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Herding
has become my passion over the last 2 years. When Luna was 10
weeks old she passed her herding instinct test with ducks at the WSCC
specialty show in Canada. Then in 2003 in Davisburg, MI at
the
AWSA National she received her 1st leg toward her AHBA HCT
title.
At our 2004 Nationals Luna earned her 2nd leg and received her HCT
title. At that point I thought that would be it because even
though I thought it was great to see her do something so natural I just
couldn’t get into it. Three years later that
changed!
I remembered how much Luna loved herding and called Judi Bingham at
Hado-Bar Farms in Nova, OH. At that time she wasn’t
taking
any new students and directed me to Kelly Malone of Karma Performance. From the
beginning Kelly and I hit it off; she is the kind of trainer I can
relate to. Luna was the first White Shepherd that Kelly ever
trained.
Kelly
also introduced
me to the renowned Cappy Pruett, who is her trainer. The
second
time Cappy saw Luna work his comment was “you are going to
trial
that bitch aren’t you.” With a big smile
I said
“Yes” and looked over at Kelly who also had a big
smile on
her face. |
I
have also had the pleasure of working two of Luna’s daughters
Haley & Samantha. Herding ability and instinct is very strong
in
their genetic make-up.
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| Luna received her
Junior Herding Dog (JHD) from the American Herding
Breed Association (AHBA) on May 7, 2006. Then on July 14, 2006 Luna received her Pre-Trial (PT) title from the American Kennel Club (AKC).
Now that we had finished up test levels it was time to enter our first
trial. The SEMASA Club in Manchester, MI was holding a trial over
Memorial Day weekend. I entered Luna for Sunday and Monday.
I was really nervous but everyone was so friendly and helpful. Luna
received her Started Trial Dog title from the Australian Shepherd Club
of America (ASCA) on May 28, 2007 with placements. We received a lot of nice compliments on
Luna’s
working ability. The judge on Sunday told me I had a really nice bitch and she had good control and working ability. |
On
December 3, 2006 Luna’s daughter Haley had her first
litter. When they were 7 weeks old they came to my home and
we
took them to see Kelly for a herding evaluation. I was
already
planning on taking a pup out of that litter –
Arwen. Arwen
has been working with sheep & ducks since she was 7 weeks old,
taking weekly lessons with her Grandma Luna. She also
received
her 1st leg for her Herding Capability Test (HCT) from the American
Herding Breed Association (AHBA) on October 27, 2006 at the AWSA
National in Yorkville, IL.
Owners
of three
additional pups from this same litter have had testing done and are
actively working toward herding titles for them, showing that even
through the generations, Celestial dogs are producing pups with
pronounced herding instinct. Haley’s most recent
litter was
also evaluated by Kelly. She found every puppy in this litter
to
have strong herding instinct, and was also impressed with the
consistent balance of the litter.
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