Kerrie Challenger

Kerrie has owned, trained and bred Dobermans all her life. She has 30 years experience training and trialing in Obedience. She trained and competed with her first Doberman at 15 years of age and obtained her Obedience Instructors license in 1988.  Her highest training achievements were Utility level with a Koolie and Open or CDX with a Doberman.  She has 8 years experience judging All Breeds Obedience for the Australian National Kennel Council.

She spent her childhood on a dairy farm in Northern Victoria, with kelpies, koolies and healers and also spent time living in Melbourne with her father and his Dobermans.  In her youth her family moved to NSW and turned to beef with black Angus and Herefords, she learned about stock droving, the long paddock and market crashes.  There they used mainly Heelers and Kelpies.

As a new bride, she and her husband sharefarmed 27,000 acres in south west NSW and changed from cereal crops to Merinos and Simmental cattle.  She was once offered $10,000 for their trusty Smithfield, but laughed and never took the offer.  Koolies were the flavour of the property next door owned by the O'Hallorans. She received the name Tjukurpa by a Koorie (aboriginal) stockman for her Doberman stud only to use it for Koolies ten years later.

Kerrie began researching the koolie breed in 1986 and purchase her first koolie in 1991.  In 2000 organized the televising of the first koolie gathering in Australia on the popular lifestyle show Burkes Backyard. This was the first meeting of the Koolie Club of Australia and where the the first committee took office.  Kerrie was a founding committee member and has held office ever since.  Kerrie has held the positions of Publicity Officer and Editor of the club newsletter since inception. The newsletter is a bimonthly production that has been highly praised by members and is always full of news and information. She is also a member of the IT sub-committee.

In 2001 Kerrie and husband Ron commenced Koolie Rescue, they have worked tirelessly and funded the rescue of many koolies in that time and have proudly placed many into good forever homes.  In 2002 they assisted with the formation and launching of Koolie Adoption in NSW.

In 2002 Kerrie negotiated with Dr Mark Neff of the University of California at Davis in America for the inclusion of Koolie Club of Australia register koolies in a DNA study into the presence of the mutant gene mdr1-1, which causes malfunction in the canine multi drug resistance gene.  This study subsequently cleared those lines tested of the presence of the gene.

In 2003 she met with Mr. George Sofronidis B.Sc(Hons), manager of Animal Diagnostics at Genetic Science Services of Australia and negotiated the on going collection and testing of koolie DNA.

In 2003 Kerrie met with Mr. Roger Hampson, Chief Executive of the Victorian Canine Association and negotiated the Koolie Club of Australia's acceptance to the Sporting Register in Victoria. This was followed by the Royal New South Wales Canine Council in 2004 and the Queensland Canine Control Council in 2005 this has opened up to koolie owners the ability to compete with their koolies in dog sport events sanctioned by these bodies and for them to be recognized on all paperwork as Koolies whereas prior to this they were only able to access the associated register and were lumped with crossbreds as breed: associate.  This also allows koolies to compete without having to be de-sexed prior.

In 2004 Kerrie negotiated the entrance of the Koolie breed to the Australian Animal & Pet Expo in Sydney, which has invited the clubs return each year since.

Kerrie and Ron have also bred their beloved koolies since 2000 and have now reached their 3rd generation.  Many of their pups are now working very well on various farming enterprises across the country and are greatly valued.