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Sires past and present

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Moorlands Tomie (Cavanagh’s Esjay x Barravore Jean)

The foundation sire of “Campaspe”, Tomie was bred by the late Jack Hiscock, who was a renowned breeder, handler, trial competitor and stockman. I did not own Tomie, but he was an exceptional dog by whom I bred many litters, and have frozen semen stored.

Jack rated Tom’s father, Esjay, as the best all-round dog he had owned.

Tomie, like the best dogs of this blood, had exceptional cover and casting ability, natural mustering ability and great holding ability. He worked and drove a mob naturally, was a natural pulling dog, and had strong force. He had no eye at all on a mob (and was the brainest, most thinking worker I have ever come across), but had plenty of eye and style on one sheep when required.

He was one of the best dogs I have ever seen, and is the main foundation of the Campaspe line of dogs. Tomie is included on the DVD’s “A Few Good Dogs”, and “Natural Ability”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Campaspe Ridge (Campaspe King x Roustabout Lil)

Ridge is a big, leggy, black and tan dog, with great speed and movement. He’s part of the Kelpie outcross (through his mother Lil) to improve the natural backing ability of the Campaspe Working Dogs. 

Even though he is out of a Kelpie bitch, he has thrown back strongly to Moorlands Tomie, and reminds me enormously of Tomie in his work, movement, and looks.

He’s a huge natural casting dog, and has the ability to head, drive and balance to an exceptional degree, which is something I breed strongly for. He’ll look after the lead, and the tail, and in between. Some dog people say you can’t have a dog that is both a driving and heading dog, but that is simply not true. Perhaps in their line of dogs it never occurs, or in their experience, but it is certainly possible, and indeed indispensable if you want a truly top dog. 

He’s got lovely break, and a high degree of both short and mob cover, although not as much short cover as Tomie. A very intelligent, brainy worker. 

Ridge is quickly proving himself a highly prepotent sire, which is a surprise given that he is an outcross dog. To date I would rate him easily as the most prepotent sire I have ever used (certainly when bred over my bitches).

STUD SERVICE: Ridge is available to outside bitches. 
FROZEN SEMEN: Available. 

	Video: Campaspe Ridge. Letting him hold a few in the scrub. Young and with not much training other than to “go back”.
	Video: Campaspe Ridge. Letting him hold a few on a dam bank. Young and with not much training other than to “go back”.

 

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Campaspe Carbon (Campaspe Stripe x Tundabardi Buster)

An outcross dog by Adam James’s high-quality Kelpie Tundabardi Buster. The Kelpie outcross has been used to try to improve the natural backing ability of the Campaspe line, hopefully without sacrificing too much else. In Carbon this has largely been successful as he retains most of the best qualities of the Campaspe line, while also being an extremely natural backing dog.

A very friendly natured dog a lot like Ring or Bounce in nature, and from what I have seen his sire Buster was also a very similarly natured dog. Although, having said that, he is a bit on the softer side in temperament (from the Kelpie outcross) than the Campaspe dogs usually are. 

Not as much cover as Ring or Bounce or Tomie etc., but a very brainy dog, easy to handle, big cast, plenty of distance, and ready to come in and force strongly at a moments notice, without being a pushy dog. Heads, drives and balances nicely. Will hopefully prove a useful addition to the Campaspe bloodline.

STUD SERVICE: Carbon is available to outside bitches.
FROZEN SEMEN: Available. 

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Campaspe Sam 2nd (Campaspe Kallo x Campaspe Nellie)

A young dog with enormous potential. Named after is grandfather Campaspe Sam due to the similarity in both work and looks, and also because he reminds me a lot of an old Russ blood dog called Barravore Sam. 

I always aim to breed dogs with what I call “opposing traits”. So, I want force, and a dog that is happy to work close when needed, but also distance, width and cast. Tammy, Sam’s grandmother, was exceptional in this regard, and Sam is even better. He has the ability and desire to force strongly, and to block and hold strongly, yet naturally works very wide of his stock when force isn’t required (see video below when he was just 4.5 months).

Sam has a fantastic natural cast, lovely balance and cover, is steady most of the time but can really move when he needs to, with exceptional stamina. He has a lovely calm, loyal, temperament, and a good strong, hard, tough nature that I like in a dog, just like his mother Nellie, and like many of the Yulong Russ type dogs. However, he would be too hard for many people to handle. 

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Campaspe Bounce (Moorlands Tomie x Cullens Kiara)

Bounce was an exceptional dog by Moorlands Tomie, with 19 crosses of Yulong Russ. An extremely natural worker, he was capable of doing nearly any job with sheep or cattle on a 5,000 acre property when he was ten months old, and would handle big mobs of sheep on his own at that age. At nine or ten months old he would cast at least half a kilometre, wide and deep, and work the sheep back to me without any commanding.

He was a natural, big casting and pulling dog with strong force, and good distance on a mob. Very keen, and a bit of a handful at times. He lacked a touch of the right sort of eye to be a top dog on a few wild sheep, but even without eye would still usually handle them with cover and balance and brains.

A very brainy worker like his father, in fact the brainiest dog I have ever worked on a mob along with Tomie, he drives a mob naturally and has great purpose. Not as good an outright mustering dog as Moorlands Georgie was, but very few are. Bounce is included in the DVD’s “A Few Good Dogs”, and “Natural Ability”.

	Video: Campaspe Bounce – 10 1/2 months old. Casting, working mob and driving mob away. Showing what is possible with a dog with great natural ability and temperament, combined with sound training.
	Video: Campaspe Bounce – Driving a few away without command. Unlike most dogs that are commanded every step of the way, Bounce does a good job on his own.
	Video: Campaspe Bounce – Learning the “straight cast” – “Get away”. 16 months old. A valuable sheepdog command (also used for to go back for sheep further on, sometimes called the “recast” or “double cast” etc.) especially in rough country for sending a dog more directly to sheep.
	Video: Campaspe Bounce – Learning “come in” on the cast, to narrow the cast. Important in rough hilly country, particularly with dogs with big natural casts.

 

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Campaspe Ring (Campaspe Bounce x Campaspe Chloe)

Ring was almost the spitting image of his sire, Bounce, in type, temperament, and work. A big, strong, upstanding worker. Could do with a bit more ‘tact’ in touchy situations, just wants to get on with the job, but an extremely brainy dog like his sire, natural driving natural heading natural pulling dog with plenty of footwork and cover and force.

A good leggy type, strong head, with very good stamina. Calm and keen. Very loyal, biddable and friendly, was always at my side, a dog I had a lot of time for.

Out of Campaspe Chloe, both his parents are by Moorlands Tomie. He was linebred to Tomie 2:2 (grandfather on both sides) and so was more closely bred than Bounce.

Unfortunately, I was a bit slack and never got much video of Ring. I stumbled across the two bits of video below, so better than nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

	Video: Campaspe Ring – A short clip casting around small paddock and putting a few fresh merinos into the yards. A good example of a dog that has both heading and driving instincts – notice how he heads when the sheep are running, but once under control he works and covers and balances them from behind.
	Video: Campaspe Ring – Another short clip demonstrating his cover, and ability to force while holding (and not just rushing in and splitting them up, as so many “yard dogs” do). Footwork and cover are vital ingredients of the best high-quality, effective force, whether paddock or yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Campaspe King (Campaspe Ring x Monmore Gina)

King was a stronger eyed paddock type with four crosses of Moorlands Tomie. A fantastic holding dog with plenty of break, he was great to watch on a single wild breakaway amongst timber or scrub. He kicks out and goes flat out to out-distance it, before turning in to block and turn it from well infront of it. This is a quality he passed on to most of his pups (see the videos of Lady and Tammy for example). A nice natured, very natural worker, with loads of stamina.

I had some amazing video of King when he first started working, holding some very touchy shorn merinos amongst some scrub when about 4 months old, but somehow it got deleted and lost.

King was a very good sire, and a very influential sire in the Campaspe line, breeding some very high-quality offspring. He had a bit more eye than I like in a dog for allround work, however he never passed that on to his pups. I always say that the only thing that matters in a breeding animal, is how it breeds – what it passes on. And he bred a lot of very good pups.

STUD SERVICE: Frozen semen is available.

	Video: Campaspe King – 9 years here. Short cast around a hill to find a few sheep.
	Video: Campaspe King – 9 years. Quick run around a couple of quiet sheep. Shows more eye on a couple.

 

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Campaspe Kallo (Campaspe King x Campaspe Holly)

A dog I bred, sold, and then bought back, and I’m glad I did. He has only bred one litter to date (to Campaspe Nellie), but if he continues to breed the way he has in this litter, he’ll get a lot more use as a sire.

As a pup he had a lot of eye and style, a bit too much to start with (see video). But as he aged he freed up, and now only uses eye when needed. A fantastic natured dog.

There’s a bit of a story to Kallo. After selling him initially, 12 months or so later I received an email from the buyer, informing me that Kallo “lacked sufficient intelligence to learn even basic commands”!  (Ah, the joys of selling sheepdogs!) Anyhow, I got him back, and in a ten minutes had him going really nicely, and was very happy to have him back.

He’s highly intelligent, learns like lightning (buyer’s email notwithstanding…), and very natural in his work. And now starting to prove himself as a sire.

A great type also, tall and leggy with a good strong head

 

 

 

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Campaspe Sam (Campaspe King x Campaspe Ebby)

Sam was a big black dog starting to prove his abilities as a sire (shown here in action with Campaspe Biddy, click to enlarge), when I made the mistake of selling him. I had a younger brother of his, Bruno, who was even better, and had someone keen on buying Sam, so I let him go. However, as it turned out even though Bruno was an even better dog himself, he didn’t breed anywhere near as well as Sam had.

It just goes to show that the most important test of a breeding animal is their progeny. When breeding, the pedigree is a rough guide, the individual is a better guide, but the progeny is the only thing that really matters.

Sam was a friendly, loyal dog, a steady sensible worker with plenty of distance, balance and short cover, didn’t do any more running around than he needed to. One additional thing I liked about Sam as a sire was that he only bred short haired pups no matter which bitch he was joined to.

By Campaspe King out of Campaspe Ebby (photo) (Ebby is Campaspe Maggie’s litter sister). His influence has continued in the Campaspe line through one daughter – Campaspe Nellie.

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Doige (Moorlands Blazing x Holly (Imp NZ))

Doige was Les Hall’s exceptional hill country mustering dog. Very similar in looks to his sire Blaze. Extremely brainy and intelligent, huge searching/mustering cast, lovely cover (although a bit “softer” in his cover than I would like, didn’t block and hold as strongly as I like to see), balance, and break.

Fantastic stamina, he has proven his mettle in years of hard work in very steep hill country working merinos, crossbreds and cattle. Great natural ability.

Doige has had an influence on the Campaspe dogs through four main bitches – Campaspe Maggie particularly (out of Campaspe Kelly), but also her sister Campaspe Ebby, and Campaspe Bella (out of Campaspe Queen), and Campaspe Holly (out of Campaspe China with a double cross of Doige). 

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Glendaloch Craig (Cymru Coon x Campaspe Meg)

Bred from an outcross mating. Craig’s father was a pure UK (Welsh) blood collie. This UK blood was used in an attempt to bring in some more ‘minimal activity’ and ‘distance’, and to ‘square’ the cover up a bit, and for their incredible speed and ease of training.

I am not a big fan of UK blood dogs in general (I have seen a few “handy” ones, but I am yet to see one that I thought anything special), as they tend to lack the real, clean heading instinct I consider essential, and lack breakaway break, and are often pretty short on cover, but they certainly have some strong points. They are generally bred for success in their types of trials and to be turned into impressive robots with a high level of training.

After I injured my back, I gave Craig’s mother, Campaspe Meg (who was by Moorlands Tomie), to Les Hall to breed from (Les manages the 5,000 acre hill-country grazing property ‘Glendaloch’), and we travelled down and joined her to John Macdonald’s Coon (John generally had some pretty good Yulong Russ blood collies). Les kept two pups and gave the other five to me.

As it turned out, one pup (who I call Craig) was retained for breeding. Craig was a very natural worker, highly intelligent and easy to control. Does most things naturally with very little training at all. Learns like lightning. Not exactly the style of work I prefer, Craig has had an influence in the breeding of the Campaspe dogs, but I ever intended to bring in a trickle of this imported blood.

In my view it takes at least three generations to stablise the breeding after a wide outcross. This has proven the case here. Campaspe King is one of the third generation. He was out of Monmore Gina, who was by Craig, who was by the UK blood dog Cymru Coon. King is breeding extremely well. The fourth generation are even better. It is a long, painstaking process introducing an outcross and shouldn’t be attempted without a definite aim in mind, and the patience to follow it through.