Pippa and Andrew philip

Andrew’s father, Ron Philip, started training working sheepdogs in the early 1950’s. His first dog was an Australian Kelpie. He went on to get his first Border Collie in 1960 and never looked back until he passed away at the age of 80. Andrew grew up amongst working sheepdogs and joined his dad in 1979 and has been working Border Collies ever since. Farm work is the main reason for the dogs, but they also take part in sheepdog trials all around the country. Pippa and Andrew met through their passion for dogs and continue to take part in trials together. Andrew won his first National Championship in 1993 with his dog, Amo. It took many years before he managed to get the title again and he then won in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, with Flint. He has worked a brace (working two dogs together at the same time) for many years and won the National Brace title five times, and ‘Brace of the Year’ three times. Pippa has been in the top three at the Nationals on quite a few occasions and has won the ‘Dog of the Year’ (the most coveted award in the South African sheepdog world) no less than three times with her dog, Zan. In 2014, Andrew got a spot on the SA World Trial team on the first occasion that South Africa was allowed to travel to the UK without quarantine. In 2017,  South Africa sent a team to the World trials for the second time (they have been held every 3rd year since 2002) and both Pippa and Andrew were on the team. On this occasion, Pippa came out 42nd out of the 240 dogs taking part from 26 countries. Breeding and training working sheep dogs continues to be a passion and a day to day reality for this inspirational couple.