Apparently the original kelpie pup was named 'Kelpie' because there was at the time a fashion for giving pets and working animals mythological names, and the breeder was a Scot. Later on, when the black form of the dog emerged, they were named 'Barb Kelpies' after 'The Barb', a famous Melbourne Cup winning pure black horse, since like the horse they were beautiful, black and very, very fast.
My older son used to own one of these hyperactive dogs when he was working in the Outback, and when he came to live in a rural area just outside the city where it, and he, didn't have to work so hard, he would take the dog for a ten-mile run every morning before work. This slowed the dog down a little for the rest of the day, but not by much!
