Mirrakay Bill

I never thought when I started my blog that I would to say goodbye to two old dogs so close together. This week was a hard one for Jamie and I, poor old Bill had a very rapid tumour growing in his top jaw and we had to make the hard call of putting him to sleep. Bill had just turned nine this month and has been in the family since he was six months old, he was the hardest working dog you could ever want he would give Jamie 110% all the time even if it wasn't needed at times. Bill could work everything sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and even week old chickens, he is dearly missed already.

I have thinking of all the good times we had with Bill and a couple of moments have really stuck to me, as a much younger dog he would give our girls doggy back rides we would sit the girls on his back while one of us had a hold of him then the other would call him and off he would run with a giggling child on his back.

There was one weekend he had been let into the house yard for a relax but he must of caught the sent of some goats in the river behind the house, he brought about 30 billy and nannies to the back fence of the house where he held them until we finally noticed him with his little prize.

Bill could do all stock work in the paddock mustering, catching fly blown sheep or lambs and even in the yards. When working in the sheep yards though he refused to back sheep he wanted to bulldoze under them which worked just as well as backing, we don't know why he would back he had never been hurt while on a sheep he just had it in his head he was a bulldozer.When working cattle there wasn't much he could not stop he loved his cattle work just as much as sheep. For many years he was Jamie's main mustering dog, they could go out together and muster a paddock with no other help.

Bill also tried his hand at three sheep trialling, we ended up calling him 2nd ribbon Bill he could never get that first place. He took a lot handling around the course Jamie made it look very easy but believe me it wasn't!!!! Jamie kindly let me use him this year for the trials and yes we got a 2nd in the encourage at Longreach, even though he was eight yrs old and had slowed down a lot he was still a handful. But this is what made Bill he never gave up and you always knew he would there when things got tricky.

We semi retried Bill at the start of this year as we was getting very sore with arthritis and he went into full retirement after weaning, we are happy he had a few good months living in the house yard as our way of thanking him for all the hard work he did of us.

Thanks old man for all your work hope you had fun!!!!!

World Trial

A lot has been happened since my last post, Jamie has been to the UK and back again, the International and World Trial has been and gone and the Australian Supreme has also been on. On the home front as been just as busy with Jamie away the girls and I had a bit more work to do, I would not suggest to any sane wife to let there husband go on a three week holiday without you!!!! My phone bill is going to be huge,daily calls to the UK are not going to be cheap.

Jamie went with a good friend Jamie Sturrock to the UK, they attended the International Trial in Scotland after landing in Glasgow they picked up there hire car and headed north. They where luckily enough to be able to share a cottage with a competitor from the English team and Kim, there where many hours of funny stories and dog talk. The Welsh well and truly dominated the International with 1st and 2nd, E.L Morgan and Spot winning and Kevin Evans with Greg 2nd, Spot  impressed us as a young on Aled Owens DVD he was a very pushy little pup with a high work drive. Kevin's Greg also won the Welsh National we saw Greg last year when we selected Rees, he was a very stylish young dog like all of Kevin's dogs. Greg is a full brother to the dam of our Rees.

After leaving the International the Jamie's headed down to England where the World Trial was held, along the way they where able to call in and see different dogs working on there farms. They called into Jim Croppers farm which is where my Bella originally came from , they where able to see her sire who I believe is getting close to 14yrs. It is always good to see where our dogs came from and there parents. They also stopped at Kim Gibson's farm to see her dogs, the day they where there the tail end of a hurricane which hit the US went over the UK, it caused a lot damage to the World Trial venue with the roofs of the grandstand's being blown away(more on that later). They both really liked Kim's dogs and I would like to thank her for all of her help while the Jamie's where there.

The World Trial from what I have heard was WET,WET,WET some of the photos I have seen are just mud as far as the eye could see. Back to the grandstand because of the wind a few days before there roof of the grandstand was missing, this left the Jamie's in torrential rain for quite a few hours one day cant say they weren't dedicated. Jamie loved the World Trial he said the course was hard, the sheep were out of sight on the finals on the 1st outrun. Jamie would love to one day compete at the World Trial for Australia will have to work on this one!!!!! I think we will have to find some very willing sponsors to help.
The Irish well and truly dominated the World Trial with James Mc Gee and Becca winning and Michael Gallagher and Cap running 3rd. We saw Becca in the 2008 World Trial she is a lovely bitch and was well and truly the Best Bitch in the World.  It was great to see Michael and Cap run 3rd, Cap is the sire to our Sweep it is a great feeling to know that his sire is the 3rd best dog in the world.

After the World Trial they headed down to Wales to visit with our good friend David, they stayed with David for a couple of days in more heavy rain. When it wasn't raining they saw Davids dogs working and a visit with Kevin Evans to see some very stylish dogs. I have some photos off Jamie's ph of the World Trial they are not the best.

While the World Trial was on in England our own Australian Supreme was being held in Western Australia, a big congratulations to Geoff Gibson  who won with Charlies Dusty and Rhonda O'Connell who won the Improver with Camra Shade, both of these competitors are from Queensland. I do believe the  Australian Supreme is being held in Queensland next will have to mark this in the calender, it would be wonderful to see a live score feed from the Australian Supreme it was really good to see all the scores coming in from both the International and World Trials.

All of our young dogs are coming along nicely, we have shown them cattle since Jamie has been home and where happy with how they went I will make sure I take the camera next time. Jamie has been working on a double fetch with Rusty and Lucy both seem to be taking to quite easily, I will start with Sonny in the next day or so.