The breeder named the puppy Barb after a champion black horse from the Melbourne Cup in the 1860s. The striking reddish-brown coat color of this breed is known as the red-cloud kelpie. As kelpies ...

Peter Austin got his first kelpie — "a feisty little pup" — in 1974. The pup followed Peter as he went off to college, and again when he became overseer on a large property in western Victoria.