About Elkana Border Collies
Elkana Border Collies were started by Ellie, in 1991, Qld, Australia.
Ellie grew up on the land with Border Collies and working stock. We initially started with the shorthaired working Border Collie, her name was Molly and was an exceptional working dog, the sort of dog you hear stories about but never dream of owning.
We attended obedience classes and through that we became more aware of conformation showing. Ellie parents knew of Ruth who had Border Collies, she became our first point of contact. We noticed that the pedigree Borders were smarter from the ones that we already had.
The dogs bred by Elkana Border Collies are mostly sold as pets or working homes or for Obedience Trialing or Conformation Showing.
Elkana Border Collies' original pedigree stock is from CH Gadgerrie Quite A Dandy owned by the late Ruth Halbeich of Carlyn Border Collies. Billy his son and Jasmine his granddaughter . We later added Jack and Millie to our kennel.
On the next pages, I have provided some details on the dogs I own with links to more information (like pedigrees and pictures). I hope you like them.
I guess once you have owned a Border Collie there becomes no other breed!
Border Collies have been a part of my family for more than 50 years.
My Grandfather in England had been breeding Border Collies on his dairy farm all his working life, where he used them for herding in his dairy cattle everyday for milking.
My association with Border Collies started when I was 5.
We had a dog called Bobby,a tri color.
He was trained by mum and was extremely obedient to the point that some visiting children called him across the road and he was run over by a passing car.
It was some years before we got another Border Collie, being Rastas.
He went everywhere with us from Gladstone to the back of Bourke.
Rastas adapted easily to the different lifestyles from farm life where I was working for many years as a Jilleroo on a three thousand plus small sheep farm. Rastas would ride on the motor bike with me to get a mob of sheep(up to a thousand head) to life on a yacht at the Gold Coast.
Sadly we had him put down at 13 due to liver problems.
My husband and myself then got Molly a short haired working type Border Collie who turned out to be a exceptional working dog.
He first saw her in the pet shop window and thought to himself that if she is there after a week he would get her for me.
Pete brought her home for my birthday at 9 weeks of age. Strangely enough all her days she seemed to be grateful for us rescuing her from that environment.
We moved onto a 100 acre river front bush block, where we had a small herd of cattle. Often we would look down the hill and wonder why all the cattle were gathered together in the middle of the grassed paddock.
Eventually we would see Molly circling them working them, then we would call her up to leave them alone. Read more about her in our Dog Tales.
We decided to get some pedigree Border Collies with a new interest in showing.
Thanks to Ruth a friend we got our first pedigree papered dog Jasmine (Illoura Sheridan) and then 6 months later a red and white male Billy (Border Free High Jinks).
That was the start of our show interest. We used them to work as they loved this.
Billy hated showing - he preferred to be down the paddock working.
So we showed some of their off spring. Showing in the country you travel great distances.
We traveled as far east as Gladstone, as west as Alpha, as north as Charters Towers and as south as Brisbane.
Jack (Borderoo Zac) came to us when he was 2 months off 5 years old.
The Tompsons rescued Jack as he was going to be shot.
They couldn't keep him long and approached us if we wanted him.
After viewing his pedigree papers we said yes.
He was not in the best condition, so the long process of getting him healthy began. With advice and help from Sue Cook,(Glenlion Border Collies) we were on our way with Jack a few years later.
His coat had to be shorn off, shaved is a better word and thoroughly wormed.
He was a lovely natured dog not deserving his past 6 homes.
I kept him till he died of old age.
We had been showing him lightly until he was 8 years old and in a year he had clocked up 87 points.
At his last show at Durack being 10 years old he managed Reserve Challenge Dog.
To this day his son, Phantom - Elkana Phantom Blue continues the lines on.
When we moved to Brisbane we were fortunate to purchase Bordern Mastrs Aprentice from Sally Everist.
When we were living in Brisbane showing was our main activity and then herding.
Since moving further away to acreage we are still showing dogs, but more so herding and enjoying the company of our dogs.
Peter has been involved in the following roles
Border Collie Club of Queensland Secretary from 2005 to 2008
Border Collie Club of Queensland Webmaster from 2005 to 2010
Border Collie Club of Queensland Newsletter Editor from 2005 to 2010
Dogs Queensland Herding Sub-Committee 2008 to 2012
Ellie has been involved with the club in the following roles
Border Collie Club of Queensland Treasurer from 2006 to 2009
Border Collie Breed lecturer for Judges training from 2005 to 2015
Queensland Herding Association Executive Committee from 2009 to 2010
Dogs Queensland Herding Sub-Committee 2012 to 2015.