all work daily with the stock on the farm. Good working dogs are essential in order for the farm to function as the military activity on the land requires the stock to be moved often. Our dogs need to do both barn, yard and pasture work. We also want them to be able to work with both, sheep and cattle.

Til tross for mine tvil registrerte jeg meg på en klinikk ved Boggabilla for å se hva denne Guruen virkelig kunne oppnå. Jeg kan trygt si at min hunde- og gjeter verden ble snudd på hodet!

Jeg møtte David Hart.

Plutselig jobbet jeg, hundene mine og storfe/småfe sammen som et team og vi begynte å få gjort mye mer med mye mindre innsats fra alle parter. Jeg fikk ny jobb med ansvar for den daglig flytting av 2000 kyr . Med veiledning fra David lærte jeg å holde flokken i den rette sinnstilstanden over lange perioder til tross for krevende forhold med begrenset fòr tilgang og gjentatte angrep av ville hunder.I fjor bestemte min kone og jeg med våre to småbarn å flytte til Norge, hennes opprinnelses land. Vi har nylig kjøpt en liten gård og har til hensikt å opprette et foretak med flokkdyr på leiet og  eiet land. Vi tok med oss 4 unge kelpier med god avl som nå har nådd arbeidsalder. Disse hundene vil bli uunnværlig i vår virksomhet i fremtiden.

My name is Sean O'Hare and I come from Queensland, Australia. Stock work with horses and dogs has been a big part of my life since I was a young boy. Having worked on some huge properties running up to 70,000 sheep and 35,000 breeder cattle, I have been privileged to stand witness to many different and varied ways of handling stock. Mostly, these methods did not fit well with me morally.

By 2008, I had already found some top mentors in the horse and rodeo world, but my dogmanship was still seriously lacking. That same year, I heard about a bloke that could work 15 dogs at one time without uttering a word or send a team of dogs for kilometers on the scent of livestock in inhospitable, mountain/scrub country and wait on his bike until they returned with a mob of wild cattle. Here we go again I thought, just another 10-second hero out there promising the world.

Despite my doubts, I signed up for a clinic at Boggabilla to see what this guru could really achieve. Safe to say, my world of dogs and stock handling got turned on its head.

I met David Hart.

Suddenly, my dogs, the livestock and I became a team and we started to get a lot more done with a lot less effort from all parties. Progressing further, I got a position on a managed grazing block where my dogs and I were responsible for the daily movement of 2,000 head of cattle. With David's guidance, I learnt how to keep livestock in the right frame of mind over a long period of time despite challenging conditions of limited feed and wild dog attacks.

Mid last year my wife, two small children and I decided to move to Norway, her country of origin. We have recently purchased a small block and intend to develop a livestock enterprise on leased and government-owned land. We brought with us 4 well-bred, young Working Kelpies which are now of working age. These dogs will become indispensable in our business of the future.

Patrick Stubbe

Belgium

I am Patrick Stubbe, I live in a small village that is part of the administrative community of Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium.

I have worked all my professional life as an education researcher/teachers trainer to support socially disabled children and youngsters and retired in 2015 to have more time for what started as my hobby.

I purchased a couple of old historic sheep breeds (Hebridean of St Kilda) to clean my backyard hill in 1993. So many years later, I am now responsible for 200 sheep, divided in several grazing mobs that clean a lot of environmental projects. After two years I realised the need for a good dog and purchased a Border Collie, 4 years later I added a genuine Working Kelpie to my pack. I now own a small stud of 6 Working Kelpies.

I took different clinics with Michael Johnson and Mary McCrabb for me to start being a decent handler of good stockdogs. In between I learned a lot about different lines and the development of the Working Kelpie as a breed. That's how I became interested in old paddock lines and purchased a Karmala pup from Jan Lowing. This opened a new world for me and even more, it lead me to an interesting person that promoted a "natural way of handling stock with lines of good dogs". That was how I learned about David Hart and his Fairdinkum Livestock philosophy.

Good communication, a couple of years and new imported dogs later, I was happy to meet David with Sean Barrett at the first Doldersum clinic in 2013. Later to be complemented by the two clinics they gave in 2015 at the same place. These were so important for me as a stockhandler/dog handler that I now must say, I owe most of my competences as a stockhandler/dogtrainer to these guys.
I now work as a grazier with different mobs of sheep. I have 180 ewes and some extra lambs and sires, grazing on different environmental projects in my region. Sometimes these are just small mobs of 20 sheep, sometimes I graze with all ewes and their lambs on larger areas. Compared to other "nature reserves" in Europe, these are just small lands. Some are fenced, some are open land, so, much of my work involves shepherding my sheep to keep them from unfenced crops.

Learn more about my work and my dogs at: www.kesselkelpiesbelgium.com.

Guy & Inge Mangelschots

Grandmenil, Belgium

Chiel & Monique van Dijk

Tecklenberg, Germany

Veronica Nyman

Sweden

Stephen & Penny Welton

Llanggadog, Wales

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