Kumbark Kelpies and Sheepdog's Nan Lloyd is dedicated to dog training

Fast forward 30 years and sheepdogs are her passion, which she has channelled into her day job training dogs and their handlers, and also her hobby of trialling dogs.

Ms Lloyd's love for canines, in particular Kelpies, has evolved over the years, stemming mostly from her time on a big sheep property at Darkan.

"We ran about 14,000 sheep with limited cropping, so therefore there was a lot of sheep work to do," Ms Lloyd said.

"But some of our earlier dogs weren't very good."

She attended a clinic run by New South Wales-based master trainer and sheep dog trialler Greg Prince, which Ms Lloyd said was a "bit of an eye-opener" in relation to changes that could make life a lot easier and lessen the workload.

"Some people just don't understand dogs and sheep, so incorporating good stockmanship and well-bred, well trained dogs was of huge benefit," she said.

So Ms Lloyd obtained better dogs and incorporated a better training program, to the point where she could muster and yard large mobs of 800 head or more on her own with her dogs, lessening the workload for other family members.

This snowballed into her deciding to start training dogs to trial in competitions.

"Once I started trialling, I really started to learn a lot about reading sheep, training and understanding the dogs, and just general stock work," she said.

About four years ago Ms Lloyd moved to a Beverley property and started her training business, Kumbark Kelpies and Sheepdog Training, which very much caters to each individual client depending on whether the dog is a pup or an older dog, and whether the client wants their dog to perform as a sheepdog on the farm, or trial in competitions.

She said each person and dog had a unique relationship, which meant one-on-one lessons were most effective.

Ms Lloyd also ran group sessions which were limited to about eight participants, with one owner and dog assessed at a time, allowing the other attendees to observe the tips and training methods.

"You are forever learning and picking up things, and I enjoy helping people with their dogs and working out how to improve their relationships," she said.

Ms Lloyd said she would spend time observing both the dog and handler before devising strategies to bring out the best in both dog and handler.

"I look at whether they have a bond, whether either of them is anxious, if the dog is full-on, or relaxed or lacking drive" she said.

"You can't change the dog, they are born with natural traits, so you have to work with them, and that can mean the handler has to adapt sometimes to work with that particular dog.

"They're a package deal, one can't succeed without the other."

Ms Lloyd said pups were good to work with because you could start at the beginning and set standards and behaviours early, but she could still work with handlers who had older dogs.

"It can be quite a long, emotional journey because people love their dogs and if things go wrong, people become anxious and worried," she said.

Ms Lloyd said she had worked with one man who has a hobby farm near Perth and wanted his dog to be able to help him round up his small mob of sheep.

"Once I got the handler on the right track and understanding what he needed to do, he progressed quite quickly," she said.

"He was very pleased with the dog and what he could then achieve.

"They were both very inexperienced but had a good bond, and this makes the training journey easier."

Ms Lloyd said it all depended how far people wanted to go, and what they wanted their dog to be able to do.

"Some people want their dog to be able to trial, which can take years of training," she said.

A very versatile person, with a passion for both training and trialling sheepdogs, Ms Lloyd likes her Kelpies to be equally as skilled in working on the farm as they are for competition.

"Farm work is so important, it's what Kelpies were bred for, so I breed Kelpies that can do both yard and paddock work," she said.

In 2019 Nan and her eight-year-old Kelpie Ace qualified to compete at the National Yard dog trials in West Wyalong, NSW, an event which is held in a different State each year.

The WA entrants did very well, going into the final round on the top score and making the top 10, with Ms Lloyd the only woman to do so that year.

She said that was a big achievement, as she hadn't considered herself very good at yard competition, which involves a dog and its handler negotiating a mob of sheep into yards within a specific time.

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In September last year she travelled to Tasmania for the Supreme Australian Sheepdog Championships, which is the biggest annual Australian event in Three Sheep trialling.

Ms Lloyd competed with four Kelpies and Ace managed to place in the improver event against Australia's best dogs and handlers.

"That was really gratifying," she said.

"I had the only Kelpies entered in the event - there are very few Kelpies trialling at that level."

Ms Lloyd competes in about 10 trials each year in WA under the WA Working Sheepdog Association, and enters the three categories of yard, arena and utility, which is a combination of paddock and yard work.

She said utility trialling was the hardest category as the dog had to be capable of doing both.

"Some people do just yard trialling, some just arena or three sheep trialling," Ms Lloyd said.

"Only a small number of people do all categories of trialling.

"I am 63 and I don't shy away from my age, I enjoy keeping active and having a passion, and trialling allows me to do that."

While Ms Lloyd said she loved the competition, she finds helping train dogs and their handlers to be much more rewarding.

"There are a lot of people who start out doing training because they want a good farm dog but end up transitioning into training their dogs for trialling," she said.

"Trialling can be challenging, but also rewarding, and it is a great social outlet."

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