Toss

Photo by Dick Bruner
HC SC Touch Em All HXAds HXBds, “Toss”
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Toss was the last puppy born in our 2004 litter. She didn’t really catch Susane’s eye until she was about four weeks old. She stood out because of how she carried herself and also because of her color and markings: she was quite striking. Toss didn’t turn on to working until October of 2004, by then Susane had started to be concerned that she’d ever catch on. Of course, now that seems silly, as Toss is by far the most intense of all the six girls. In retrospect, it’s a good thing she stayed here, as anyone else might have gotten tired of her approach to “working”: Let’s see how far we can go for a sheep ride! Now at just over two years old, Toss has her first trial under her belt – a time trial with sheep. She came in second by one second in her beginner class. Susane was very happy with her as her calm, controlled movement of the sheep (and NO GRIPPING!!!) caught the eye of several spectators twho wondered why she didn’t win…

Toss has continued to develop and improve. She’s now the dog Susane uses most of the time for chores, especially when it comes to moving the whole flock into places they’d rather not go. She is VERY pushy, but has nice pace and her flanks are improving all the time. At the Bad Lands trial (where she ran in Pro Novice) she placed third in both her runs, and that’s without even finishing the course. The sheep were quite challenging for the young dogs, but Toss showed what she’s made of and had very little trouble moving the range ewes.

Now at almost 5, we’ve been in open in USBCHA trials for over a year. So far, we’ve not managed to place although we’ve come close a couple of times. The biggest achievement to date was when we got around the very difficult 725 trial in Portage, WI, in the spring of 2009. It’s a HUGE course, over very difficult terrain, but we got it done. Good Girl!

2010 wasn’t a great year for us, but we did manage to get a placement at one of the open trials at Chaffin’s in October. Our shedding has FINALLY come together – thanks to a very helpful clinic with Alisdair McRae in July.

Hopefully, she’ll get in at the Bluegrass in May 2011 — it’ll be interesting to see what she’ll make of the notoriously difficult sheep.