We herd there would be ribbons! City dogs meet the sheep, and this time it counted!

2 year old Cassie proudly displays her two ribbons

One of our Aussie meetup group’s (Alexandria Aussies on meetup.com) favorite outings is sheep herding.  Over the past several months, we have visited two farms in Virginia, each about an hour outside of Washington, D.C. for this adventure. Our first outing was for a member’s “Barkday” party on a freezing Saturday morning about a year ago.  The second was at Dawgwood Farm where we took part in their “Herding Fun Day” last fall.

For our third outing, we headed back to Dawgwood Farm www.dawgwoodfarm.com in Goldvein, VA for a day of herding evaluations and this time – it was going to count, there would be ribbons!

We herd you were coming

Wink Mason, the owner of Dawgwood Farm was also hosting a trial of the American Herding Breed Association (AHBA), so any of our amateur dogs that passed his evaluation would be invited to compete in the first level of the AHBA competition.

Nearly 20 dogs from our meetup group made the trip.  The moment we arrived at the farm, the sheep induced excitement was evident.  Whimpering, barking and nervous energy was quickly diffused with play.   A fenced in area – complete with a pond, became the dogs’ play area, while they waited for their turn in the ring.  The dogs had some much fun running and swimming that they almost forgot about the sheep.

From novice puppies, Divi was the youngest at 12 weeks, to more mature second and third time herders – Boomer was in this group, Wink took each dog (and its owner) into the ring for an evaluation and instruction.  While Wink instructed the owner, he watched as the dog reacted to the owner, the sheep and verbal commands.

Mystic takes the ring

There is something incredibly beautiful and gratifying when watching your dog do what he was bred to do – and enjoy it.  Watching the dogs, you could tell how smart, confident, graceful and athletic they are.  Looking at Boomer listen to Kirk while keeping is full attention on the sheep, his intelligence was evident – he’s a great multi-tasker!  It’s as if he was signaling back – “Yeah, I got it.”

The dogs in our meetup group are primarily suburban or city dogs.  A handful compete in shows and obedience – but the majority are well-loved pets with devoted owners.  Seeing their instincts kick in is nothing short of amazing.

Maci passes the evaluation and receives a ribbon from Wink

 

Dogs that passed Wink’s evaluation were handed a ribbon (YEA) and an invitation to compete at the next level through AHBA.  Olive, Sinbad, Boomer and Cassie chose to compete.  Olive and her owner drew the first spot – giving the other owners the advantage of watching.  Unlike Wink’s evaluation, no leashes were used in this AHBA round – it was all about the owner, the dog and the sheep.

All four dogs passed and racked up their second ribbon of the day.  I was listening to the judges as they were evaluating Boomer’s performance and heard one of them say, “you can’t get better than that”.  It was with incredible pride that I congratulated Boomer and Kirk when they exited the ring!  Not bad for a city dog!  Now, what to do with his ribbons…….

Stryder enjoyed a day of play and herding!



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