As Time Flies By

Here is the latest news and some shots of Ricky a 1 year old son of Jake. He's our Nursery Dog prospect, he has no problem heeling and is willing to hit a nose, though we don't see the cattle giving him much opportunity, even when down in Missouri last weekend on big cows. Wayne said that nothing wanted to contront him, he is very purposeful when approaching cattle.

If I could just get Ricky to no be in quite so big of a hurry to grab hold...rotten bugger

Ricky Walking Straight onto the calves, they really are not interested in dealing with him

Ricky Taking Flank, I have to working on that shoulder drop


Ricky peeling the calves of f of the fence

Ricky Driving the calves down the fenceline.

This summer has been an absolute whirlwind. The last time I posted we had just began our little parade and festival tour, well an appearance here an there morphed into nearly a full time job. We ended up appearing at the following events:

Ellsworth Days

Williams 4th of July Celebration

North Iowa Fair

Popejoy Festival

Prairie Home Antique Tractor Show

Farm Progress Show

Events yet to come... Celtic Festival, Cedar Rapids and The Bridges of Madison County Festival at Winterset, Iowa.

Right now we are focused on the upcoming Iowa Stock Dog Association Open Handler Finals, I qualified in the Sheep division with Jake and Wayne made it in the Cattle Division, also with Jake. In effort to make life easier I relinquished my handling duties to Wayne for the sheep division so that I can focus on running the event which will be this coming Saturday at the Clark County Fairgrounds, Osceola, IA.

On Sunday we move over to Murray, Iowa where we have another trial, I am going to make my debut with Ricky, my 1 year old Jake pup. Wayne took Ricky to Missouri with him last weekend where he made it around the course in the Nursery class. It wasn't pretty but the kid showed potential. Jake brought Wayne home a second place showing on the second day of the trial. That placing should secure Jake's place in the National Cattle Dog Finals come May.

BTW, exciting news, the National Cattle Dog Finals will be coming to Iowa next year, May 26th - 29th just outside of Redding, Iowa. We have gone from dreams of someday making it to the Finals to pushing to get qualified so that we can attend Finals in just 9 months. Jake and Wayne in Open and Ricky in Nursery, I'm not sure as of yet if I will run him or allow someone with more handling time then myself. I really would like the youngster to have every advantage, and me at the helm may just well be a huge disadvantage.

Another highlight was the Iowa State Fair, Wayne and Jake shoulda, coulda, woulda won Champion Open Cattledog but ended up settleing for Reserve Champion Cattledog. Everything looked great, the team appeared to be unbeatable right up to the pen, and then...a cow that Jake really wanted to whoop on earlier in the course decided that it was not going to go in the pen. They ended up timing out before getting the pen complete, but they had outscored everyone on the outrun, lift and fetch with no else getting the Pen except the team of Bob Johnson and Ruby allowing Wayne and Jake to hold strong in 2nd.