AKC

Just a quick note to wish everyone entered in the Alberta Kennel Club Dog Show this weekend at Spruce Meadows, Calgary, the best of luck.
Our members will be found at all rings this weekend:  conformation, agility, rally and obedience.
Special wishes to those who are entering the sport for the first time. 
Check your list of supplies for you and the dog....

See you there.

The Prez 

CCCC National Herding Trials Results

Daisy-may and Lore Bruder did well at the CCCC national herding trials held in Ontario this past weekend.

High Cardigan 4 times
2 reserve High in trials
1 high in Trial
Winner of the "Denbigh Trophy" for 2013

We would like to thank our hosts Lucy and Frank Power's, Sue Bain, and Sue and Jack Jewel for all their hard work to put on yet again a lovely set of trials. Big thanks to the judges Ron Forbes and Dianne Devison for their nice comments and words of encouragement for Daisy-May and I. Most of all big thanks to the team behind our success, Sue Bain for telling me years ago that a dog does not need to be a "bed buddy", to Gloria Graham for all her great words of advice, to Judi Snowdon for being there even in the snow storms to practice and push. last, but most of all a big thank you to my husband Rick for having the faith in me that we could do it!

                                                                             Lore

Daisy took the High Corgi In Trial 4 X and Reserve High in Trial 3 times. 

                                                 
                                                    The coveted High In Trial Rosette
                                                   

                                                  On the shuttle bus to the plane.

           The excitement began to build....we met Gloria Graham and her CCorgi, Fido at Calgary.

           Fido was entered in the "ADVANCED" class.  Way ahead of us, for sure.

             I cannot say enough about the wonderful people at West Jet Airlines.  

            Our dogs were treated so well.  Drummer has not flown before and 

            I was pretty concerned that he not go somewhere else other than our

            destination,  Toronto. To prove that the dog is on the plane, the flight

            attendant arrives before the plane takes off and presents the owner with

            the ticket from the dog's crate!  Impressive.           

 I didn't believe them..

 We had a pretty good flight (we won't talk about the landing), picked up the rental vehicle and Lore zipped us over to our hotel in Barrie in short order.  We arrived late in the evening and decided that we'd grab something at the Wendy's next door rather than find a restaurant. They were closed except for the drive-through window.  We knocked at the window and they told us that they couldn't take our order because we weren't in a vehicle.  Tough.  We went across the way to Tim Horton's and had a wonderful meal.  
 Because we had arrived a day early in order to acclimatize our dogs to the hot, muggy weather in Ontario, we had Friday to visit.  We went to Steve and Sue Bain's farm to see their dogs, champion Siberian Huskies and Cardigan Corgis.
Our dogs were so happy to get out of the crates and tear around in Sue's back yard.  Then, Drummer was treated to a quick clean-up groom by Sue so that he wouldn't pick up any debris while sheepherding. He looked wonderful when she was through.  

We drove out to Shepherd Watch Farm in Utopia to have a look at the herding venue and meet some of the club members with whom Lore and Gloria were acquainted. We arrived to see them cleaning up pieces of a tree that had blown over a few minutes before our arrival.

We had just enough time to drive down to the pasture and set up our borrowed ex-pens

when it began to rain.  And rain.... and rain....buckets of rain.  The 401 was at a stand still in minutes.  Good thing Lore had a grasp of where our hotel was visibility was much impaired.

   

                                          

The vehicle couldn't remove the water from the windshield at 15km/hr. 

Flashing lights everywhere and tornado watches right in our area.

Yikes!!!

We spent the evening close to the hotel, venturing across the busy road for salad, nachos, wings, and beverages. 

And in the morning, the storm was gone and the weather for the rest of the weekend was super.

Because we had brought our Watkins bug stuff with us, we didn't have to sweat in long-sleeved gear all day.  A bit of the cream on the brim of my hat and on my arms and neck area, some on Drummer's ear-tips and under his chin, and neither of us had any problem with bugs.

Now sheep?  That was a different story. We used up every calorie we had accumulated working race-course sheep.  And so, after sheepherding on Saturday, Gloria spotted a Mandarin restaurant and was so excited about it that we had to try it out.  OMG!!! Too much.

By the time we were finished trying out all 8 stations of the buffet, we could barely walk back to the hotel.  Thankfully it was downhill from the restaurant. 

I was so full that I couldn't bend to tie my shoes.  Just piggies, that's all, but it was soooooo good.

We vowed and declared that we would never do it again.

Until after herding on Sunday...wouldn't you know it? Our hotel near the airport had a restaurant and it boasted "all the Italian food you can eat." Not me.

I stuck to the plan.  

We were up at 3:00 a.m. and at the airport to check in the dogs at 5:00. Our flight back was great, even the landing, for which I was most thankful.

Gloria left for Saskatchewan and Lore and I headed home.

All in all, it was a great trip!  All the practice paid off.  Drummer and I  had a slow start and took a 3rd place, and then a Reserve High in Trial, and finally the coveted High in Trial Award over 13 dogs. Wonderful setting, super people in charge,  cooperative weather for the entire trial... and a great little dog. 

                                                        Yes, I would do it again. 

Judi

                          Connemara's Drummer Boy, CD. CGN. SHDMCh. RE. HS. 

Congratulations are due to our Drummer Boy!  This 3 year old talented Shetland sheepdog

has added yet another title to his impressive list of dogsports.

On July 21st, at Shepherd Watch Farm in Utopia, Ontario, at the National Cardigan Corgi

Club of Canada's all breed herding trials, judge Ron Forbes awarded Drummer the High in Trial rosette and a score of 96/100, the highest score for  the entire weekend.

Thank you to Andrea Knibbs and Joyce Woolridge for selling us this quality boy and to

everyone who had a hand in getting us ready to do the job, Billie Richardson for pushing our limits, 

Louanne Twa for her patience when we "fell off the wheel", Lore Bruder for being there and buoying our spirits when they were low and helping us keep our eye on the goal and get out there in all kinds of weather ,whether or not. 

Thanks to my husband, Darryl, and my friend, Debbie, for making it possible for me to attend the trials and to Shar for coming with me and doing countless videos for us to review.

Thanks to the judges who saw Drummer's promise in the field of herding and to the clubs who worked so hard to provide us with the opportunity  to trial.

Thanks to Drummer for being the dog he is.... you go, Boy, Boy. 

                        Something that is very clear..... Sheepherding is not for sissies.

                                      www.freewebs.com/shadowbarshepherds

                       

Due South Scent Team EKKKOC pts.

We had the greatest time at the EKKOC Scent Hurdle Trials July 12th weekend.  We were very lucky on Friday  to have other teams box-load for us. Without their help, we would have been doomed.
On Saturday, Maureen box-loaded for us and she was amazing.  Our little team had a couple of baubles here and there, but amidst the chaos, we managed to pick up 75 points for the weekend.
The individual points are as follows:

Max  100  can now apply for his SHX title..... yup, he has enough points for his Scent Hurdle and his Scent Hurdle Excellent Title.

Julie  120   Same thing, Sylvia.  Two titles.

Jagged  250   Jagged SHDCh. gained earlier.

Betty  315   on her way to the Masters title

Kona  350  on her way to the Masters title

Drummer 545   can apply for his Scent Hurdle Dog Masters

The South thanks everyone for the fun and the laughter and for working when you weren't running

dogs.  It took less than five minutes to tear down and restore the ring to its original state.  Now that's teamwork.

We are short dogs and must withdraw our entry to AKC, but we are working at getting a few more dogs to join Due South and this will be great.

For those teams heading out to AKC next week, best of luck and see you there!!

The Prez