Dreams, Goals and Aspirations

It seems as if things have been slow over the last couple of months, but upon reflection they have been packed with news and events.

All but Angus, the male pup I picked from the Bea x Jake litter, have moved on to new homes, even Wayne's pick Lucy. Lucy went to replace her older sister Dora, who met her demise while playing in the yard with the kids. One second she was there, the next out in the road, unfortunately so was a car. Dora had proven herself both working in the feed lots and also as the a Champion 4-H project. More about Dora can be found in the "Farewell Sweet Dora" thread, we now bid her our final farewell, she was a good one.

We have puppies!!! Dixie a daughter of Jake has delivered 3 males and 3 females, the sire is my young dog Ricky. This is Dixie's first litter, we are excited about their arrival and seems to be so are others as we have already recieved calls from prospective buyers though we never really spoke about the intended breeding. We are only going to take deposits for 2 of the 6 and all will remain here until we can evaluate their start on stock (16-18 weeks of age).

We made a huge financial decision at the beginning of January, we decided to take the leap and send Ricky out for training. The weather here in north central Iowa has been less then appealing, leading to little to no training or open field work. So, I sent him down to the warmer open fields of far south central Missouri to get some open field work on sheep. He is with Marc Christopher, who is responsible in more then one way for where we are today, reports have come in that Ricky is doing great. Outrunning, shedding and basically getting ready for the open field trials. Good thing, as we have less then 60 days to gain qualification for the National Cattledog Finals and just under 120 before the National Finals.

I was able to combine the trip down to Marc's with a Open Field Cattledog Trial which was held near Fort Smith, Arkansas. Jake and myself acheived a huge milestone, our first USBCHA Open Class win. Woulda, coulda, shoulda...if I coulda have kept a little better lid on Ricky he shoulda have been second and woulda been qualified for Finals. Oh well, we will have another chance in two weeks, actually 4 chances, at the Mountain Home, AR trials that I intend on attending when I go down to pick Ricky up from Marc's.

Here is a video of Marc with Ricky's cousin Roy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-TvlEUOZJM

I mentioned that Marc is responsible in more ways then one for where we are today, well not only did he change our thinking and help us get on the right path from a training and breeding direction, he was also the breeder of Ricky's grandsire Ken and at one time trained his granddam. Basically old Vicki is a result of Marc's breeding program in a indirect way one generation removed.

Other news, Wayne and I recieved invitations to a 10 dog invitational Cattledog Trial which will be held at the Indiana Horse Fair the first weekend of April. Jake and Ricky will both be running, we will have two gos, one Saturday morning and the second Sunday afternoon. What a great opportunity to show our dogs to the public, we can't wait.

I have a few goals for the next few months, first to get Ricky qualified for Cattledog Finals. We have one open field cattle trial coming up down at Lyle East's at the end of March. I then plan on competing at a couple of open field sheepdog trials prior to finals to help tune for Cattledog Finals, sounds strange doesn't it, tune for a big Cattledog Trial by going to Sheepdog Trials. Comes down to that I'm not too worried about how Ricky handles the cattle but more that I can keep in communication with him out in the open field. The sheepdog trials will help me test where we are and should reveal our weaknesses so that we can work on them prior to Finals. There is another goal as we attend the sheepdog trials, to end up having Ricky qualified for National Sheepdog Nursery Finals which will be held in September near Carbondale, Colorado.

This will certainly be a jammed packed spring and summer, I'll try to share the ride.