Mountain States Stockdog Association

24/12/2024

Wishing you all the Merriest Christmas ⛄🎄🎁

09/12/2024

Just a quick thank you to all you trial hosts that have worked hard to get IDs on your results for me. I really really appreciate it!! My database continues to get cleaned up! And it is easier for me to stay caught up on results :) which makes you all happy with me 😋 Hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season!

Jeannie Biggers

28/11/2024

Wishing you all the gift of faith and the blessing of hope this Thanksgiving day.

26/10/2024

Futurity folks!! Don't forget to nominate your dog before heading to the post for the first time!

03/10/2024

Trials that I have gotten and fees paid are in the system!! Lifetime points and year points are updated. ID file updated.

There are trials I have not received any results from and I will be contacting those trial hosts.

A couple trials results were mailed in so I will get those when I get home.

A couple trials checks in the mail so no worries on those, they will go up when received.

All in all... we are to where we should be!! And a day earlier than I promised lol Thanks for your patience while I got caught up.

Have a great day everyone!

01/10/2024

Already working on the hand crafted amazing Ultimate Stockdog Awards for 2025 National Finals!! I get little sneak peaks from the gentleman that creates them ❤❤ Thanks Ed!!

21/09/2024

First off, I want to say a big thank you to all of you that have checked the ID Lookup and let me know of duplicates and errors! My plan is working :) If you haven't had a chance, please do so!! I would love to get the database all cleaned up!

Secondly, I have gotten quite a bit of trials in and points updated. I am through July with the exception of a handful of trials. Points are updated to include what I have in. As well as Lifetime. I know, it doesn't do a lot of good until I get them all in but hey I am getting closer LOL!!

I am on the road for a couple days seeing my family then I will hit it again on Tuesday. I don't want to make promises I can't keep, but I am shooting for October 4th of having everything in. I will let you all know how that goes, or you can keep up on my progress through the website!

Thanks again to you all! Appreciate you :)

Jeannie Biggers

16/09/2024

ID Lookup

Hello again!

I wanted to get some more information out to you all real quick.

At the link below you will find information that you will need in the future! Every handler has a unique ID in my system. As well as each dog. This link gives you those ID numbers. At some point in the future, you will ALL need this information when entering a trial.

Right now, I am asking trial secretaries to gather this information and add it to their results before sending to me. I am hoping that trial hosts will add this field on their entry forms and have handlers gather that information upon entering. If the majority of this data is collected before I get it, a couple things will happen:
First and most importantly, by having the handlers give the dog ID we should not have duplicate dogs in the system. When a dog gets sold, or they are running someone else's dog, they should know that and give us the correct ID :)
Second which helps me out on time is I won't have to "code" each and every trial when it comes in. This takes a tremendous amount of time!
Third we are going to be automating a bunch of our system in the future and getting the handlers used to entering with their ID's now will make that transition smooth in the future!

Why do I need this you ask? The way the database works and keeps track of points and dog ownership each has to be unique! To track yearly points and lifetime points.

A note: if I have not data entered a trial that you as a new handler competed in, you will not be listed in this link yet. If you have ran a new dog in a trial I have not data entered yet, that dog will not be listed yet. This is another automation we will be working on in the future!

As always, if you see any errors in dog ownership, spelling, kennel name, etc please use the form at the bottom of the link below to let me know!

I appreciate you all! Have a great week.

Jeannie Biggers

ID Lookup Please check the current information we have on file for your dog(s). To make it easy please use the “Search” option to locate your name or their name. If you find an error, please use the form below to send us an update. You can also use the form to send us new current info that we do...

14/09/2024

Update from the Office

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to reach out to the membership and let you know what is happening with the office (Jeannie).

As you all know, and I am sure are frustrated at... I am WAY behind on getting results loaded and points uploaded to the website. I am currently working on trials and have gotten some in. My plan is to work thru the week just on MSSA trials and on Friday upload points up to where I get trials in. On the website you will be able to see what trials are in as well as what trials are included in the points listing.

It will probably take me a few weeks to get all the trial results up.
My current system worked for many years but with all the growth we have had, I need a new plan! I have had people ask if they could help, and with the way the system is now, no I cant have anyone help.

There are a couple things I am going to be implementing in the near future. I will be asking trial secretaries to send results in a specific format with specific information. Two pieces of information is handler ID and Dog ID numbers. One of the major problems I have right now is if a dog is sold and I am not told, that dog gets entered into the system a second time. So now that dog has 2 ID numbers and lifetime points are adding up on two different numbers. And on that same note, if someone else runs your dog let say in novice and you are an open handler, I dont know that your "ACE dog" is the same dog ran in novice. I am hoping by having the trial secretaries gather this info it will help keep the database clean. I am guessing that trial secretaries will be asking the handlers to give this information to them upon entering their trials. This information is available on the website and will be updated regularly.

I would like to throw out there.... if anyone is a database expert or a computer programmer or has a few hundred thousand dollars to spare... let me know!! Or if you know someone that is one of these... let me know!! I would love to speak to a database expert and computer programmer and get something built that would make my life easier as well as trial secretaries!

Thank you for listening and I appreciate all the grace you guys give me. I truly do try to make MSSA the best association out there. I promise I will get through these growing pains and results and points will be updated more regularly soon!!!

Kind regards,
Jeannie Biggers

PS To give you an idea what kind of database I am dealing with:
We have 4000 dogs in our database and 2000 handlers.

26/07/2024

EDIT: The compulsory advancement for Intermediate and Novice has always been written the way it is here. But there has been some confusion. It is JUST the HANDLER that moves up, NOT the dog. I will remove the word dog.
Rule Update
We just wanted to inform everyone of a couple of rules we updated.
NURSERY
If you are a NOVICE Handler and show a dog in the Nursery class this pertains to you. If at any time as a novice handler you gain more than 400 nursery points, you will automatically lose your right to run in the novice class, you will be moved up to Intermediate no matter the time of calendar year. If you gain these points before the end of the year, you will not be able to show in the novice class at finals. This pertains to cattle and/or sheep or the combination of both. This rule will be implemented August 1, 2024 and will not be retroactive.
FUTURITY DOGS
A dog can be declared as a Futurity dog for EITHER cattle or sheep. A futurity dog DOES NOT have to run in BOTH stock at finals. Points from Nursery cattle will be tracked for the Cattle Futurity dog and points from Nursery sheep will be tracked for the Sheep Futurity dog. We will award a Futurity Dog of The Year for BOTH stock as well as Futurity Champion and Reserve Champion for BOTH stock at finals.
COMPULSORY ADVANCEMENT NOW INCLUDES SHEEP
For your reference:
COMPULSORY ADVANCEMENT OF DOG OF THE YEAR AND RESERVE DOG OF THE YEAR CHAMPIONS AND/OR FINALS CHAMPION AND RESERVE CHAMPION AND HANDLERS. As of 2025 year, this will apply to Sheep as well as Cattle.
• There is no compulsory advancement of Dog of the Year or Reserve Dog of the Year champions in the Open class.
• Compulsory advancement of the Nursery dog is controlled by the age requirement. There is no compulsory advancement of the Nursery Dog of the Year champion or reserve champion handler.
• The MSSA Intermediate Dog of the Year, Reserve Dog of the Year, the Finals Champion and Reserve Champion handler can no longer compete in the Intermediate class.
• The MSSA Novice Dog of the Year, Reserve Dog of the Year, the Finals Champion and Reserve Champion handler can no longer compete in the Novice class.
• The MSSA Board of Directors reserves the right to mandate a handlers level in which they compete at any time during the year.
• Any handler that competes at a sanctioned MSSA trial, even if not an MSSA member, are under the same stipulations of compulsory advancements. At any time, the Board of Directors reserve the right to move up such handlers.
Kind regards,
MSSA Board of Directors

08/07/2024

THANK YOU XP RANCH PHOTOGRAPHY

29/06/2024

NATIONAL FINALS DATES!!

JUNE 16-21

25/06/2024

25/06/2024

Thanks for the help XP RANCH!

24/06/2024

Cattle and sheep are making their way home. Hope you all are home safe and sound or are at least close!! We had a wonderful week with you all. Congratulations to everyone on your own personal successes! We hope you enjoyed your 2024 Finals and that we see you all in 2025. Good luck trialing this coming year!!!

23/06/2024

This is what dedication looks like.

Gotta make sure the racks and clothing boxes make it back to the storage unit safely! 😂💪🏻