Heather Forbes
In 1977 this city girl married into a farming family and learned just how valuable a working dog can be. Twice a day the dog brought the cows in from the pasture to be milked and drove them out of the barn afterwards.
After years of having mixed breed dogs, Heather purchased her first registered Australian Shepherd in 1995. Finally, in 2001, Heather found a herding trainer and drove two hours, one way, every week for a half hour lesson. By this time the dairy cattle had been sold and a small flock of mixed breed sheep had been started, which has since grown to over 100 breeding ewes.
Since attending her first trial in 2001, Heather and her aussie, Winnie, HCH CH Caitland’s All The Rave CDX, SDA, HX, earned the distinction of being the first aussie in Canada to achieve both their Herding Champion and Herding Excellent titles, with many High in Trials along the way.
As a continuing student of the game, Heather has attended several clinics under such notables as Lynn Leach, Becky Bailie, Cappy Pruett, Larry Painter, Tenley Dexter and Steve Shope. Trialing in both the U.S. and Canada, Heather has competed in the CKC, AHBA and ASCA herding programs. In 2003 she flew to Grand Prairie, Alberta to attend the very first CNASA herding trial. She returned to Alberta in 2005 to compete in the CNASA Nationals and was the host for the National trials in 2008.
A long time member of both ASCA and the CKC, Heather is the current CKC Herding Council rep for Ontario West (Zone 6). She is a past President of CNASA and is current President of the Trillium Australian Shepherd Club. She and her husband, Ron, host clinics, trials and instinct test days, on top of giving lessons.
Heather has a great deal of respect and admiration for the work that goes in to being a successful team on the field. She believes in giving her students the tools to build mutual trust and confidence between dog and handler to create a successful partnership both on and off the trial field.
Dave Viklund
Dave has been working livestock since 1982 and working with herding dogs
since 1992. While in working situations Dave learned how and where his dogs
needed to be and what they needed to do to create and control livestock
motion. He has found that by understanding the livestock he is working and
the dogs that are helping, the stock can be handled in a much less stressful
manner. He has taken the skills he has developed while handling livestock
and training horses and applied them to training dogs. By focusing on
livestock control he has developed a method of training dogs to handle
livestock in an efficient manner.
He believes in molding the dogs instinct as well as teaching the dogs to
override that instinct with obedience when it is needed to get the job done.
A dog that will go to work without direction is vital but it is important
that those dogs be able to take direction or new situations will be
struggle. By working instinct with obedience he develops dogs that are
partners rather then robots. He works dogs, horses, and livestock with
honesty using both direct pressure and indirect pressure. The training
methods he uses have been proven to work on upright as well as eye dogs.
Besides practical experience with livestock Dave also has a BS degree in
Animal Science with an emphasis in Ag business/Production. He minored in
Business Management and did a second minor in Range Management. Being well
rounded in many aspects of American agriculture, Dave understands the needs
of the ranchers. This understanding combined with his understanding of dogs,
horses, and livestock make him the perfect choice for all your herding
needs.
|
Hisaw Australian Shepherds Hall of Fame Kennel #38