Herding News!! Greenstone Thunder HCT, HJD

Hello Folks

Well Breed History has been made again by Greenstone Thunder in AHBA!! Go Icelandics!

Greenstone Thunder HCT, JHD, went to a AHBA Trial this past weekend and he now has his first leg of HTD 1.. Way to go Deb and Thunder!!

Only one more leg to go and he will have his HTD 1.. very cool..

I wish I could say that there is photos but Doug was not able to make the trail and so no photos from the event.. they will see if they can get photos and video from the next one..

Happy Holidays.. Doug is getting his own Greenstone Herding Icelandic, Greenstone Cleo is joining the family! and I am looking forward to posting her own wins in the future! but most of all I am just happy that both Thunder and Cleo are happy and well-loved members of their Family.

I am also Honored as a breeder, because this is the third family that has come back in two or three years for a second Icelandic Sheepdog from my home to theirs! That means so MUCH to me, I can't tell you how proud and happy I am that my puppy owners like my dogs and me enough to come back for a second when the time is right.

I know that Jill at Pineridge had the honor this year of someone coming back for two wonderful ISD puppies, after their first Pineridge Icelandic Sadly passed away in her old age.. and of course they wanted another Icelandic.. While I do hope for my babies sakes, that its a long time coming! that I will have that honor someday in the future as well..

"Herding Trial Dog classes, with levels HTD I, II and III, take place on a standard course. All levels include an outrun, lift, fetch, wear and/or drive, and pen (the pen may be on the fence for the started level, but is free-standing for the higher levels). At the started level, the outrun is short and the handler may accompany the dog and sheep throughout the course. At the intermediate level, the outrun is longer and the handler may accompany the dog only partway through the course. At the advanced level, the outrun is longer, the handler remains at the handler's post until time to pen, and after the pen there is an additional exercise (removing a ribbon from a marked sheep). HTD trials are designed to be held in large fields, but may be held in arenas with special permission. "

Greenstone Thunder-New AHBA Herding Title -JHD

Hello Folks

A Huge Congrats to Doug/Deb and Gwen, co-owners of Greenstone Thunder, Deb and Thunder passed their JHD (AHBA) legs one and two this past weekend, earning Thunder's second herding title to date, and he will be starting to to work on his HT titles later in June.

I could not be more proud of Thunder or more grateful to his owners and loving family for all the hard work and effort they have put into their lovely boy! Thanks guys, you are the best!

I have been promised new photos and I will post some to this update as soon as they arrive.. ok so the photos have arrived and wow, has Thunder learned control, no wonder he did it perfect..

So for those that have not been to a herding event, I have tried to show a few things in the photos I selected, so first is Deb and Thunder waiting to be called in..

So Thunder is put on stay, while Deb lets out the sheep, she then needs to have Thunder gather the sheep and bring them to her and then walk them though a gate, and around two different cones and then take them back across the area and pen them, with Thunders help, his job is to listen to Deb and to help control the flock, so in the one photo you see him running, that is at the beginning when he gathers the sheep and brings them to deb, the rest of the time, you see him behind Deb and the Sheep, either following the rear to push them forward on command or in a down stay, while Deb leads the way.

Here is the part from Dougs letter Qoute "JHD is moving sheep through a center gate and then to one of the far corners, to the other far corner and then back to the pen. Thunder sits while Deb pens the sheep and then comes when called. The sheep more or less stay with Deb and follow her around but Thunder provides "pressure" to keep them going. He's judged on his
awareness of and focus on the sheep. He was pretty much flawless and the judges
commented on his performance much the same way they commented on the border collies. The first judge (Leg I) said he's a good reason for her to shift from border collies to ISDs."

Barks

Icelandics Sheepdogs and when Come means! COME

Hello folks

We are trying to still unpack boxes from our move and get settled in, as some of you know, it took a year to get our house from Iqaluit, Nunavut after we moved down, and by that time, in truth we were used to living with the min look..

Anyway, Last night we found a box of photos, and among the treasures where these two photos, I had this up on the old website, and just had to share them all with you, I figure there are lots of new folks that have never seen them.

So this is the story, we always took the dogs out for their runs on the tundra behind our house, we were right at the edge of town, and so you just crossed the road and you had a couple thousand km of open goverment owned land to camp on, hike on, and at the local sandpit, do Agility at (it was the only place that we could find that was safe for the dogs to jump and land on), so in the tundra, its all valley's and hills, and one of the games that J and I have always planned is fine mom or dad, and or to call the dogs back and forth with their names and come.. its great for teaching a good recall right from puppyhood.

Ok, so we are out hiking, with Lily of the Tundra (our lovely purebred yellow lab), Bella (our Yellowknife all canadian northern Rescue pound puppy) Pineridge Vaskur (Black Tri) and Tofra Tobba (who I had flown to Norway to get the year before), and I am on one side of the valley, hiking the top and Jason had been hiking the bottom, and then came up the trail on the side of the valley, and he realized that he had lily with him but not the other three, so called their names and come.. I was taking pictures of the local area, and just happened to have the camera in my hand, and was able to snap these two photos,

The first one is Vaskur, leaping straight up the side of the valley to go to Jason, and of course this did not work so well, as it was a fairly stiff large cliff, and so, he comes down at a run, does a big circle, and head straight back up, I was so surprised but was able to get one more photo of him 3/4 of the way to the top, and yes, he pulled and scrabbled himself all the way to the top for his pat and cookie from Dad. Bella and Oppa, went to the trail and followed it up to the top..

I am going to put these up at the largest photos setting so that hopefully you can see him in some detail. I have always thought, that surely he used his double dewclaws that day, and showed just how agile the Icelandic would be in Iceland, as the landscape is very much the same between Iceland and Nunvut, Canada.

Barks

Thunder got his HCT Leg 2.

Thunder got his 2nd leg of the AHBA HCT

Hi Folks, Congrats to Doug, Deb, and Gwynn who are Thunders family. I am so proud of Thunder as his breeder mom! and his furry parent are very proud as well!! Dalla and Vaskur send wags and playbows to their handsome son.

This is Thunder as a baby puppy, can you believe that this cutie grew up to be a big handsome working herding dog! Thunders Brother Ullo lives on a Farm by Edmonton Alberta, and his family has horses, so working well with animals does come well with this breed and line.

As soon as I have a working link for Thunders youtube video, I will post it on this write up and I have been told that there are a few still photos of thunder herding so will add them as soon as I get them.

As far as I know, Thunder is the first Icelandic Sheepdog to earn a AHBA title, very cool indeed. Folda was the first CKC HI Icelandic Sheepdog in Canada.

In keeping with sheep, we had our first set of twin lambs born yesterday morning, a lovely set of babies girls out of butterscotch, and Chocolate is due anytime now, Ripple Chips and Stomp still look to have a bit to go yet.. I will get new photos of the wee ones.

Have a great day,

Barks