A COUPLE of Australian Kelpies are now doing the hard yards in South Korea, after being singled out from a Gippsland farm.
Beloka Kelpie stud owner Paul Macphail, who has been breeding dogs for more than 20 years at Welshpool, said Taeyong Ma contacted him late last year via his stud's Facebook page.
"He was particularly on the lookout for Kelpies," he said.
Taeyong had previously purchased Border Collies from Scotland, but said they couldn't do the work required.
Although there are only a small number of sheep in the whole of South Korea, Taeyong runs about 200 head all up on a small island off the south coast of the country.
After making initial contact with Mr Macphail, the farmer travelled all the way to Australia in a bid to find some hard-working dogs.
Before deciding on his final two, the South Korean undertook a sheepdog school at the Macphail's farm - where 500 crossbred ewes are run on about 100 hectares.
Taeyong appeared to be impressed with the capability of the Australian dogs, in particular the yard work they could do.
"He ended up buying two dogs at the end of the week," Mr Macphail said.
That was about 18 months ago, but word-of-mouth spreads quickly and Taeyong was back this month once again in an effort to find another Kelpie for a friend.
"This time he wanted one for a zoo, which also does sheepdog tourist demonstrations…one that had good instinct," he said.
Taeyong picked out a female (Brue) that was originally destined for this year's Casterton Kelpie Muster in June.
But Mr Macphail said he was happy to select another two for the auction.
And while the veteran Kelpie breeder has sold dogs as far as Spain and Switzerland in the past, he was pleased to see the good word continuing to spread about Kelpies.
