Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[scottcaddy]

Lacy

 

[drumstick diva]

How many points did Lacy win last year? She looks so good in that photo. It's hard to believe the wild girl could stand still like that. Do they still wrestle all day long?

 

[CanuckBock]

Lacy

Sums it up quite right Scott!

Red girl Lacy & mah boy were on fire this weekend...

Gonna be hard living with a pretty red princess puppers...hmmm...??

How many points did Lacy win last year? She looks so good in that photo. It's hard to believe the wild girl could stand still like that. Do they still wrestle all day long?

I had Rick drive me early (did I mention EARLY) one Saturday morn so I could go to the November show in 2015 to see what ACDs were there and after so many years being absent, to refresh my old mind on how one goes about running silly round the ring.

ACD Coats of many colours!​

Same dogs but one male were there last November as there were entered this November. The lady with the now Specials male that is ranked 3rd in Canada...she lambs in the spring so was not at April 2016's show.

So to answer your question...Lacy & Emmy never attended any shows in 2015.

The first show we took the girls to was April 2016 where as a Senior Puppy Emmy took Best of Breed for two points (one major) on the Friday and Lacy took Best Opposite for two points (one major) on Saturday. I personally have REAL issues showing dogs too young--sure a pup's cute at a dog show...ahh, eh BUT at what disease harm risk to the puppy? Kill it or maim it for life...nope, senior puppy is about all I can stomach in regards to risks. I would never forgive myself for swaying on this concept. Too many things to harm a puppy.

This weekend Lacy added FIVE more points to her two points from April for a total of SEVEN points of the ten she requires for a CKC conformation title (needs only one major and she now has three majors--so she's doing good).


I like showing but I also LOVE when we don't have to act all proper and worry the girls wrestling where Emmy grinds Lacy into the dirt matters. Sure, I don't want either dog getting beat up...but running off the energy just means they are GOOD CATTLE DOGS...good dog is a tired out dog and sometimes a bit of dirt has to happen in making that happen.

January 16, 2016 - How do you like Emmy's hat...warm, furred, maybe a little heavy?​

Well our "wild girl" is a complete and utter (udder -> cow -> dawg?) amazing transformer! For that set of show clicks by the professional show photographer...the Kentucky judge kindly arrived, my son gives him the three ribbons to hold, and before the photographer even has a chance to finish saying something to the lines of, "Do you want to free stack her or...." Shazam...our wild child is perfectly posing like she's never done anything but that for the 18 months she's been on this Earth. Blows my mind...she free stacked like we had bobbed and weaved, lifted and coddled, manipulated and stretched, bent outta shape...her body. Nope, walks up and perfectly poses...now I mighta put one foot a bit more in line in the front but hey, when you get a side profile too sidey...you wonder if the dog has just two legs or four when the sides cover each over. LOL

Nope DD...when I say the Lace was on FIRE...I mean that heart, soul and body. She was on her game and made us ever so proud. Bully girl!

But that said, when it came time to do the CERF eye exam...I thought Emmy would be a handful, nope...Lacy was a handful and more. Funny thinking YOU know your dog. Which one will fuss and which will comply. Oh well, got her done and good enough.


So here's those photos along side some drawings of the ACD--sure an artist's rendition just like in poultry...images are not the Standard...the Standard is made up of words, not images, eh. I like to look at interpretive drawings of the ideal animal in a breed and then look at my own creatures to compare areas where they differ and are the same.

I have Emmy hoisted up and not settled into herself...by no means am I a pro at stacking the dogs for photos. Next time (if I do a show photo) I will take the invitation to place her on a bench and move her UP towards me so I can get her to settle more into herself.

Always working at the perfect moment in time but love to see them free stack and click...just an everyday thing. These show photos are not my forte and may never get them right...no matter.

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The ideal ACD? In theory this drawing is one person's attempt at capturing the perfect ACD, eh.

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Kinda kewl the girls' show photos both face the same way as the drawings do.

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You can scroll back and forth or make the two photos fit in one screen, do a visual comparison. No perfect dogs, but that only means some parts fit, some don't and always room for better. Fun stuff.

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One thing I do know about showing dogs...practise, practise and more of the same...

2000 - Makins on left took third in female open at the national specialty...largest entry in breed​

Put sixteen years on me and yeh...there's a few things different...like Sesame Street..."some of these things are not like the others" or is that more time passes and we forget the body has aged but the mind still wants to do what it did because we knew we could...chugga chugga choo choo...I think I can, I think I can...little engine that could, eh.

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Oh well...I am seven Cattle Dogs on in life and not ready to lay down & quit...so it goes...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Hey...got two show photos...

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This is the second one to the above one...which one you guys like better and why?

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The photographer threw some gangly toy up in the air and Lace turned her head fast and closed her mouth...her neck is way more messed up in this shot...but like to hear your guy's take on it.

I like the relaxed ACD toothy grin of the first shot...

Tara

 

[Teila]

Hey Tara

Definitely pic #1 for me.

I also like the open mouthed grin. Pic #2 looks too serious and yeah, her neck is messed up. #1 looks like a natural and relaxed pose; #2 looks staged.

 

[CanuckBock]

Hey Tara

Definitely pic #1 for me.

I also like the open mouthed grin. Pic #2 looks too serious and yeah, her neck is messed up. #1 looks like a natural and relaxed pose; #2 looks staged.

You read it right...the second one is staged...we can't SEE the toy the photographer threw high in the air but we can see Lacy's surprised! LOL I know she was thinking..."Do I need to kill whatever that was--just say the word and I am thar?"

Cattle Dog & SURPISE....not always a GOOD thing.

I chose to buy photo #2 because my boy is not looking off into the distance in this one...the photographer had POOFED him and the judge about three times with these massive flashes....so Boy was glazing over and Lacy, lucky HER, is facing off side away from the bright lights. She's definately relaxed and natural, kewl you picked that up.

Even my son's feet were staged in the second one...the photographer told him to move his feet...no duck stance...feets together, mind on the matter, no glazing off..."When is this gonna be over?" Love men...love how they manage to endure all this frivolity--last time at the show, there was NO way he was gonna get show pic done...but he's only a man and we women, Moms especially, eventually WEAR THEM DOWN! Hee hee...now Lacy has a show pic for whenever they get her page up on Canuck dogs...Emmest has one...now for Lace-a-Lot's!

I remember the first photographer that wanted to do a story on the ACDs...came here and tells me he wants ANIMATED action shots of the dogs...I raise an eye brow thinking slowly...OKKKKKKKKKKK????

So I start tossing the Jolly Ball around and zip zap, there's the animation. Poor interviewer...he tries several times and gets nothing but blurs and says, "Can you slow it down?"

October 23, 2000 - Stoggar, Makins and HyBlade​

Here's the shot that ended up with the article...animated...hardly! Stationary, yup. See how I have braced an elbow on my knee...that's three ACD's tugging with all their might, right?

Tara

 

[drumstick diva]

I love the first photo- Lacy is standing like Lacey, no collar hitched up right behind her ears. Even relaxed she has a beautiful stance. In the first photo I never noticed your son was in a duck stance. In the second one all the folds at the bottom of his trousers distract me.

 

[CanuckBock]

Quote:

I love the first photo- Lacy is standing like Lacey, no collar hitched up right behind her ears. Even relaxed she has a beautiful stance. In the first photo I never noticed your son was in a duck stance. In the second one all the folds at the bottom of his trousers distract me.

Yah another vote for the one I prefer!

My son has duck feet because he was raised with ACDs...if you tucked your feet like that UNDER an ACD...you tripped the dog, the dog tripped you...it just does not make sense to a dog person. Hee hee.

Funny that as I never really thought about not placing limbs under dogs...makes perfect sense to give them room to maneuver without collisions. Get in the way and prepare to be mowed on over plus I think it is disrespectful to invade their space that much--fur hugs, fine but just standing around, nope.

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I also think the first photo shows off a richer contrast of her red pigments...the second photo just seems lighter...love her contrast of red and light and think the first photo shows that off nicer.

Tara

 

[BantyChooks]

I also vote #1.

 

[CanuckBock]

How many points did Lacy win last year? She looks so good in that photo. It's hard to believe the wild girl could stand still like that. Do they still wrestle all day long?

This comment got my goat (going or ?)...and I went thru and harvested some of my most FAV wrestling photos...there are MANY...too many and many with a white season, moreso that the green season...perhaps the snows allow for more rambunctious behaviours...perhaps?

So here goes...validation for DD (and immense laugher appeal...) for her comment about them wrestling all day long...hee hee... photographic proof that DD is not OFF her ROCKER.

February 25, 2016 -
Such pretty, gentle and well mannered GIRLS
Their tails KILL me...

February 1, 2016 -
Heelers all heels over head!​

January 7, 2016 -
Rowf diamonds in the snow; Lacy's been dusted in glitter by Emmy!​

December 2, 2015 -
Not much could be goofier with those grins...

February 1, 2016
Some where's UNDER Emmy...is a snow bound Lacy...someplace?

February 20, 2016 - One of my FAV action shots

Only green shot that made the cut... May 10, 2016
Revenge of the Lacy and yet, Emmy is still sticking her tongue out at her--nay nay!

Even dressed up...do the ACDs behave like nice girls should, well do they?

Australia Day - January 26, 2016 ​

Same day, not behaving...Emmy dishing out a hiyah Miss Piggy Karate chop!

Christmas Day 2015 - Even then all decked out, would they behave...hardly!

But throughout all the shenanigans and roughhousing...the girls wrestling all day long as DD comments...

November 23, 2015
Them girls, OUR pair of puppers...they love each other....

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada