Maggie, a black and tan kelpie was thought to be the oldest dog in the world, although her owners had no papers to prove it

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A kelpie thought to be the world’s oldest dog has died at home on a dairy farm in the Australian state of Victoria.

Maggie, a black-and-tan kelpie, was thought to be 30 years old.

Woolsthorpe dairy farmer Brian McLaren confirmed the death of his “great mate” on Wednesday morning.

“She was still going along nicely last week, she was walking from the dairy to the office and growling at the cats and all that sort of thing,” McLaren told the Weekly Times.

“She just went downhill in two days and I said yesterday morning when I went home for lunch ... ‘She hasn’t got long now’.

“I’m sad, but I’m pleased she went the way she went.”

McLaren collected Maggie as an eight-week-old puppy with his then four-year-old son, 30 years ago.

She received national media attention in November last year after McLaren said she was the world’s oldest dog – but he’d lost her ownership papers and any proof she was a record-breaker.

The Guinness Book of World Records recognises Bluey, an Australian cattle dog that died in 1939 at the age of 29, as the record holder.

Maggie has been buried in a marked grave under a pine tree.

