Bobby Dalziel and Wisp, winners of two International Supreme Championships. Photo from Bobby's website.
If you want an extremely smart dog, with unbelievable focus and energy, find yourself a Border Collie.
If you want to go somewhere where Border Collies are trained to peak ability, go to the Borders of Scotland, where dogs must gather sheep over vast stretches of steep ground and deftly single off sheep from the crowd when they are having difficulty lambing.
If you want to learn from a shepherd from the Scottish Borders who has achieved more success at herding dog competitions of the most exacting kind, then Bobby Dalziel is your man. He has won the prestigious International Supreme Championship, in 1989 and 1992 with a dog named Wisp, and again in 2006 with a very young dog named Joe. He has been the runner-up or Reserve in that same Championship twice.
As it happens, Bobby Dalziel is coming to Heatherhope Farm in Sycamore, Illinois as well as to Portage, Wisconsin, in April of 2010.
Bobby will work with dogs and handlers from all around the Midwest at these two locations. He will be at Heatherhope Farm on April 20 through 22 and again on April 26 through 28. He will be at the farm of Paul and Janet Henning near Portage, Wisconsin, over the weekend of April 23-25.
There are still a few places available for handlers and dogs at Heatherhope. Call for details and costs. All the slots are currently filled for Wisconsin.
But spectators are also welcome. It doesn’t cost anything to stop in and watch for a short while, but if you want to watch as an auditor, and learn about handling from Bobby and from his assistant, Karin Soderberg, an accomplished handler from Sweden, then please be prepared to pay a auditor’s fee of $30.
You can contact John Seraphine at 815-895-9736 or at heatherhopefarm@gmail.com for further information.
You can find more information about Bobby Dalziel at his own website: http://www.bobbydalziel.com/
