“Bob The Kelpie Dog” (alternately known as “The Bob Song”) is a children’s song written and performed by Australian, Don Spencer.  We could show you a video of Spencer performing his song, but we’d rather show you a Kelpie watching Spencer perform his song:

As interesting a breed as the Kelpie is, Don Spencer is also an interesting chap.

He was a stand-out field hockey player in high school, and years later, became a member of Kenya’s Olympic Hockey Team. While traveling through Kenya, he met singer, Roger Whittaker (the Roger Whittaker whom some of us remember from TV commercials selling his records). For a time, the two toured and wrote songs, but eventually Spencer moved to London.  He had a hit record called “Fireball XL5,” the theme song of a TV series of the same name, and toured with groups that included the Rolling Stones, the Four Seasons and the Hollies.

Spencer branched into acting and broadcasting, and for 17 years, hosted a popular children’s program in the UK called Playschool (it ran for 22 years in Australia).  In 2002 he founded the non-profit Australian Children’s Musical Foundation and in 2007, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to children’s music and television as a songwriter and performer, and through the establishment of the Australian Children’s Music Foundation.

We’ve not been able to ascertain why Spencer wrote about a Kelpie, but it’s a catchy tune that children love, and even better, it exposes them to one of Australia’s native breeds, a tireless working sheep and cattle dog. We never tire of sharing the video below that shows this remarkable breed at work: