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Trudy & Ken Dive

We asked Trudy one question........                        

How long have I been involved with Koolies??

I go back forty one year give or take a year.

I used to go up to my Aunties and Uncles’ place at Walcha to their property Yalgoo. One time I was there my cousin Prue said come and look at the “chuck dogs” we have. Prue was a few year younger that me. We went up the were all the farm dogs were. And there was these motley colour dogs. Prue called them chuck dogs because she said they look like someone has been sick over them. So that was my first encounter with Koolies. Mind you I did get into trouble, because I let all the farm dog off their chains so we could play with them. I got many Koolie licks that day plus a tanned backside for letting the dogs off.

The next time I came across a Koolie, mind you I had tried to find out what sort of dogs they were, and where did they come from. We were living up at Coonabarabran, 1982 and a friend’s bitch had puppies. The mother was a foxy and the father was a border collie. The pups were smooth coated mini Border collie. Another friend took a female pup called Sally. They did not get her desexed so Sally went looking for a husband. Found the next door farm dog a Koolie. Well she had eight puppies. Four black and white like her and four blue merle like dad. We took a male black and white puppy. “Sprocket” my son called him. Sprocket was a boy’s best friend. Living out of town on 46 acres there were not too many to play with. Sprocket and Matthew went everywhere together. All I had to do was call Sprocket and he would jump in the air and I could see were they were. Even if Matthew did not answer me when I called Sprocket always gave him away.

We moved from Coonabarabran to Springwood bringing Sprocket with us. I told the agent we had a foxie cross; well he was the size of a border collie but with short hair.

Sprocket had had 46 acres to run around on. Coming to a building block, we thought he would go mad. We did a lot of walks every day I used to walk to school to pick up Matthew and we would walk home again a get an ice cream on the way home. Sprocket loved ice cream.

It took Sprocket a long time to get any sense and there are many stories in that it’s self, but once he settled down he was a great dog to have around. I took him to Obedience training when he was 11 years old. Got up to the top class. Then he got stiff and slow downed. But in him dreams he could still catch the rabbit he loves to chase on the farm, all legs would be going like mad and he would howl as he got closer for the catch. Mind you he never caught anything.

After he passed away after 14 years with us, we were sort of looking for another dog. We took in a Golden Retriever. We found her a very good home being a drug dog. I was sort of looking for a dog, when a friend rang me and said there was a Koolie in the pound on death row, go and see if I can rescue her. Well I did rescue her and she is still here. I do yard work with her and she loves it. Very strong instinct. With the DNA testing I might find out were she came from. She is Roxie, a black merle. A very full on girl very hard to get her to work with you. After many hours of hard work we are now working as a team and going in to yard trials up against the top men handlers. We got a phone call from Michelle she had a male red merle Koolie that had been handed in to her. The Owners could not keep him. Could we take him for 3 days? I talked Ken into it. That was almost 2 years ago and he is still here. Dylan came to us under 9 kilos and with a broken jaw. Very scared of anyone, if you moved too quickly, he thought he was going too be beaten again. With a lot of hard work and a lot of pats, he is now doing three sheep work and is also doing Novice work in Obedience. He has his HT title and is working to go on and get more titles. Because he has no teeth on one side the tongue lolls out, and he has a very big grin on the face. For a dog that was left to die and should have been put down he has come along way. Ken just loves him and Dylan will defend Ken to the death if it ever comes to that, for we have saved him and now he just want to protect us. Bless his little cotton socks.

So after forty one years of having Koolies I would always have one around, they just give back so much love even if they have had very hard time in the past.

 

Ken - were do I start with Ken. Well growing up he was not allowd to have a dog. It was not until he met me that he had anything to do with dogs. Before we were married, we were fishing down at Narabeen lakes, near a caravan park. This young German shepherd pup was hanging around. I had always had dogs in my life, so I made friends with it giving her my lunch and blanket to lie on. The dog had followed Ken back from the toilet block, so I called her Looby Loo. The owner of the caravan park came over and said is that your dog, we said NO he said it had been hanging around for over two weeks, and he was going to call the ranger tomorrow to take her away. Well I did some very hard talking and Ken agreed to take the dog to his place. That was the start of collecting dogs. I got Ken in to obedience when we got Ratty, that was five years ago. Before that he used to come up and sit and talk to Wally who looked after the table, Ken would also help out with new members forms and book work that need to be done. It was not until we got Dylan that he really started to get interested in dog training. Sheep dog seems to be what he love, and he is also working to get Dylan his obedience title. Ken is a Chartered Accountant, so sitting behind a deck all day working on numbers and forms, he really looks forward to getting out and working with his Dylan. Ken was born and bred in Coonabarabran, so you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.