Sheep Thrills Farm

04/22/2025

2025 Herding Lessons

I have a couple of open spots for week day evening classes (Thurs or Friday). Class starts at 6:30pm. Cost is $300/four lessons. Classes will start in May and run through to October. As always, suitable for all-breeds and handlers of all levels. Shoot me a message if you are interested!

03/21/2025

The CKC released their Top Herding Dog Statistics today, and the following Sheep Thrills students made the list!

🐑 Pheobe & Kaili - #10 dog overall and #1 Old English Sheepdog

🐑 Saga & Ayoka - #4 Rottweiler

🐑 Griz & Shamus - #6 Australian Cattle Dog

🐑 Meera & Cheryl - #9 Australian Cattle Dog

🐑 Tonic & Meaghen - #3 Bearded Collie

🐑 Nina & Kristi - #1 German Shepherd Dog

🐑 Ollie & Kaili - #2 Old English Sheepdog

🐑 Tikka & Sandy - #2 Shetland Sheepdog

🐑 Nowell & Jason - #5 Shetland Sheepdog

Congratulations to you all!

03/08/2025

If anyone is looking for beef, we took a few of our steers in, and have some beef boxes available!

03/01/2025

Save the dates!

Ayoka Bubar will be returning this summer to teach a few herding clinics.

All breeds and all levels welcome!

Signup now at: https://forms.gle/Y7KywQD8JgUGJEcp8

01/15/2025

Lost a dear friend and one of the matriarchs of all-breed herding. In December, Lynn Leach suddenly passed away. Here is my triubute to her on behalf of the all-breed herding community. It hit me hard, and I wasn't really sure how to process it. I'm still struggling.

We would not be offering lessons or a herding venue if it wasn’t for Lynn's help amd guidance. When we (Shamus and myself) first started wanting to refine our dogs training we would drive 16 hours one way to take lessons from Lynn. We brought her out regularly to give clinics and judge over the years.

Lynn and I both had ACDs, we liked the same type of work ethic, work style and type. We talked lots about breeding and bloodlines, we collaborated in breeding, we traveled and trialed together.

I was honored when she asked me to handle her dogs, and even more honored when she asked me to take one on for training a couple seasons ago. I had to decline, as I haven't found time lately to work my own dogs. It was a huge honor for me to have one of my mentors ask me to train their dog.

So for everyone that has taken lessons from me, you can thank Lynn for assisting in getting all-breed lessons going here at Sheep Thrills!

The herding community suffered a devastating loss on December 10, 2024 with the sudden passing of Janet Lynn Leach (“Lynn”) ...

11/08/2024

Don't forget to order your photos by Lianne Matieshin Photography from the August ACDCC trials! So many nice shots its hard to choose!

Photo collection by Lianne Matieshin Photography

09/04/2024

Entries close tonight!

09/01/2024

The SASSA herding trials close on Tuesday! Premium list and online entry here:

https://dogshow.ca/en/Events/4878/Saskatoon-and-Area-Shetland-Sheepdog-Association-HERDING-TRIALS

08/30/2024

Saskatoon and Area Shetland Sheepdog Association trial entries close Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024.

4 CKC ARENA TRIALS (DUCKS)
4 CKC ARENA TRIALS (SHEEP)
3 CKC ARENA TRIALS (GEESE)
3 CKC STOCKDOG (GEESE)

Enter online at:

08/11/2024

It was a great weekend for working some new dogs, and they all did great!

For details about the next clinic with Ayoka, check out the link in the comments!

08/07/2024

The images in the galleries are low resolution proofs and have had minimal editing and no cropping yet. Ordered images will be cropped and edited further and sent within 1-3 business days after payment is received.

07/29/2024

We have a couple sheep herding clinics coming up next month near Saskatoon.

Sign up link in comments.

07/20/2024

CLOSING TODAY!

ACDCC CKC Herding Trials
Aug 2, 3, 4 & 5, 2024

2 arena cattle trials
4 arena goose trials
4 arena duck trials
6 arena sheep trials
4 stockdog trials (1 goose & 3 sheep)

Enter Online:

DogShow.ca - The Best Way To Enter Dog Events In Canada!

07/15/2024

CLOSING JULY 20th

ACDCC CKC Herding Trials
Aug 2, 3, 4 & 5, 2024

2 arena cattle trials
4 arena goose trials
4 arena duck trials
6 arena sheep trials
4 stockdog trials (1 goose & 3 sheep)

Enter Online:

https://dogshow.ca/en/Events/4870

DogShow.ca - The Best Way To Enter Dog Events In Canada!

06/27/2024

Words of Wisdom

One of the most important qualities for success is mental toughness.
It fosters inner motivation, achieving goals, fortitude in facing challenges, remaining calm under pressure, the ability to perform consistently,
move on from disappointment, view adversity as an opportunity and perhaps most important,
— irrespective of your definition of ‘success’, whether you’re a novice just starting or a 40 year expert, it empowers the mindset to take you from where you are, to where you want to be.

Here are 3 tips to help improve mental toughness:

1. Make your Best Effort.

It’s less about the outcome than it is about whether you put in the best effort, relative to you and your dogs potential. That includes every aspect of preparation, both in your dogs training and in your personal development and goal setting. There will be days when things go your way and inevitably, there will be days when they don’t. What you can control is how much you did to get you and your dog ready for the moment.
The great coach John Wooden said: “Success is peace of mind; a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”

2. When it doesn't go your way, choose to stay positive.

It’s essential to know the difference between the things you can control and the things you can’t.
If something that is out of your control doesn’t go your way, try to avoid sliding into disappointment, anger or frustration, which are emotions that are firmly within your control. Choose to remain positive.
Especially with trialing, there are often times you walk onto the field armed with various strategies, ideas, and hypotheses about how it will play out. But with 3 thinking entities (you, sheep and dog) you don’t always know what’s going to happen.You may not have control over what happens. But, you can choose how you react.
One way to keep perspective and motivated is understanding that if things go your way, great; and if they don’t, that’s okay, too, since you have a chance to learn and overcome them in the future.

3. Learn from Losses

When things don’t work out, rather than get defeated or take it personally, arrive at a place where you grow from the negative experience.Try to reframe it as an opportunity to learn and challenge to improve —If things don’t go well but you and your dog learned something, it turns into a positive outcome.
Over time and with experience, you can develop a way to use losses to foster improvement and inner drive. What you learn, through review and self-reflection, is often a greater positive than whatever benefits might have come from ‘winning’.

Building these habits can help you improve on the field, and moreover, as a partner to your dog.

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