video of Larry and his ACD, Sid, on Animal Planet. I decided to see if slots were still available for the clinic.
They were.
I headed off to Missouri with Preacher and two other dogs for our first herding clinic. We worked sheep and
goats, and had a great time despite my being a rank novice. I remember one of the club members comment-
ing that Preacher had a lot of eye. We would not have another opportunity to work stock until October 2004.
In October, I took Preacher to cow camp at Larry and Marilyn Painter’s farm in Missouri for five days of herd-
ing. We slogged around in the mud most of the week. The sun finally reappeared on Friday. We worked sheep
and cattle and met several herding enthusiasts. Preacher was obviously in his element. I even started to see
some of the purpose of the exercises.
From January 2005 until the ACDCA National Specialty in September Preacher and I drove two-hundred miles
round trip nearly every Sunday to work sheep. Our goal was to enter the Pre-Trial test class at the National
Specialty.
I entered Preacher in
an ASCA trial to gain
some experience in
an actual competi-
tion. I had planned to
enter him on sheep
and cattle. The trial
host talked me into
entering on ducks.
Preacher had never
worked ducks, or
even seen one as far
as I knew. The host
told me “It’s only
$15 more to enter all
three stock.” ASCA
trials often have two
trials in a single day
and this was one of
them. Preacher had
qualifying runs on
ducks, sheep, and
cattle in the morning trial. He placed fourth on ducks, and third on cattle. Judge, Steve Shope, commented
“Nice dog! Lots of instinct.” The afternoon trial didn’t go so well on ducks and I called Preacher’s run. Sheep
went a little better but was still a non-qualifying score. The afternoon cattle run produced another qualifying
score. Preacher had earned his Started Trial Dog title on cattle in his first trial.
The ACDCA National Specialty opened October 6, 2005. I had Preacher and my new blue dog just down the
road in Thompson Station, TN at a Cappy Pruett clinic. This was the last chance I had to train before the herd-
ing trials at the Specialty. Preacher was pushy, and stubbornly resisted getting wide around the sheep. It
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