Mary Jane

Mary Jane is probably one of the most natural dogs I know. This is a wonderful trait, however it can also be difficult at times. Her outrun was pretty much built in, very little time was spent stretching it out. Lots of time has been spent on the lift however. She does not, at all, like to stop at the top, and she's too much dog to allow that. It has been a lot of give and take to get her to be trust-worthy about stopping at the top. I would still not trust her much past 150 yards to stop at the top. But it's coming. She has lovely natural pace, one of her best traits. Driving and drive flanks have been some work. Mostly again because of her reluctance to stop. She has learned to be quite a lovely penning dog, and can now be nearly 100% trusted. As a younger dog once she was a stride too close, she would surely bust in on the next flank. Lots of time and patience was spent on this. Surprisingly (or maybe not so), penning and chute work is now one of her strong suits. She is a dog that gains the sheep's respect without them being rattled. She is one of my few that can work my ram during his "ugly" months without having to fight him. Once she gets into the flow of driving, she has a wonderfully strong, steady pace. She's one that keeps marching right on. The biggest trick with her is not letting her get to the "I've had enough now" level. She will not quit, but she will stress and is unable to really think if she feels I am asking too much of her. Having Ella work her for the last year or so has been great. Mary's made great strides with this, and it's been quite some time since she has felt I've asked too much of her. Weather Mary will take the pressures that go along with the kind of training one must be willing to accept in order to be an Open level dog is the only thing that would hold her back from being a very nice Open dog. Everything else is there. Including the bloodlines. Mary's from very strong western working lines. As well as from dogs that were proven on the trial field. Mary was born in 2004 and is a Granddaughter of Joni Swanke's Belle ABC 146325. Belle is a very well known and a very well proven bitch that has produced talented young dogs such as Haley Howard's Moss and of course Joni's own Lew and her"one of a kind" Chip. Mary also closely has dogs such as Emil Luedecke's Ben ABC 164512, and Bill Berhow's Nick (3 time Finals Champion/3 time Meeker Top Ten) in her pedigree. Mary's dam was a hard working farm dog that is now living the retired life on the Eastern Shore. Mary's sire, Lacy's Ted was handled by Alasdair MacRae several years ago as a Nursery dog and finished very well at the finals. Mary has had one litter crossed with my Toss. The owners love their pups. Because I really only care to breed when I, myself want to keep a pup or two from the litter, it will be some time before Mary is bred again- if she is. If she's bred again I'd like to find a dog much like her in the way of being very natural- but be a bit more of a dog to handle. Because I have such a preference for biddable dogs, I don't think I have a male quite strong enough to cross with Mary. Off sheep Mary is a fun dog to be around and is the never-met-a-stranger type- and she's perfectly beautiful. To me when people think "Border Collie", she is the picture.