How much is too much to pay for a dog? Is $5,000, $10,000, or even $20,000 reasonable?
What about an eye-watering $49,000? So what made this family decide to spend the equivalent of a brand new car on a dog?
A 20-month-old Kelpie named Eve has broken the record for the most expensive Kelpie in Australia.
She was only eight weeks old when her owner Chris Stapleton realised that she was one of a kind. Stapleton, a sheep and cattle farmer from Newbridge, NSW, said that Eve possesses the natural instincts of a working dog.
“She has a lot of natural instincts. The first time she encountered sheep, she started working right away,” Stapleton said. “I’ve been training her ever since she was a puppy, and she’s ticked all the boxes along the way.”
Stapleton’s belief that Eve was extra special was proven correct last Thursday, when Eve, officially called Capree Eve, sold for $49,000 at a combined in-person and online auction. Her record fetching price made her the most expensive Kelpie in Australia.
She smashed the previous record of $35,200 set by a working Kelpie named Hoover from Casterton, Victoria, 16 months ago.
Eve, the most expensive Kelpie in Australia, with her new owner Chris Stapelton (Left) and auctioneer Jason Pearce (Right). Credit: STUDSTOCKSALES.COM.
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Well Worth It
Stapleton has been breeding Kelpies for over 50 years. And despite all the technology that’s availble in the agricultural industry these days, he says that a good working dog still has a place on farms.
“Theres’s still a lot of things that technology can’t do. For example, it can’t go out and retrieve my sheep for me, direct them into the yard, and push them through the yard,” Stapleton said.
“More importantly, dogs are our mates as well. They are also a part of our family, our companions. There’s nothing out there that can do all the work that they do.”
According to Stapleton, a good working dog has excellent instincts around other animals. These dogs know how to move them around, and know how to follow their handler’s instructions. Most good working dogs sell for around $20,000.
Despite all the new technology available, Stapleton says that good working dogs still have their place on farms.
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Auctioneer Jason Pearce, of Elders in Mudgee, said that working dogs are still heavily relied on by farmers.
“While working dogs are still being used on farms, the way that they are used has changed over the past few decades. They might go out with a couple of dogs and a motorbike instead of a horse and 10 dogs like they did 50 years ago.”
A Historic Moment
AuctionPlus organised the auction for Eve. 10 other Kelpies were also auctioned off alongside the record-fetching Kelpie.
Auction Plus said that more than 200 people had attended the auction, either in person or online, and more than 60 bids were placed across all the dogs.
Pearce said there was a lot of talk about what Eve could potentially fetch for before he even started the auction process.
“People were expecting Eve would fetch a high price given that she already reached $26,000 in pre-auction bids,” he said. “It was just a matter of where she would land.”
Once the bids surpassed the previous record of $35,200, people started to pull their phones out to capture the historic moment.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the final bid,” Pearce said.
“It’s incredible how much people are willing to spend on a dog,” he said. “But then again, I’ve just paid $2000 for a little dachshund. I have no idea what I was thinking.”
So how much are you willing to pay for your dog? Let us know in the comments below!
