Alta-Tollhaus Just a Singer J-litter (XBox – Funny)
No pictures but an update to the final days of the trial. Friday started strong with a 4th place finish in his class on CATTLE. I had to leave the handlers post to help which cost me nearly my 50%. Fortunately he had little other faults and qualified. The judge singled us out at the awards for what a nervous dog and good handler can do. Her comment on the score sheet was “Nice handling. I could see your dog get more confidence as you continued through the run. Nice. Thank you.”. The next run was on ducks and I called the run when Singer jumped into the middle of them and had one by the neck. I was probably quicker than the judge to call the run but I can’t let Singer think he can chew on the ducks. Saturday we had high hopes as everything was sheep for the whole day. We left dashed. On his A course run he stayed tight and pressured the stock. We did not qualify as he lost over 50% of his points on two different parts of the course. On the B course he got a tough set of sheep. Half way through his out run one sheep picked up it’s head and ran for the hills. Singer covered and prevented an escape but with every move the sheep got more panicked. It split from the group once again and I called my run. It was only going to get worse so we quit. Sunday on A course sheep Singer again put to much pressure on the sheep and would not take his stops. We did complete the course with a score of 88 but all the Border Collies beat us. The good thing was that this earned Singer his HXAs (Herding Excellent A course Sheep) title and we can now start earning points toward his championship. On B course we stayed in intermediate because he has not worked on the shed yet and we finished with a first place in the class. Now it’s back to work on the things he has shown me we need to improve. So here is the final tally for nine days of trialing. Singer was entered in sixteen runs at three different levels and on three types of stock. Seven times we did not qualify or called our runs. Nine times we were successful. We had two 1st place, one 2nd, two third, one 4th, one 5th and two qualifying (no placement) runs. We also earned two titles HIBs (Herding Intermediate B course sheep) and HXAs.
There was a special award given to the highest scoring non Border Collie. The only condition was that you had to run at least once on each type of stock and your qualifying scores combined. The winning Border Collie had a score of around 1200. The winning non Border Collie was a friend with an Aussie. Her score was in the mid 900. Singer finished second in the running. His score was in the mid 800.If Singer had not had issues with the cows and qualified on all his runs he would have been right up there with Border Collies probably scoring over 1100. We have some work to due but I’m sure that Singer will end up with a championship in the AKC and AHBA.
Good job, Singer. Herding is extremely, tough. Hopefully, Roman will have a few titles under his belt, soon.
Not knowing anything about herding, these 2 posts were very interesting to read. It sounds like it really requires being willing to “put yourself out there”. Congratulations.
Thank you for all of the work you do with Singer. Congratulations on your placements. He will only get better.
Excellent results! Congratulations on all the new titles! Although you and Singer are use to taking no prisoners, Singer still did incredibly well. He only was just introduced to cattle and sheep. LIke Carole said he will only get better.
Rich can you reply with all the titles Singer has now?
Usually when listing titles you only show the highest title received. Here is a list of all Singers titles earned so far. HT, PT, HSAs, HIAs, HXAs, HSBs, HIBs, RN and CGC for AKC. In the AHBA he has earned HIC, HCT, JHD, HTD-Is, HRD-Is and HRD-IIs. He has some other qualifying runs but not yet earned titles in both AKC and AHBA. In AKC the letters stand for H= Herding, T= Tested, P= Pre-trial, S= Started, I= Intermediate, X= Excellent, A= A course, B= B course RN is Ralley Novice, CGC is Canine Good Citizen, and the small letters denote the type of stock the title is earned on hence s= sheep, d= ducks and c= cattle. In the AHBA the H= Herding , I= Instinct, C= Certified, T= Test/Trial, J= Junior, D= Dog, R= Ranch, I-II-III denote level and again s-d-c are the type of stock.
Yes it is normal to list only the highest tile, but it seems to be a trend with some folks to list every single “title”. For me I need every single herding title broken down for me because I do not have a grasp on the title acronyms . Thank you Rich!
Boy, he sure is following in mama’s pawprints. Good job Singer. Glad they made that scary cow into a steak LOL
Thanks so much for sharing these posts. Congratulations, to you and Singer on being such a great team!!!