Gwen

Anyone who knows me even just a little knows how much I adore this little bitch!! She just makes me smile no matter what she's doing. Off sheep she is so clever, fun- loving, and sweet. She is incredibly personable. She has a perfect temperament. If she had been trained in agility I have no doubt she would have been awesome! She is crazy fast and the most athletic dog I have ever met. I can visualize her flying across the dogwalk like it's 10 feet wide. Over jumps she'd be a bar hugger and one of those dogs that can land and turn all in the same motion- she would waste no yardage. She's one of those zero to 60 in 2 seconds. She would have been a super fun sport dog no doubt. On sheep I adore her as much as I do off sheep. From day one I have LOVED working her on stock. She was born with an outrun and square flanks. She is fast and responsive, which takes finesse handling, but man is it fun! I hardly have to blow in my whistle with her- I've learned to be very, very gentle in my commands or she over does it. What I blow is what I get. That's an unbelievable thing when you as the handler have it together! Gwen has never done anything but aim to please, and she has absolutely no quit in her- none. Our only work-through area has been with her not wanting to disturb her sheep to the point that she would stall out on the drive. (to the untrained/unfamiliar eye it looks like too much eye, but that isn't it. She has so much respect for their "bubble", that in a drive she can loose confidence in walking into that bubble. She never stalls out or curls in at the lift, and she never gets stuck on her belly at a high pressure pen, both of which can often times be due to eye.) This little glitch is fast becoming a thing of the past, and I have no doubt she will work entirely through it. In the grand scheme of things she is still quite young. She was also forced to take time off to produce and raise a litter of pups. And of course I do not have a big area here at home to work daily (or even weekly much of the time) on her distance driving. Gwen is a 2005 daughter of Del'Mar Dan and HatsOff Kate. Del'Mar Dan is sire by Imp Jim CABC 128108 and out of Imp Nell CBCA 148. Both Jim and Nell were owned by Dave Ellison of Kamloops, BC. Jim is the sire of Del'Mar Turk of RMS Border Collies in British Columbia. There are several nice Del'Mar bred dogs floating around out there on farms and kennels that work at home as well as trial. Gwen's Dam is by HatsOff Bill and out of HatsOff Wynn. Many of Bill's off spring can be found at Oaktree Border Collies, as well as many other operating cattle farms and trial fields in the Oklahoma/Arkansas area. Gwen's own parents live and work on a cow/calf farm in KY. Gwen herself is a wonderful cowdog for the little time she has had on them. Really a true natural. At the 2nd cattle trial she was at I got several compliments about her- one of which was the assumption she was from a Steve McCall breeding. The best compliment was about how responsive she was. :-) She is more comfortable on cattle I believe, than she is on sheep. She works sheep great, but being a cowdog is her calling. Unfortunately for us both there is very little cattle trialing in this area, and even less availability to work cows to train. Gwen is going to go a long way as a trial dog, there's no doubt- and I will enjoy ever minute of getting her there!