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Local herder competes at Cal Poly Pomona Herding Trial
Topics: dog, herding, sheep, pets, Bakersfield, dog training, farm, livestock, Family, event
Posted by kelpiedude Wed Nov 7, 2007 10:01:57 PST
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The weekend of Nov. 3 and 4, I competed at the Cal Poly Pomona herding trial with my 5-year -old kelpie Deerwoods Sheila.

Sheila placed first and second with scores of 89 and 90 out of 100 both days.

I really haven't been herding that long. Three years ago I got a border collie/kelpie cross named Spooky, mainly for agility, but decided to give herding a try with her.

After taking lessons with her and working with my trainer's dogs, I was hooked.

Spooky ended up not being the type of herder that I liked, so the hunt was on to look for another dog.

After looking at many different breeds, I knew I wanted an eyed breed, so that left me with only two breeds left to look at, the border collie or the kelpie.

I knew I wanted a tough and hard dog, and everyone has border collies, so I went with the kelpie. Little did I know what I was getting into..

Then last year I found Sheila. The lady that had her let me bring Sheila home for a while to see if I liked her. If not I could send her back. Sheila was an untrained 4-year-old dog.

So I brought her home for a while, and took her to my trainers one day. We walked out into the pasture and turned Sheila loose to see what she would do. The chase was on,, we chased Sheila around the pasture for almost two hours before we could catch her.

When I came home that day I was ready to send her back home. But I knew kelpies are a hard to train and like to do things their way, so I decided to give her a chance.  I said I would give her one month and see how it goes.

In that month I fell in love with her. I went out and bought sheep, and that is when the hard work started.

And after a long hard year of training and practicing everyday.  Driving everywhere I could to practice in new places. We started competing at some fun trials..

Then I wanted to try my hand at AHBA trials, So I went to over the summer, where Sheila took 3rd & 4th her first time out. AHBA is an all breed herding trial..

When I found out about the Cal Poly Pomona ASCA herding trial, I said, "What the heck, lets try it.," knowing I would have the only kelpie at the trial.

I really didn't think we would do much there, no less place at all, but I wanted to try it anyway.

The Aussie is an upright breed that herds by staying on its feet and moves sheep by barking and moving around a lot. Kelpie move sheep by looking at them, the way a cat would hunt a bird. No barking at all.

I thought it would be good practice in a trial setting. Well, we ended up in first on Saturday with a score of 89 out of 100. Then we took second on Sunday with a score of 90 out of 100.

My next trial will be this weekend in Lodi, then in Lancaster. My goal is to make it to the Kelpie nationals in Washington in October.

I still have my first dog Spooky. She is still competing in agility, she is 2 1/2 years old now, and running in level 4 and 5.

Sheila is now competeing in open level herding in ASCA and AHBA, and next year will be running in Pro Novice USBCHA.

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Comment From: Softballjoe

Congratulations, Bakersfield needs more things owners can do with their dogs. I am trying to get other people involved so we can have them here. Comment From: kelpiedude

I just thought I would give an update. We are home from the Lodi ASCA herding trial. Sheila was 1st on Saturday & 4th on Sunday.. She picked up her open title, and has now moved into advanced.. Monday in Lancaster at the AHBA trial. She was 2nd in the large flock ranch trial..