Another south-west dog is heading north with Muster Dogs star, Frank Finger, after catching the eye of Frank’s son, Scott, at Sunday’s Working Dog Auction.

At just 13 weeks old, Glenelg River Rock, bred on Darren and Nicky Holmberg’s Dunrobin property, is one of a litter of four to dam Brie Brie Tuppence by sire Glenelg River Thumper – the first litter of this breeding.

“I’m trying to breed a calmer, easier-handling dog for people,” Darren said.

“I bred this litter because I need to replace one of my dogs, I wanted to put a dog in the auction, support the auction … I’ll probably keep another one and train the best of the three for next year’s auction.”

Already showing good balance and strength on the farm and presenting well in his online sale videos, ‘Rock’ had hit his $1000 reserve on the morning of the auction and $1250 when the event went live at Island Park on Sunday afternoon.

“He did not do a super demo on Sunday … but I think Frank had researched the bloodline, the Go Getta bloodline where the Muster Dogs were bred from,” Darren said.

“He said to me Scott had been looking at this pup all day, he liked the look of him … for $1600 they were very happy to have him.”

Darren said while Rock had only seen a cow off the back of the four-wheeler during feed-out, he was confident the pup would thrive under Frank’s tutelage and looked forward to seeing him work, in person.

“Kelpies handle the heat no worries and he’ll do a great job with Frank – Nicky and I are just rapt that he sees the potential in the dog; it’s pretty cool, I think,” he said.

“No doubt I’ll hear about his progress and we’ll probably make a trip up there – a good excuse for a drive.”