And We're Back!

We've had a very busy six weeks here at The Dog Geek, so busy that I haven't had time to post about it! The dogs and I have been competing, traveling, and taking care of a whole lot of sheep. Here's a few of the highlights from July and August"

AKC Herding Trial!

We competed in an AKC herding trial at the end of June! I also helped set up and run the trial, and Zip and I helped set the sheep up for each run for the classes we weren't in.


I entered Zip in the B course class long before the trial, and two weeks before showtime I realized we had never actually done the B course. I didn't even know how? With two weeks of practice we somehow managed to get first place on our first ever B course run.


Zip brought home a first place, second place, third place, and fourth place from the trial. She is very, very talented.

Godzilla earned qualifying scores in both of her A course runs, to the great surprise of nearly everyone watching that remembered her being excused from the ring for excessive sheep biting last time we trialed. She earned her Started A herding title, which is somehow more impressive than Zip's ribbon collection.

One Year Without Brisbane

 I lost my beautiful and beloved Brisbane on August 6th of last year. He was the dog that changed everything, and I'm still adjusting to life without him. I miss his giant fluffy ear, his long silky tail, and the way he could read the tiniest cues and figure out exactly what I wanted him to do.

I will have dogs that are better bred, better built, and better raised than Brisbane, but I don't think any dog will ever influence me as a person they way that he did.

The Great American Eclipse

The dogs and I drove up with some friends to Idaho to see the 2017 eclipse in its totality. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, and well worth the 14-hour drive. The dogs got to swim in the Boise River, and visit with some of their favorite people.

On the way home we decided to drive through Yosemite just to appreciate the scenery. Dogs aren't allowed anywhere but the parking lots, but we did get to see the Bridal Veil Falls!

Happy Valentines Day!

Last weekend Zip and I competed in an AKC herding trial, and we won first place in the Started A class! The trial was Valentines Day themed, and the photo booth was amazing. Godzilla had to sit this one out, as she injured her shoulder a few weeks before the trial. She's ok now, but I wasn't sure she would be 100% in time. The trial was also very popular, so I pulled Godzilla's entry and let someone else have that spot. Zip got her first AKC herding title too!

First AKC Herding Trial!

We attended and helped host our first ever AKC herding trial over the weekend, and it was a LOT of work! The trial had both sheep and geese to herd, and was held at a local park that has horse arenas. We had to build the holding pens for the animals, sheep-proof the arenas, and practically terraform the place on Friday. Then on Sunday we had to take it all down again. Various bumps in the road on the way to success included the person making our awards bailing two weeks before the trial, poisonous castor bean plants growing on one of the competition fields, and finding a baby rattlesnake hanging out in a sheep pen on Saturday morning.

This is an old picture, I didn't have time to get pics at the actual trial.
Photo by Candy Lidstrom

Oh yes, and Godzilla and Zip and I actually competed in this trial! I was so busy helping that actually participating felt like an afterthought. The girls did great though! They were both entered in Started A, the most beginning of the big kid herding classes. There were more than 20 other dogs in the same class, many of them handled by herding instructors and people with a whole lot more experience than I have. Amazingly, Zip and I won third place on Saturday! We scored 93 out of 100, which is pretty amazing given that scores over 90 are considered very, very good. Godzilla and I got a qualifying score of 71, I'm more proud of that than Zip's placement. Moving sheep nicely is so, so hard or Sis!

Sunday didn't go quite as well. Zip and I got a qualifying score of 94, better than Saturday but no placement because everyone else did amazingly well too. Godzilla was seriously under exercised by the time her turn arrived, and we were dismissed from the ring for too much sheep biting. I laughed, told my dog she was wonderful, and paraded out of the ring like we had completed a perfect run. I know my dog will always do her very best for me, and I want her to feel like a million bucks every time we walk into a show ring of any type.

So Zip now has two legs towards her first AKC herding title. Godzilla has one leg, and I know how we can do better next time. The trial is over, and we are spending the week resting. And putting stuff away. So much stuff. Only three months till the next trial!