Charlotte has passed her Herding Instinct Certification and now will now be known as Can Ch. Tienlung A Change In The Wind, HIC!!

Although she was a bit nervous of the "smelly fluffy things", after a few minutes of encouragement from Shelley Fritzke, the tester, and myself, Charlotte caught on to what she was supposed to do. She did a great job circling the sheep and keeping them together, and according to Shelley, shows great potential as a herding dog. Our hope is to work some more stock with her and hopefully get her CKC herding trial.

The experience of watching both Charlotte and Porsche have their "light bulb moment" with the stock was, with all honesty, probably the most profound experience in my dog owning life. To be able to watch an animal with no previous stock experience (neither Charlotte or Porsche had ever SEEN a sheep before, let alone got up close and personal!), have their instinct take over was amazing. My deepest thanks to Shelley Fritzke for making the evaluation such a positive one for myself and my dogs and thanks also to Louise Watson for organizing the HIC test. Louise is the owner of "George" (JEMS Culture Club HT RN CGN Am. RA) the first boxer in history to achieve a CKC herding title...if I have my way, he won't be the last!!

Well, there was just always, "something about Charlotte", as my friend Kat would say. And boy is there ever!! Charlotte showed a great deal of potential as a young puppy, and I had a feeling that if I held on to her she's turn into something special....and so she has. Charlotte is one of the puppies from our very successful AI breeding between Storm and our Tula. With very limited showing, she quickly finished her Canadian Championship owner-handled by myself. I'm very pleased with my "Char" and am as proud as punch of her mom, Tula, who has produced one Canadian Champion and one American Champion in her first litter so far, with more currently showing.