Hello Everyone
My name is Lavella and I am owned by two sheepdogs, the first being Can CH Valubal Stuck On You, better known as Rigley, and the second Tumbleweed Valubal Madison better known as Maddie. I live in Saskatoon, SK and have had sheepdogs for a long time. I'm pretty sure by lurking around on this board that Rigley is a full brother to Carl's Martin. I purchased my very first sheepdog a long time ago and the people that I purchased Rocky from tried to convince me to get a "show quality" puppy, but I didn't have any interest in showing a dog. All I wanted was a pet. But little did I know that Rocky would lead me into a lifetime of sheepdogs. I took Rocky to an obedience class so he would be a good obedient pet. Rocky didn't have very much going in the looks department, but he had a lot going in the smarts department. Rocky obtained his Canadian CDX and his Americian CD Titles easily. He was the number one obedience sheepdog in Canada for two years in the 1980's, and was the anchor dog on the Canadian Champion Scent Hurdle Team for the same two years. So let me tell you, if someone tells you Sheepdogs can't do obedience let me tell you they are very wrong. Thanks and I look forward to meeting and chatting with you all. Lavella |
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| Wow!
Welcome to the community! |
| Welcome from St. Louis |
Welcome from the California Desert!  |
Welcome to the forum! Nice to have another Canuck around!
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| Hi Lavella! I am glad you have introduced yourself. I look forward to hearing more about your experiences AND seeing some pictures! |
| Welcome to the forum from South Louisiana. |
| Welcome to the forum! |
| Hi Lavella, welcome to the forum and greetings from the Land downunder.
Absolutely wonderful to read about your Rocky, always wonderful to hear of the achievements of sheepies on the obedience side. You will have to explain to me what Scent Hurdle team is, sounds very interesting. We have a sheepie here in Oz that has it's tracking title as well as UD and HT. They are more clever then what most people think they are 
Welcome also to Rigley and Maddie, look forward to seeing photos and hearing all about your OES. |
| Welcome also from St. Louis. Yes they are smart, my two both have the CD. |
| Welcome from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Look forward to hearing more about your sheepies and seeing PICTURES. Brenda Dudley and Murphy |
| Welcome!! We look forward to seeing and hearing more from you. |
| Welcome from Ontario! I'm so glad you decided to join in the discussions!
I would love to hear more about your dogs - and pictures of course! |
| Thank you to all for welcoming me.
To explain about Scent Hurdling Racing. It was a timed relay race with four dogs, going over a course with four hurdles evenly spaced long about 50 feet long. The hurdles were the height of the smallest dog on the team. Our team had a poodle, 2 dobermans and Rocky the Sheepdog that usually raced, we also had two shelties that were replacements if any of the other dogs couldn't race. At the end of the course was a box that was divided into four numbered sections, which held a scented numbered dumbell. Two teams would race against each other with the team with the best time and no faults (dogs returning with the wrong dumbell, etc) would win. Each province would have a provincial champion and then those winning teams would race against each other once a year and a Champion would be crowned. At the start of the race each handler rubbed their scent on the dumbell and placed it in the coresponding numbered section. Each dog was wearing a numbered jacket. After each dog returned with the dumbell, the stewart would place another dumbell with his scent in the empty section. This is done so there were always four scented dumbells in the box. It was very fast paced with the entire race finishing is less than 35 seconds. It was very similar to Fly Ball Racing except instead of a box with balls, at the end of the course there was the flat box with the scented dumbells. It is not very popular anymore, with flyball and the weave pole races at Agility Matches taking over. But then at that time there was no agility and people were looking for other fun things do to with their dogs. When our team was racing there were three sheepdogs racing on diferent teams in Western Canada that I knew about. There was one from Edmonton, Alberta, one from Regina, Saskatchewan and Rocky. It was so much fun and the best part was that the dogs had so much fun. We usually raced at the dog shows after Best in Show and I remember that the handlers would get so mad at us, because the racing dogs were barking and jumping all around when they were trying to get their dogs calm and ready to compete for Best in Show. I can now understand why they would get upset, with us now that I show, but at the time we didn't really care we were there for fun. I have to admit that Rocky really spoiled things for me when it came to obedience because he really enjoyed it. Not that he always did what he was suppost to do, but he alway had fun doing it, and he alway made everyone around him have fun. I have only put obedience titles on two of my other sheepdogs, where most of my sheepdogs have Canadian conformation titles. Rigley has 2 majors with 10 points towards his Americian Championship thanks to his breeder Val. But is it hard to get him to the US to finish this title. I would love to hear about other fun things that you all do with your sheepdogs, and if you show your sheepdogs whether it be in obedience or conformation. Lavella |
| Welcome Lavella and Rocky, from Minnesota.
I never heard of scent hurdles -it soulds like alot of fun!! As you were describing it, I thought it sounded alot like flyball. When we got Chewie, we had planned just to do performance stuff. He is turning out to be a handsome boy, and got 2 points in his first show from the 6-9 months class. Maybe I have a prima donna instead of a working dog! He loves showing, so we will tough it out .
Pictures, pictures!!! |
| Hi Lavella! Welcome from Phoenix Arizona!! |
| Welcome from San Francisco! |
| Hi and welcome to the forum from Ontario |
| Hi, Lavella! Welcome from Pennsylvania!! With as long as you've owned sheepies, we can probably learn a lot from YOU! |
| Welcome! A sheepdog without looks...I don't believe! Please share some pictures! |
| Hi,
Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you've had a lot of adventures with your sheepies! Can't wait to hear more stories. Have you ever thought of musical agility? That's something I've been interested in for some time. Marianne and the boys (Blue, Merlin and Panda) |
Welcome! 
I can't wait to see pics! |
| Welcome from Maryland I bet those races were fun !!I would like to see dogs race like that, especially OES with their hair blowing as they run. |
| Welcome from Alberta...I actually grew up 4 hours north of Saskatoon.
And I saw the Pedigree winner was a OES from Saskatoon, came in second of Working group. |
| Welcome fro northeastern Pennsylvania |
| Hey Daisie
Nice to hear from another person from Western Canada. Are you talking about the show from Abbortsford, BC that was shown on TSN last Saturday afternoon? If you are I have to brag a little. That was Lyric, (Tumbleweed Valubal Reflection), Maddie's older 1/2 sister. She is owned by Cathy Turtle and Val Bandas. She is such a nice dog. She won the Canadian National Speciality held in Saskatoon last September, and she was the number 3 sheepdog in Canada last year, and she isn't even 2 years old yet. Not bad for a little dog from the Prairies. |
| Yes that was the one, I am so happy they actually focused on the sheepdog this time....they edit so much of the show. But they made sure to mention where she was from.
I grew up in Goodsoil...tiny farming community, surrounded by beautiful lakes. Meadow Lake was the closest community. Do you watch Corner Gas? I think they are located closer to Regina, but one day we might go visit the site. |
| Hey Daisie
It sure is a small sheepdog world. I just sent a message to Carls Wife because their Martin and my Rigley are full litter brothers. I get to watch Coner Gas sometimes, and it just cracks me up because it is so "Saskatchewan", and yes it is much closer to Regina than Saskatoon. They sure have a good times going for that small town, they have bus tours almost everyday during the summer. Have you checked out the Corner Gas website. It has some really fun things on it. |
| Yes, we have looked at the website. I can't get over how similar it is to where I grew up too.
That's great you have found a brother to Rigley...small world. I love your pictures too...those are some very pretty dogs. |
| Corner Gas is a regular in our house. My boys have all the seasons on DVD.
Have you seen the new Little Mosque on the Prairie? |
| A couple episodes, it hasn't made it to a must watch show yet. It takes a bit to get there, so we tend to miss it, if something else is on. |
Oh, I just love Corner Gas! Hilarious! When I was living in NYC I showed it to my new yorker roomie... and she liked it, but I don't think she totally "got it". I did have to explain what the police officer's accent was though... didn't realize he had one! 
Then we got into a discussion about Tim Horton's. Try explaining why the coffee's so special, or why it's such a big deal, esp. in Ontario. "Is it fresh-ground?" "Well, no but it's very very good." "Are there fancy flavours?" "Well, no there's just 2 types of coffee - regular and decaf." I caught one episode of Little Mosque on the Prarie. Wasn't quite as funny as I'd expected from the commercials of them curling... but I'll give it another chance. |
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