Busy Fall!

This weekend kicks off the fall trialing season for us with the Grady County Fair Sheepdog Trial. This will be our 2nd year in Chickasha with the trial. Josh will be taking Pete to run in the Ranch class. I will have Tess in the Open Ranch class, Blaze in the Ranch class, and 2 newcomers Oaktree Josie and Oaktree Curly Bill also in Ranch. This will be Josie's and Curly's first trial. Josie is owned by Jim and Pam Hicks. Curly is owned by Tom and Ruth Hines of Oaktree Border Collies. Both of these young dogs are a little over a year old and have come to me this summer to be started on sheep. Hope we do their owners proud this weekend. :)

September 12th and 13th is the North of the River Trial in Baum, OK. We are still uncertain at this point if we will be able to make this nice field trial, but we are going to give it an honest effort to make it out there.

The Duckhead Ranch Cattledog Trial is Sept. 19th in South Coffeyville, OK. Josh will be competing with Pete in this 3rd trial for the OSDA Series Championship.

Next on the fall schedule is the Oklahoma State Fair Sheepdog Trial on Sept. 23rd. This trial is now being run by the OSDA.

The Tulsa State Fair is Oct. 6th and 7th. Josh and Pete will be competing in the Tulsa Derby class at the cattle trial. There will be 2 go rounds one on each day. The 6th is the sheepdog trial, it is 2 trials in one day. Josh will be competing with Pete in the Ranch class, I will be competing with Blaze in the Ranch class, and Tess in the Open Ranch.

Then up to Bartlesville for the Oaktree Fall Classic sheepdog trial on Oct. 10th and 11th. This will be the 4th and 5th trial for our OSDA Series Championship.

There are 2 more cattle trials that are pending sanctioning for Oct. 3rd and Oct. 25th so watch for more info on them at the OSDA website... www.okstockdog.com

That's all for now, watch for the update after the Grady Co. Fair to see how the dogs did.

Fly's Training

or lack thereof.... :) I haven't found as much time to work with Fly this summer as I would have liked to, but she gets a bit of time on sheep here in there when the sun doesn't go down to fast. With the extreme heat, I find it impossible to get anything done until the worst of the heat is gone for the day and the sun doesn't cooperate and disappears on me to soon to get to Fly when I have outside dogs to work with that come first. I look forward to the cooler weather of fall, but then you'll hear me complaining about the time change!

Fly is pretty much everything I could ask for in a Blaze pup. She's smart, bidable, and wanting to please, almost to a fault. She looks to me pretty often to make sure she's doing everything right. I'm hoping as she matures she'll gain more confidence in herself. Now don't get me wrong, this girl's not lacking confidence when it comes to the sheep. She'll come right on in and get a bite when asked to. She loves to pull sheep off of fences and tight spaces. I haven't seen her falter when it comes to moving the sheep. She's doing all the things that I wished Blaze would have done when I started him. Blaze was a mad man and in it for numero uno. He chased and slashed and generally had himself a good time no matter how much I tried to be in the picture, but man oh man, now that he's matured he is my absolute favorite. Not only as a pet, but as a reliable working dog. He's got confidence that goes on for days and now that we see eye to eye, he'll do anything I ask him to and never question it. I have high hopes that Fly will turn out just as good if not better than her old man and make me one very happy handler!

Check out Fly's videos....

Fly's 2nd time in the round pen.

Working a larger flock in the pasture.