About Alberta Kelpies

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In 2024 we moved from Victoria, Australia to Alberta, Canada. Joining us on our voyage were our 3 Kelpies. Our dogs are a part of our family and a necessity when working cattle or sheep. So, we made the arrangements and now reside in the beautiful Peace Region. 

Chris was born and raised in Australia and comes from a long line of farmers. He has had a life-long passion for farming, livestock and Kelpies. Chris started training dogs at the young age of 11 when he got his first Kelpie pup, Knight. Over the next 15 years, Knight helped Chris in his journey of truly understanding the working dog and learning effective training methods. 

Prior to the move to Canada, Chris was the manager of a large-scale cattle operation. This position gave him the opportunity to train and use working dogs daily. Over this time, he has had the pleasure of training a wide variety of dogs and truly appreciates dogs with good working genetics. They have proven to be easy to train, manage and get the job done.

Through agricultural endeavors, Chris and Kayla met in Australia. In this time, it was quickly realized they shared the passion for livestock and Kelpies. 

After 2 years of working alongside each other, it was decided to move to Alberta and show the agricultural industry what these amazing dogs can do.

As an Albertan, Kayla is excited to be back home in Alberta. Born and raised on a ranch in the province, Kayla knows the land and people well and believes Kelpies will fit right in.

We look forward to our future in Canada and bringing the Australian working Kelpie to Alberta.

Training of our pups begins with the establishment of us being the pack leader, with this fundamental task ingrained our training regime is able to commence.

To begin, pups are briefly shown livestock at a very young age to gauge their ability in natural working instincts and personality. Before any livestock training proceeds our pups need to have the basics down pat. The ability to come when called, sit, stay, and understand we are the boss.

Once the pups have passed basic training, livestock is re-introduced in close quarters with a trainer herd of sheep or cattle. Not too many commands are introduced in the beginning as these first lessons are more about harnessing the natural working instinct and building on that ability of the pup.

Directional commands are put into play after the first few lessons and recall and stop commands are cemented. When we are happy with the progress and the pup is ready it's time to move onto larger areas and/or more stock.

With all our training methods we try our best to set up the pups to succeed, nothing damages a pup's confidence more than a stressful environment. From picking the scenario, livestock, and the methods we try to make every session a success to build the confidence and grow the ability of the pup to be able to go out in the future and work for our clients to the best of their ability.