RED TOP TELLER TOO
Hi everyone! Bob Tatus here. No, not THAT Bob Tatus who used to show in competitive A.K.C. obedience -- the new and improved Bob Tatus who said goodbye to all those fronts and finishes, and all that "watch me" crap and who's moved on to greener pastures...literally.
Yep, I've seen the light and found a new niche in life and I'm living a dream right now as I get ready to compete in my very first herding trial...The End Of The Year Trial, on December 30, 2005 in Sidney, OH.
I have had the distinct pleasure of training with people whom I consider THE best in herding circles. I got my start at a clinic given by Teller's breeder, Patrick Shannahan from Caldwell, ID in April, 2005 when Teller was just 11 months old. Immediately following the clinic I began taking lessons from Heather Gorney. Following a second clinic with Patrick in October, 2005 I started taking lessons from Dal Kratzer. Heather and Dal are two of THE best herding instructors I know and I will forever be in their debt as they are ultimately responsible for Teller's incredible progress. Naturally, I owe a huge thank you to Patrick for breeding one of THE nicest Border Collies I've ever owned.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RED TOP TELLER TOO...
Teller is a very sweet and laidback boy in the house, but get him on his sheep and he's a herding machine. Intense, bright, energetic, biddable, keen are all words that describe this rough coated little man to a T. Teller's Dam is Red Top Annie and his Sire is Red Top Tio. Tio is the son of Bev Lambert's Bill and Pippa, both of whom have won the Meeker Classic; Pippa in 2004, Bill in 2005.
You might be wondering about his name. There's a good reason for the Teller Too part. This particular dog was essentially a replacement for a puppy I bought from another breeder who, at 14 weeks of age, died from H.O.D. (hypertrophic osteodystrophy) after I sunk $3500 into him. Since I only had the first Teller for seven weeks, I didn't get to use the name much and I really liked it, so I decided to name the new pup Teller, too...as in "also."
They say you always get the dog you deserve. While that may be true, all I can say is that I must have done something pretty special in my life to get a dog like this little guy.
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS...
Being that I turned 50 this year (2005), I wanted to do something to mark this milestone birthday so I entered Bruce and Linda Fogt's "End Of The Year" trial in Novice. Teller and I had been training for eight months and he seemed ready to handle a 75-100 yard outrun, and I'd gotten pretty good at penning sheep with him, so I was pretty confident we could handle the excitement of a herding trial.
Being that he's a natural driver, I was informed by my instructors that his outrun may suffer, so I laid off doing any driving prior to this trial which was scheduled for Friday, December 30th.
As luck would have it, and I'm not THE luckiest person in the world, I found out the day before the trial that I drew the first run out of the eleven dogs/handlers. I called a good friend that night and asked what I should do in regards to which way to send Teller on the outrun. They suggested I let him decide. Being a rookie at trialing, I figured that made sense.
We attended the handler's meeting and were informed that the sheep would be set out to hay and that after the turn at the post we could either drive or wear through the cones. Tempting as it was to put his driving skills to good use, I decided it would be best for me to wear.
As we walked to the post, Teller indicated that he should go "come bye," so I laid him down and removed his leash. The exhaust and the pen were both to our left, so by having Teller go come bye, it would appear that we'd be able to keep things under control. Teller is pretty good about reading where the pressure is, so the decision to go come bye made perfect sense to me.
I set my the stop watch feature on my wristwatch for the three minutes we were allowed and gave the command to come bye as I pressed the start button. He flanked beautifully, nice and wide, but at about nine o'clock, he got sucked in and decided that the sheep were just too close, and began to drive them further out into the field. I immediately laid him down and redirected him, but he would have no part of it. Imagine that, a young dog NOT taking a command!
He tried again to push the sheep away and I laid him down again. As much as I wanted to qualify at our first trial, I remember the advice given to me by my instructors: "If you get into trouble, leave the post and go help your dog." At the very moment I was about to leave the post, my judge (who just happened to be my instructor, Dal Kratzer) got out of the pickup truck where he was judging and said, "Go help him!"
I walked out about 20 feet and gave Teller another come bye and this time he took it and did THE most beautiful wide flank ever. He got behind the sheep and they bolted toward me so I laid him down. I remember running backwards, looking over my shoulder to see where the post was thinking that I was going to fall flat on my arse. Fortunately, all those early days of walking backwards paid off and I remained on my feet.
The sheep were still coming at me too fast even though Teller was still lying down. I still needed a flank to get them to turn at the post, so I called him up and yelled "time" at him. His pace was nice and slow even though I could tell he was ready to explode.
The turn at the post was happening too fast but there was little I could do to slow the sheep down. As they rounded the post behind me, Teller did exactly as I directed and soon the sheep were headed to the wear cones. I laid him down again and ran as fast as I could "backwards" in order to beat the sheep to the cones. Even though they were gaining on me, I managed to get to the other side of the cones before they did, but as they passed through the cones, they immediately took off for the exhaust pen.
Teller decided to take control and without a command from me, he took off like a shot and managed to head the sheep off while I ran to the pen. Someone had wrapped the gate rope around the pole and I had a devil of a time undoing it and when I looked up, Teller had brought the sheep to my feet even before I got the gate open. I laid him down and finally got the gate open.
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