PRESS RELEASE – MAY & JUNE 2010

Dog Days of Summer!

For four days in August, Woodville, Ontario will be going to the dogs!! And rather than being alarmed, the town is looking forward to welcoming over a hundred Border Collies and their owners.

In fact, they are anticipating the Canadian Border Collie Association’s 10th Annual Canadian National Sheepdog Championship at Shepherd’s Crook Farm on Lorneville Road just outside of town from August 26 to 29th, 2010.

If you have never seen a sheepdog trial, it is a sight to behold.  All the dogs and their handlers will be put through their paces as they compete Thursday, Friday and Saturday to qualify for the ultimate test of human/animal team work in the final rounds on Sunday.

The team’s task is to negotiate a small flock of sheep through and around a pre-determined set of gates, then separate selected sheep from the group and place them in a holding pen.  Did we mention the sheep are often unruly participants in this?  Or that the dog and sheep are often a great distance away from the handler?  Or that the dogs have only whistles to direct them?

Millions of viewers have been enthralled by these trials on television around the world. Shepherd’s Crook Farm will offer visitors an opportunity to see with their own eyes this magical teamwork as they welcome North America’s top sheepdog handlers to a premiere dog event.  The standard will be kept high with Jim Diamond and Vergil Holland judging the competition.  Hailing from Ireland, Mr. Diamond farms both sheep and cattle in County Derry. He has been involved in sheepdog trials for over 30 years and is a consistent member of the Irish Team.  He has judged the Irish National, the Supreme International, as well as regular trials in Ireland, Holland and Switzerland, but this is his first visit to North America. Vergil Holland farms and runs a training centre in Kentucky.  He is a 35 year veteran of herding trials and author of one of herding’s bibles – “Herding Dogs – Progressive Training”.

This is an event for the whole family.  From Thursday August 26 to Sunday August 29 daily from 9 am to 5 pm, Shepherd’s Crook Farm will be filled with a variety of demonstrations from sheep shearing to spinning to dog training,  a selection of crafts and artisans, unique food concessions and, of course, the sheepdog trial.

Timeline:

March 2010: Trial recieves sponsorship grant from Ontario Border Collie Club
March 2010: Trial recieves sponsorship grant from Celebrate Ontario
May 2010: Trial recieves sponsorship  and media assistance from City of Kawartha Lakes
June 1010: Press Release being sent out to various Publications in the area