BlueValleybordercollies

02/12/2024

30/10/2024

So proud of “Flick” (BV Retro Flick, Spoon x Ariat) and Katelyn! 🎉 On top of competing at Barn Hunt Nationals this weekend, too!!!!

HUGE congrats to Katelyn Spooner and Flick (Spoon x Ariat) for their performance at the 2024 NADD Nationals! Flick was 1st in Air Retrieve (Junior) and 8th in Hydrodash (Senior)!! I couldn’t be more thrilled with how these two have done in every single thing they’ve done together!

23/10/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/cuqiGbBy5zMz61bL/?mibextid=WC7FNe

What a weekend! Big shout out to Nebraska Disc Dogs for putting on a wonderful event with the earlier this month. Revl the ABCA and AKC BC Dog (HC Kennel’s HCK Mossy Oak x BlueValleybordercollies Maybelle) was amazing!!!! So proud of this girl! Despite being handicapped with a less than stellar human partner (me!) and facing challenging conditions with 20 mph sustained winds and gusts greater than 30 mph, not to mention 90-95F temps, we earned 4th team overall honors and took top 3 finishes in multiple events at the advanced level!!! It was the first ever UpDog competition for both Revl and I, and only our second disc competition at all (her previous disc debut at the Kansas City Skyhoundz regional in June garnered a 3rd place finish in novice toss & fetch, our only competition for that weekend).

So many takeaways from the weekend… Revl is incredible. Not only did her placements blow away my expectations with a fairly deep and experienced field (and we have so much room for improvement with more practice and experience), she showed true grit and excellent temperament with a remarkable level of work ethic, engagement, and stamina throughout a long, hot, busy day. I had never asked her to do several rounds of disc like that throughout the day before, so the fact that she kept up the same tenacity and drive throughout the competition, especially with it being so hot and windy outside, was beyond impressive. She met new friends and accepted pets and attention from strangers readily. (She was also told that she was pretty several times.) 👸🏼💅🏻🐶 She rested like a champ between rounds in her kennel. We consistently scored throughout the day. She successfully completed her first ever agility jump in competition (though she was distracted by the fact that I had a disc in my hand and was not throwing it - THAT part was confusing). She successfully “tunneled” with equipment she had never seen before that was much different than what she had been exposed to at home (though she did not tunnel in her competition round, she was confidently getting it with a quick practice before the competition started).

I knew that the agility elements would cause us some trouble as we hadn’t practiced those in a long time, with much different basic home use equipment compared to competition equipment, in a really controlled environment, and never in conjunction with disc, which has quickly become one of her favorite things. I was also concerned because I knew my throws do not match the quality of my dog, I struggle with consistency in longer throws and the accuracy needed in shorter throws for some of the games can still be problematic for me. (Really wish I could have gotten that UpDog practice in with Justin
and Marisa a few weeks ago with 303 Disc Dogs
that was unfortunately rained out!) My mom told me the evening before to not bother entering because why go if I was so underprepared that the result would be disappointing. However, John (Dog Sports America) encouraged me to go anyway and his pep talks the night before and morning of were so helpful in framing my mindset for going out and having fun with my dog, working on skills and experiences that would prepare us for even more success in the future. Many, many thanks to Marisa and Justin for inviting me to tag along to Nebraska Disc Dog events and other disc events previously, for introducing me to the sport (and some of its awesome people!), and for teaching me the basics and continuing to give me advice on everything from dog and human training, disc selection, and throwing technique (now if only I could effectively implement all of that great advice at one time). John also had some great tips and encouragement prior to Revl’s first competition in June and was a huge part of shaping the goal from just working on rollers to stepping up to actual throws/catches for toss & fetch - with only a week of practice!

While the 2024 disc season for Revl and I has ended, our journey in this crazy, fun sport is just beginning. 🙂 Look out for our foray into freestyle in 2025!

23/10/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/f2EBxZdwTEcg9x5t/?mibextid=WC7FNe

13/10/2024

08/10/2024

If anyone is looking for a dog that can do almost anything of the breed that can do nearly everything… check out Tilly!!!

Call name: Tilly (aka Silly Tilly, Tilly Bean)
Breed: Border Collie (ABCA, can be dual registered AKC, etc)
Registered: yes, ABCA
Age: 10 months
S*x: intact female
Drive: moderate to high drive
(toy drive greatest drive at present)
Sports at which she would excel: flyball, disc, Fast CAT, dock diving
Activities for which she has some exposure/interest but not as much exposure/experience yet: agility, herding (sheep)
Activities with no present exposure or experience: nosework, weight pulling or any kind of harness/pulling work (canicross, bikejoring)

Interested in stock? ✅ 🐑
Good with cats? ✅🐱
Good with kids? ✅ 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 (with appropriate introduction and acclimation, but she has played with family friends’ kids before & has exposure to young children; it would probably take her a few days to warm up to younger kids and a bit longer to adjust to pre-school age children - not a fan of kids that don’t understand personal space and rush to hug/smother her when she doesn’t know them)

Crate trained ✅ (quiet and clean in a crate)
House trained ✅ (she loves being on the couch or the bed “like the big dogs”)
Car trained ✅ (she has traveled over 1000 miles in a weekend before, with longer trips she rides in a crate)
Leash trained ✅

Tilly is off leash often while outside and has great recall. Because of this, her leash manners and obedience could be reinforced, especially if she thinks that we are going out to play disc 🥏 or other dog sport activities or fundamentals or if she gets to go out with the sheep 🐑. (ie, I don’t enforce a strict heel when doing these activities, and unfortunately when teaching her to jump on the flyball box and starting to training the concept of vault in disc, she now gets a little excited about jumping me when I haven’t asked for it. (We are working on reinforcing that it’s not appropriate to jump on me when not asked to…) She does have an “alarm bark” if startled (usually with strangers) but this is infrequent and she settles/redirects quickly. She can walk through a store or at a show/competition with other people, or play disc with a stranger/different handler, and handles everything well.

Tilly is sweet, affectionate, biddable, confident, and all around a really exciting sports (or herding) prospect. Her dam is an active disc competitor that has placed in Skyhoundz and UpDog competitions in her first attempts at both this year (she also has her BCAT in limited runs this year and clocks around 26 mph). Her sire is a retired (injury) working ranch dog with national level competitors stacked in his pedigree. He has produced working dogs from several litters as well as other pups that are competing and titled in sports. Her dam’s sire has produced progeny competing in multiple avenues. Her maternal granddam is a started sheepdog, also very drivey for disc, and working on her FCAT3. Her maternal grandsire is a Welsh import that is a USBCHA national finalist. Parents have hip/elbows X-rays, DNA testing. Tilly herself has very current hip, elbow, shoulder X-rays.

The *only* reason I am not keeping her is because I am keeping her littermate sister and I cannot keep them all.
9XX co-own option
19XX outright with full registration option

Located in southeastern Nebraska. Travel arrangements can be made.

Multiple pictures and videos; I probably cannot attach all of them here.

07/10/2024

An inspiration!!

Some dog, some man ❤️❤️🙏

Alba Tweed, the only 4-time US National Champion.
He’ll be 11 years old in December.

Before writing about this magical week, I wanted to write just a bit about Tweed....
While he still runs out with great speed and scope, this was his last big trial.
His save of the ribbon single was almost like one last thrill for the crowd; he’s given us so many in the ring, always doing it as it was intended,
a proper test of the dog.
His career includes a win with the most class DL International Shed National I’ve witnessed, he and Alasdair in Virginia in 2021,
the fine wools in both Alturas and Nevada and this year on the healthy cross bred lambs.
It is a testament to his heart, try, ability, training,
stamina, work ethic, partnership and a very exceptional bond.
Yet somehow all these adjectives don’t seem to encompass how truly special he is.
Most simply put, for me and for the record books, he is the definition of a Champion❤