Long-Dangerous Tails

Just wanted to let you know that we finally stopped herding long enough for Singer to do his CGC (canine good citizen). Now it’s back to herding.

I was so excited that I forgot to mention thay Singer earned another title. He earned his Herding Started title. He is now Alta Tollhaus Just a Singer HT, PT, HSAs, HIC, JHD, HRDIs. He is still working on Rally and Agility and hopefully tracking will start early next year.

Rich and Janis

Ok, I don’t know how much longer this will last but I’m going to enjoy it while I can. We had an AKC herding trial this weekend. When we arrived on Saturday several people asked if Singer was entered and when he would do his run. We were the second dog to run on the started A course. Everything went well with only a few minor mistakes. The class was 14 dogs including Singer. Only being the second we had a long wait and saw many excellent runs after ours. There were 6 border collies, 2 Cattle dogs, 2 Aussies, 1 Terv and 2 German Shepherds we were up against. As the scores were posted Singer finished in First place with a score of 96 out of 100. The judges comment was “WOW!!! Nice work!”. Things didn’t stop there. The score was good enough for us to earn High in Trial for A course. Course B was a different event but Singer had the highest score of all dogs for the day. Sunday we returned and I can’t tell you how many people wanted to know when Singer was running as the word spread of his previous days run. Sunday the run order was flipped so we watched all the others run before us. Everyone stepped up and raised the bar. One person even came to me and said her goal for the day was to beat Singer. After the run and the posting of the scores Singer took first place with a score of 96.5 and High in Trial again for the second day. The judges comment on this run was “Great handling of a keen dog”. Again Singer had the highest score of all dogs there regardless of course. I know this is only the started class and things will get harder for Singer as we move up but I am so proud of him. Since he passed his herding test and moved up to the trial class He has finished second twice, first 3 times, gone Reserve High in Trial once and High in Trial twice. For a young boy and going up against the Border Collies this is quite an accomplishment. Julie he is doing great and I hope we came prepare him well enough to be competitive in higher class levels. What a BOY!!!!!!!

I had to judge an AHBA trial in Nevada this last weekend. Decided to take Singer along to compete. The drive up was about 12 hours and this was the first time
Singer had been in a motel. After the long confined drive and a night in the motel we went to the trial. Other then a few short walks Singer was crated in the car. When it was his time to compete you can imagine he was full of energy and ready to go. For the most part he did well. A couple of sheep broke off at one point and he chased them around getting a warning from the judge. In his class he was the only non-border collie. He took third place. Comments from the crowd were “That was the most exciting run all day.”, “What fun it is to watch a dog that really enjoys herding.”, “He’s going to be one tough dog to beat in the future.” and “where did you find this dog?”. What is really funny is the way Singer responds to the crowd. After doing a ribbon pull, which was part of the course, the on lookers let out a cheer. As the crowd cheered Singer stopped what he was doing and gave them a look as if to take a bow. On Sunday I was the judge so he could only run to qualify and not place or win any award. Well it was raining but he was very wound up and a handful to handle but he completed the course. If it had counted for placement Singer would have won the class and also won the award offered for highest combined score for a started dog. The judge that scored us commented “Really nice dog. Good handling.” Everyone was very impressed with the work of such a young GSD. Singer is now Alta Tollhaus Just a Singer HT,PT, HIC, JHD, HRDIs.

Well we finally finished all of our herding test and as you can guess Singer did very well. Saturday we entered our first trial and had to be scored against others. This was an AKC Herding Trial and Singer was entered in the Started A Course. We are proud to say that on his first trial Singer was the top dog and blue ribbon winner in his class with a score of 93.5 out of 100. This alone was amazing as it was a class of 17 dogs. The honors kept coming as Singer also won Reserve High in Trial. The top two dogs of the competition are recognized for thier excellent work. The high in trial went to a Border Collie from the intermediate class with a score of 94. Singer just missed being the best dog at the trial by half a point. Considering he was only half a point out, that over 35 dogs were in the trial and that the majority of the dogs were Border Collies I’d have to say we did a great job. I am so proud of Singer and how well he is coming along. To have done so well at his first trial is amazing. The judge was very impressed with his ability to work and control the stock. He noted what a good team we were and said this was a dog to watch in the future. Attached is a photo of us with the judge.
- Rich and Janis