I were introduced to herding in 2005. First we were on a one day tryout just to see if Murphy had interest in the sheep or try to waken the interest. I can say that we sure waken his interest.
Later that year we went to a four day course with Larry Painter1 from the states at Muaddibs place in Mullerup. That was four days with confusion, frustration irritation and a hole lot of other emotions. By the end of day four I was hooked, not because we were doing perfect but because I by then really wanted to learn it.
Then in 2006 I went to as many clinics I could with alot of different trainers and different methods. I learned much about herding in theory but didn't get very far practically. I had three clinics with Larry that year and that brought me back on the right track. I also tried working with cattle that year, I didn't get myself a cattledog without trying to work cattle. Working cattle is just the best for me, I can't describe how satisfying it is to see your dog do what it was bred to.
In 2007 I began training on some Limousine calves at Grantoftegaard. I still kept on training at other places fx. Mullerup. Again there was a Larry clinic. After that I was asked by Grantoftegaard if I could help them capture some mother cows with calves, I did that with help from a guy with an Australian Shepherd. Murphy and me really learned alot by doing that, it's really hard to convince mother cows to move from a dog when they are not used to be worked by dogs.
In the fall of 2007 I went to Missouri to visit Larry and to try competing at the National Specialty for ACD's. This was an amazing trip, unfortunately I didn't get to compete at the Specialty Murphy lost his nail and was limbing at that time.But a week later I competed at another place and Murphy and me got our fisrt herding title HTAD 1-s.
1: Larry Painter is a wery well known Cattledog owner and trainer of herdingdogs in the states.