VISIT TO SWITZERLAND 2011.

It is a real privilege to visit overseas especially if you can go and do something that you really enjoy.

 This is the second time that I have been invited to judge a trial in Switzerland. My wife, who is now my travel agent, chose a different route this time. I am amazed each time at her ability to find cheap tickets on the internet. I flew via Dubai to Milan where Alberto picked me up. From there we had a two and a half hour drive to the little town of Lostallo in the south of Switzerland.

 It was nice to see Alberto again, and it is always a relief to see someone familiar in a foreign country.  Catching up on the way home most of our conversation was about dogs and trials. Alberto has qualified for the Swiss team for the World trials later this year. The trial I was about to judge would be the last one where the handlers could get points for the Swiss team for the Continental Championship.  

As the jet lag caught up to me later that day I was glad to go to bed early and get some much needed sleep. The next day I helped Alberto put up the course. This was something different. He had two guy's helping him, one German and one Italian speaking. For most of the morning Alberto left the three of us to put up the holding pens and the course. One Afrikaner, one Swiss German and one Italian speaking Swiss guy working together, not able to understand each other. I must say it did test my communication skills which, according to my wife, “are not very good”. Anyway we got it done, a nice field, 300m outrun and a big drive of 350m. You could not ask for a more picturesque setting, a nice green field with these huge steep mountains on both sides of the valley and little grey buildings hundreds of years old standing like monuments, all over the place. Traditionally shepherds used these stables to keep their animals in during the long winters and some are still in use today.

The judges box.

There were about 30 dogs entered. The morning of the trial the weather was chilly, but in the end it was a great day as the sun made its appearance later in the morning. The sheep were interesting as they were ewes with 3 month old lambs at foot. We decided to take the really small lambs out and give each run three ewes and a lamb. This was a little strange for me, but you work with what you have, especially if there are not a lot of sheep available. In the end I was surprised how well the sheep worked with the exception of one or two groups.

Alberto's wife Elena scribed for me during the judging and it helped a lot as I could focus a hundred percent on the runs. The running was good and there were some really nice dogs to watch with good handling to complement them.

It would be interesting to see some of these dogs on our lighter and wilder sheep.

The beatiful valley were the trial was held.

There is big difference when it comes to handling the Swiss type of sheep versus handling our sheep. In general the Swiss sheep need to be pushed around the field; they even tolerate the dogs being a little rough on them. At the shed and pen they had no fear or respect for the handlers and this could and did complicate things. You had to be sharp with this type of sheep because they could do the unthinkable in the blink of an eye. Normally I find wilder sheep easier to read and predict.

Jurg Haller won the trial with one of the late afternoon runs. It was pretty to watch, one of those type of runs that when you watch it you know it will take some beating. After the trial they announced the Swiss Team that will go to the Continental Championship later the year. Congratulations to all who made the team, I hope you have a good time and nice runs.

On the Sunday and the Monday we had some training lessons set up. The weather was great for training dogs, a little chilly and wet, but really nice. The nice thing about the lessons was that there were not many dogs so we could work most of the dogs three times a day. It is always fun to work other dogs.

In the training field, working on shedding.

This discussion was only about one thing ''Dogs''

In the late afternoon shearers arrived to shear Alberto’s sheep. It was great fun to help a bit. The strange thing for me is that the wool is worth absolutely nothing. I could not resist trying my hand at shearing a couple. I enjoyed it. The week passed very quickly and before I knew it I was on my way home.

Shearing at Alberto's stable. I just had to try a few.

I had a great time with some fantastic friends and memories of great dogs working sheep between steep mountains. Most nights I go out and train my dogs regardless of the weather. Sometimes standing out there in bad weather I ask myself, “Why do you do this?” Then something like this trip happens and I know it is worth it. Don't hold back when you do something, you have to give it everything. One day you will reap the rewards.

We are passionate about working our dogs on sheep. Unfortunately this is why we do not sell dogs as pets.

We invest a lot of time and money in our dogs to make sure we get good and sound working dogs.

Too many bordercollies end up in places where they do not belong. If you are seriously looking for a pet

you can contact:         www.bordercollierescue.co.za

Have you ever trained a whole litter?

  It is not everyday that you get the chance to train all the dogs out of a litter of puppies. The first time I bred Don and Jessie I was fortunate to have all 8 pups back for training. Most of these dogs where featured in my training DVD “Laying the Foundation”. It was interesting to see how these dogs differed from each other although they were out of the same litter. Four of the pups we kept and raised ourselves and the others came back to us for training from their new owners, who were mostly farmers.

 We started the training when they where about 10 months old. All of them were keen to work straight away. The one trait all of them had was good natural balance. Here is a little profile on each of them.

Kelly : This little bitch was raised by a friend, Pippa Philip. The easiest way to describe her is, '' watch the DVD''. After the first filming session one of the film crew was convinced that she was crazy.

She was the most intense and keen dog of them all. I really enjoyed training her, but was a bit concerned about her intense nature and strong will to work as I was planning on selling her. Kelly is one of those type of dogs you can't help but notice when she works, she has a really nice style and I think a little something special too. At the moment Kelly is with her new owner Joe Hayenes in Seattle USA.

Billy : He was my first choice out of the litter. An easy dog to train and a really nice nature. I never felt like it was a effort to train this dog. Good outruns and nice flanks. Billy had a really nice nature and wanted to please. At the moment he is in Muldersdrift with his new owner, Lynette Trollip.

Chloe : This little bitch did not like me at all in the beginning, but I guess this is the beauty of sheepdogs, that keenness to work sheep will override most other feelings. We did find a way to get on and she turned out to be a very well balanced dog. I think that out of all the dogs she was the softer one but still very much capable to do a good job.

She now works for Mark Trollip and has taken a really big liking to him, I am almost jealous about that.

Blue: Talk about speed, this was one was fast. Filming her was tricky and we had to do a lot of retakes as the camera could not keep up. She came back for training from Heather Dugmore, who lives in the Middelburg area in the Karoo. I struggled a little bit to get her around the sheep, but once she started to understand it was fine. She was keen to listen, but a little over enthusiastic at times. To be honest I think she was a little bit spoiled (sorry Heather), slept on the bed and so on. It took me a few lessons to make her understand that I was the boss. I enjoyed training her and there was never a dull moment in the training sessions.

Spot 2 : My mother raised Spot for the first few months of his life. I must say he worried me at times. He was just a little bit jumpy, especially when I was around. Fortunately once we got the training going and after traveling around a bit he settled down and became very focused when he was working. He was a very entertaining dog, if nothing was going on he would start a game all on his own. He is a serious worker with a nice style. He is now with his new owner in the USA, Heather Haynes. I hope to see him on the trial field soon

Duke : Came back for training from De Aar in the Karoo. This was a no fuss type of dog, he just got on with it. I only spent six weeks starting him, which is a very short time. He had good solid outruns and nice holding abillity. Unfortunately he broke his leg a week after he went home, but I am sure that he will just go on from where he left off when he recovers.

Zack: Physically, Zack was the biggest of them all. He started a little bit slower than the rest. He was a very nice natured dog. You couldn't help but like him. He ended up a really nice worker and he lives just down the road from us on a sheep farm in the Bredasdorp area,. He is also a family dog - he even plays on the trampoline with the kids.

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Looking back at 2010.

The 2010 trialing season is over......... This is a sad thought for all us sheepdog people in South Africa. For me it was a year full of ups and downs. There were a lot of highlights as well as some low points.

The biggest highlight was finally finishing my training DVD. This took me about the first 6 months of the year. The idea of a training DVD was born about 10 years ago when I realized there was a huge lack in knowledge about how to start your dog. I remember years ago Elmarie and I bought a video camera, which was very expensive at the time, to start filming.

We filmed a lot of dogs working on the farm. At this time the idea also occurred me to do a whole year about life on a sheep farm with all the different aspects of sheep farming in the Karoo, where we stayed at the time. Then Foot and Mouth disease made headlines in the UK and not long after this David Kennard made '' A year in a sheepdogs life.'' It is a great DVD with some really great scenic shots. Anyway I decided to focus back on the training DVD, but it was only 10 years later that I realized this dream. 

We were very fortunate to meet up with Swellendam TV. Cathy and her daughter Fleur run a small company called Swellendam TV. They do small documentaries and productions part time. They were immediately interested and we started filming straight away. I had 6 dogs in for training all from one litter out of my Don and Jessie. I was fortunate to have two more to train, making it a full litter of eight pups. The filming was a learning curve for me and the film crew. Getting the three subjects - me, the sheep and the dog in one frame was not always so easy. The biggest headache was the script and the voice over, I think I have rewritten the script at least 4 times. I don't know how many times we worked on the voice over. Fortunately Cathy and Fleur were very patient with me and we got it sort of right in the end. I have to thank Pippa and Andrew for all their input, they helped a lot with ideas as well as all the language issues.

Filming crew : Fleur and me, getting that perfect shot can be really difficult.

Trialing in the USA has become part of our yearly planning now. But before we could start our journey we were hosting the Nationals for 2010. Unfortunately Don hurt his bicep tendons a week before the Nationals. This was not good news, my expectations for Don were very high, he had worked well the whole year and I had finally got him really fit to take him overseas. A day before the competition Jessie had an injury and I had to withdraw her as well, taking out two of my really on-form dogs for the competition. I decided to substitute Don with my old dog Jan. She is eleven now and has been retired for more than a year, just helping out with training young dogs now and then. Well Jan stepped up to the challenge winning the semi- finals and ended up third in the finals. Two days after our Nationals we had to leave and I decided to take Don although he was still limping.

  New owners of Kelly and Spot, Heather and Joe Hayes

This time we also took two young dogs, Spot and Kelly, to sell. They were 18 months old and had a good 6 months of training behind them. Travelling with 4 dogs was a little more complicated. We could only fly two dogs with us as excess baggage so two had to fly as cargo. Having two bitches in season did not make it any easier. We flew into Seattle in Washington State. Dave Imas was waiting for us at the Airport. It took us an hour or two to round up all the dogs before we could get going. Dave and his wife Ursula live on a smallholding in Olympia, about an hours’ drive from the airport. While Ursula runs boarding kennels Dave is involved in computer software. They are both keen on dog herding and keep about 20 ewes just for the training of their dogs. I tried to work Don, but he immediately started limping again and so I decided not to work him again before Soldier Hollow.

Clinic at Dave's place.

Dave had a two day clinic set up for me, it was a very relaxed atmosphere and I enjoyed working with the different people and their dogs. I also met up with Joe and Heather Haynes. They were interested in buying Kelly and ended up buying both Spot and Kelly.

I was very pleased with the way the two dogs performed. Both dogs started to work for them immediately and they looked nice and under control. It was a good thing to have them both at the clinic, giving us some time to work with the dogs. I also had a day of lessons set up on Vashion Island at Maggie McClure's place. Unfortunately for Elmarie it was raining and foggy as they set out to explore the island leaving me in a wet field to train dogs. Anyway at least after the first dog I was warm, and it turned out to be a very nice day to train dogs.

From Seattle it is a two-day drive to get to Salt Lake City. We just managed to fit everything into our minivan. Three people, three dog crates and a lot of baggage. It was a pleasant drive as we drove down into Oregon and one of the biggest irrigation valleys I have ever seen.

 It was nice to meet up with all the friends we have made over the past 5 years at Soldier Hollow. I know most of the staff working there, and it is always nice to see all the familiar faces again.

My friend Alberto from Switzerland made the journey as well and it was nice to see him and catch up where we left off earlier in the year, when I judged their trial in Switzerland.

This year Elmarie and I were fortunate to sleep in one of the sheep camps that were on display at Soldier Hollows. These are caravans used in the mountains for the shepherds to stay in. It was very nice and comfortable, even had a DVD player in it. It was right at the venue, next to one of the stands, which made it unique experience for me.

The Sheep camp

At Soldier Hollow you run your dog twice over three days. The top 5 dogs of every day advance to the finals on Monday. The time of day you draw is crucial. The sheep are young Rambioulettes ewes. The sheep ran well until about eleven o'clock in the mornings, then as soon as it started to get hot they changed and became very difficult, as my friend Scott said ''It is like pushing rocks.'' I made it into the final with Jill, Don did not go so well although his leg was holding up, but sitting in the crate for three weeks had a big impact. I was very nervous about running him and had a hard time concentrating on the sheep, he was not sharp or fit enough.

View of the hill with the judge behind me.

In the final we had a good run. I was disappointed with Jill's out work, as she did not listen very well and got a little bit hard on me. Once we were on the drive she settled down and we finished well. It is a pity about the out work. Jean Gellings and Star from Canada won it, with Jill and me in the second place.

So for the second year in a row I had to stand next to the winner on the podium. It would have been nice to hear our national anthem at the medal ceremony, but who knows maybe next time.

Jill and I on the podium with the Lavan Calzarcota  and the winner Jean Gellings 

The next day we were on our way to Meeker. Colorado is starting to have the same effect on me as the Karoo has, it felt like coming home as we drove into the little town of Meeker. First stop is always at the Vet Clinic to say hello to Paul Neilson, then off to the court house to greet his wife Renae. These people have been wonderful to us, taking us into their home for three months when we visited with the kids a few years ago.

Meeker is a tough trial. The first round can be crazy; it is a question of surviving!! After the first run of the day the judge decided to cut the time down to 11 minutes. This made it even more difficult as you could not let the sheep settle down so you had to keep them moving to try and finish. Fortunately for me I did survive the first round with Jill. Tom Wilson and I teamed up for a round of golf with Dennis Gellings and Bud Bourdreau. We had loads of fun, needless to say we were all much better with dogs than with golf clubs.

In the semifinal the sheep were much better and the running was better over all. Jill worked really well, it is amazing what a bit of training can do, but this time I screwed up with the single. If I had had a good single we could have won the semi final. The judge told me that I had the best out work in the semi's.

The night before the final we had an arena trial. This was a lot of fun, you have to cut out three sheep put them through to set of gates and pen them, no rules, just the fastest time wins. We also did a team competition where there are two handlers with two dogs – you use both dogs to cut out three sheep, then join them together and complete the same course. Again Tommy and I teamed up. It was a lot of fun and we managed to win the team competition and I won the single with Don.

Tommy Wilson and me teaming up in the arena trial , a lot of fun.

Flag raising ceremony before the finals The crowd at Meeker

In the Meeker finals, Jill had a good first outrun and good fetch, she did not take her first turn back whistle which surprised me a little bit and caught me off-guard. Unfortunately I missed the second fetch gate as the first flock at the turn back post drew the others to them. We had a good drive, but at the shed we had some really sticky sheep and could not finish it. Suzy Applegate from California won with her nice dog Buzz and Jill and I finished in 5^th place. Our visit to Meeker was over way to quickly, and it was sad to say good bye, but we had to move on.

  Jill turning the post in the semi finals.

We were heading for Steam Boat were Mariane Sasak lives. She came to visit us in South Africa in 2009. It was nice to catch up again and to relax a little bit. The next day we had some people who came over with their young dogs to work and we spent most of the day doing training.

Our next stop was Parker in Denver. Debbie Terry had organized that I give some lessons and I spent a day there doing some training. Great was my surprise when I met up with a South African who came out for a lesson. I think we spent more time talking about South Africa than we did about sheep dogs. '' Jaco, did was lekker om saam te kuier'' .

 Our next destination was Germany and Switzerland and we had to say good bye to our dogs for the week. A good friend Susan Squires looked after our dogs for the week and put them on the plane the following week so that we could arrive back in South Africa on the same day. We spent a few days driving through Germany and visiting Alberto and Elena in Switzerland, but I think I will have to write a separate article about that.

Back home everything worked out fine and we arrived the same day our dogs arrived. As always our good friends Andrew and Pippa were there to meet us.