BESS - Bess Rudolfsfarm Von Halden
KC reg. no. V0095930VO4
Sheep Dog Trials -
Swiss Agility Champion -
Agility Dog of the Year (two years running) Switzerland
Qualified for European Agility Championships 1994 -
1st excellent Working Class, World Show Berne 1994
The mother of Bess, Pershore Belle, was bought in England at an auction and taken to Switzerland by Rudolf Schnegg who had purchased her to work his sheep. I needed another dog to work my sheep so I was pleased when he told me that Belle had been mated and would be having her puppies at the beginning of December.
Bess was extremely shy and wouldn't approach anyone but I took her home with me anyway at the age of 12 weeks which was the youngest you were allowed to home your puppies at that time.
I started training her to sheep when Thomas Longton came to Switzerland to do a couple of training days. I only went to watch as Bess was only 5 months old and the sheep were a bit feisty. When Thomas saw how she was watching the sheep and pulling on the lead to get to them he told me to let her go. She bolted away from me and into the sheep scattering them all over the place. Thomas told me to wait and watch. I did, She calmed down in a couple of minutes and managed to gather and hold them against the fence.
Working Collies at home with your own sheep is one thing, trialing with them is another! At home if a ewe got naughty, my dogs were permitted to nip their noses or heels to show the sheep they meant business.
Sheep Dog Trials -
Swiss Agility Champion -
Agility Dog of the Year (two years running) Switzerland
Qualified for European Agility Championships 1994 -
1st excellent Working Class, World Show Berne 1994
The mother of Bess, Pershore Belle, was bought in England at an auction and taken to Switzerland by Rudolf Schnegg who had purchased her to work his sheep. I needed another dog to work my sheep so I was pleased when he told me that Belle had been mated and would be having her puppies at the beginning of December.
Bess was extremely shy and wouldn't approach anyone but I took her home with me anyway at the age of 12 weeks which was the youngest you were allowed to home your puppies at that time.
I started training her to sheep when Thomas Longton came to Switzerland to do a couple of training days. I only went to watch as Bess was only 5 months old and the sheep were a bit feisty. When Thomas saw how she was watching the sheep and pulling on the lead to get to them he told me to let her go. She bolted away from me and into the sheep scattering them all over the place. Thomas told me to wait and watch. I did, She calmed down in a couple of minutes and managed to gather and hold them against the fence.
Working Collies at home with your own sheep is one thing, trialing with them is another! At home if a ewe got naughty, my dogs were permitted to nip their noses or heels to show the sheep they meant business.
In trialing this isn't allowed. When I took Bess to do her Test de Travail (Working Test) it was a very stormy day and she has always been absolutely terrified of thunder and lightning. And to add a few more problems, almost the whole field of sheep got out and they were scared of the storm too. I walked to the starting point very unhappy. I was convinced that there was no way she was going to work, so why bother being nervous, no point in even being there.
Bess took off like a bat out of hell and did an excellent outrun going out good and wide. She dropped into a 'down' behind the sheep for only a second before lifting them, a bit too enthusiastically, fetching them carefully to me where I stood with my mouth agape. She hadn't even noticed there was thunder crashing, lightning flashing in the skies and the rain bucketing down. She then had to stabilise them in a group in front of me. One of them turned its' head to look for a quick way back to the field they had just fled from but Bess kept them in tight.
She then drove them around the back of me then forward. We had to stop the sheep at a 'protected passage', equivalent of a road they mustn't cross and this she did perfectly. I had to shed (take out of the flock) a sheep that had a red collar on and she was very quick to come through to separate. We did it first time.
I was getting confident as she started to drive them to the sorting pen when there was an enormous clap of thunder scattering some of the sheep, (frightened the living daylights out of me too) so I knew we had lost lots of points there. I then had to accompany Bess and the sheep to the finishing pen. A couple of the sheep ran around the pen while the others went in which meant Bess had to go get them to put them in with the others. I finally closed the gate of the pen, all the sheep safely inside.
I was certain we had failed. Bess and I ran back to the barn where the judges were writing their notes. They said they thought I might have cancelled my run with Bess as the weather conditions were so bad and there were more sheep than there should have been. But.....Bess had passed her Test de Travail. It is stamped officially on the back of her pedigree by the SSDS (Swiss Sheep Dog Society) I had never done a Test de Travail before, in fact they hadn't existed for very long when Bess did hers. She has some excellent ancestors. Wiston Cap, Fly 103521, Fly 116370, (mother of Belle), Ken 047143 and several other prominent sheep dogs.
Bess took off like a bat out of hell and did an excellent outrun going out good and wide. She dropped into a 'down' behind the sheep for only a second before lifting them, a bit too enthusiastically, fetching them carefully to me where I stood with my mouth agape. She hadn't even noticed there was thunder crashing, lightning flashing in the skies and the rain bucketing down. She then had to stabilise them in a group in front of me. One of them turned its' head to look for a quick way back to the field they had just fled from but Bess kept them in tight.
She then drove them around the back of me then forward. We had to stop the sheep at a 'protected passage', equivalent of a road they mustn't cross and this she did perfectly. I had to shed (take out of the flock) a sheep that had a red collar on and she was very quick to come through to separate. We did it first time.
I was getting confident as she started to drive them to the sorting pen when there was an enormous clap of thunder scattering some of the sheep, (frightened the living daylights out of me too) so I knew we had lost lots of points there. I then had to accompany Bess and the sheep to the finishing pen. A couple of the sheep ran around the pen while the others went in which meant Bess had to go get them to put them in with the others. I finally closed the gate of the pen, all the sheep safely inside.
I was certain we had failed. Bess and I ran back to the barn where the judges were writing their notes. They said they thought I might have cancelled my run with Bess as the weather conditions were so bad and there were more sheep than there should have been. But.....Bess had passed her Test de Travail. It is stamped officially on the back of her pedigree by the SSDS (Swiss Sheep Dog Society) I had never done a Test de Travail before, in fact they hadn't existed for very long when Bess did hers. She has some excellent ancestors. Wiston Cap, Fly 103521, Fly 116370, (mother of Belle), Ken 047143 and several other prominent sheep dogs.
Agility ...............
Not satisfied by only doing sheep work, we decided to try Agility. I was at the time, the only person in the Royal Agility Club in Lausanne, Switzerland who had a Border Collie. And there weren't a lot of them about at that time. Since then of course there are lots of Border Collies over there and they are even getting lots of them in rescue centres, alas.
We competed all over Europe. Bess became an Agility Champion and Agility Dog of the Year (2 years running!!) (with a little bit of help from me of course), and she qualified us for the European Flyball Championships in Holland in 1994.
And I showed her! A smooth coated tricolour Border Collie. (shock, horror, swoon) and she was placed at many shows. I showed her at the World Show where she got a 1st Excellent in the Working class under a British judge and obtained an excellent critique.
Her movement was perfect until the day she left for Rainbow Bridge. Hips 0-0, eyes normal CEA/PRA/PLL, BAER hearing tested normal and a temperament to die for. She has had 3 litters, I kept two of her daughters, Kiss and Maid and I have her great grandaughter Kate.
We competed all over Europe. Bess became an Agility Champion and Agility Dog of the Year (2 years running!!) (with a little bit of help from me of course), and she qualified us for the European Flyball Championships in Holland in 1994.
And I showed her! A smooth coated tricolour Border Collie. (shock, horror, swoon) and she was placed at many shows. I showed her at the World Show where she got a 1st Excellent in the Working class under a British judge and obtained an excellent critique.
Her movement was perfect until the day she left for Rainbow Bridge. Hips 0-0, eyes normal CEA/PRA/PLL, BAER hearing tested normal and a temperament to die for. She has had 3 litters, I kept two of her daughters, Kiss and Maid and I have her great grandaughter Kate.
Tribute To A Best Friend
Sunlight streams through window pane
unto a spot on the floor....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie,
but now you are no more.
Our feet walk down a hall of carpet,
and muted echoes sound....
then I remember,
It's where your paws would joyously abound.
A voice is heard along the road,
and up beyond the hill,
then I remember it can't be yours....
your golden voice is still.
But I'll take that vacant spot of floor
and empty muted hall
and lay them with the absent voice
and unused dish along the wall.
I'll wrap these treasured memorials
in a blanket of my love
and keep them for my best friend
until we meet above.
Sunlight streams through window pane
unto a spot on the floor....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie,
but now you are no more.
Our feet walk down a hall of carpet,
and muted echoes sound....
then I remember,
It's where your paws would joyously abound.
A voice is heard along the road,
and up beyond the hill,
then I remember it can't be yours....
your golden voice is still.
But I'll take that vacant spot of floor
and empty muted hall
and lay them with the absent voice
and unused dish along the wall.
I'll wrap these treasured memorials
in a blanket of my love
and keep them for my best friend
until we meet above.