NANCY Withers is a small, yet determined, woman.

She said her size has helped her in unusual ways, such as in becoming a better trainer of working Kelpies.

    AT A GLANCE
  • Who: Nancy Withers
  • What: Kelpies
  • Where: Sandford
  • Why: passion for dogs
  • Report: KATE DOWLER

"I'm too small, so I can't be doing things like lifting or pushing sheep into pens all day, so I need the dogs to be able to do it," she said.

Nancy is one of Australia's leading Kelpie breeders, as well as an experienced livestock producer and property manager, and is known for the quality of the dogs that come from her Pomanda Working Kelpie stud.

She manages Braeside, a property at Sandford, near Casterton, where she breeds her dogs.

A board member of the Working Kelpie Council, Nancy is also heavily involved in the popular Australian Kelpie Muster, which will be held next weekend in Casterton. It incorporates the Kelpie Festival and Working Dog Auction.

Nancy's love of dogs was fostered when she was just nine years old.

Her late brother Craig had just been diagnosed with leukaemia and her parents gave her a puppy to help her get through the difficult time.

Nancy said the enormous contribution of working dogs in Australian agriculture was often overlooked.

"When you consider that to feed a dog might cost $500 for dry feed for a year, and compare that to a man's wages, you start to get the idea," she said.

"I don't think our rural representatives take the working-dog industry seriously enough.

"Every day there would be tens of thousand of these dogs used in this country. What if all people who use working dogs didn't take them to work for a few days?"

Nancy began breeding Kelpies after moving to her then-husband's isolated family property, near Murray Bridge in South Australia. Unable to pursue her work as a vet nurse, she took up breeding working dogs.

"I wrote to the Working Kelpie Council and told them what I wished to do, and asked if they knew of a suitable bitch pup," she said.

"Mike Donelan, of Bullenbong Kelpie stud, from The Rock in NSW, replied and said he had a bitch that might suit."

The bitch, Bullenbong Yarringa, was sent by train at six weeks old.

"I was a bit surprised by her colour. She was golden with (some) black hair from her head to her tail, and people joked that she might be a dingo," Nancy said. "But she proved to be an outstanding foundation brood bitch."

In the 1980s the Withers family moved to partly-developed properties near Robe and Kingston in South Australia's South East.

Nancy said working dogs in this type of country was challenging but extremely rewarding.

"I really learnt a lot about my dogs during that time," she said.

Bullenbong Mate was a dog Mike gave her, which had a profound influence on Pomanda and Nancy.

"He changed my concept of what working dogs can do. His natural ability and intelligence - he really set the benchmark," she said. "He had total self-belief, and was amazing mustering in bush and never left a sheep behind."

Other major influences include Scoriochre Gunga and Scoriochre Colly; another Donelan dog, Jottas Gay; and Skyblue Sam, from Peter Meade.

In the 1980s Nancy built up the stud and in the 1990s was selling 100 dogs annually.

She has since scaled back slightly, now selling about 50 young dogs a year.

All the while Nancy has been heavily involved in farming, as well as training, judging and instructing in working-dog circles.

She has also been recognised as a past South Australian Rural Woman of the Year.

For those wishing to have their own stud, Nancy advised them to first consider the type of dog they like and want to breed, and to start small.

"It's important to know what a good dog is, and what places a dog above the 'also-rans'," she said. "You can't judge a dog on training, as that won't breed on, so it is important to differentiate between natural ability and training."

While ability to accept training is important, natural instinct and technical skill are essential.

"A dog who knows where to place himself as opposed to the mob and handler, and the goal - such as the gate the mob has to go through - will do the job for a farmer with less commands and effort and stress on stock," she said.

As for her training approach, Nancy says she never found much sense of achievement in imposing her will on an animal.

"In the 14 years I competed in trials, I trained dogs to the degree that they were competitive," she said. "The challenge I enjoy is to mix the genetics to maintain or enhance certain traits."

Nancy said the best part of breeding and working with dogs was when a young dog did something extraordinary in work.

"When you've bred a litter in a certain way and this pup shows the very best example of the trait," she said.

"It may last just a moment, but in that time you can see the genetic traits you were after and you know you've got it right."