mike goracke

Entries are now open for the 5th annual Spring Fling sheepdog trial in Brashear Texas March 5th thru the 7th. We will be running 3 opens, 2 nurserys, 2 open ranchs, 2 ranchs and 2 novices. USBCHA, TSDA and ASDA santioned. For entries and info go to texassheepdogassoc.org or call Steph Goracke @ 972-658-5187.

And how exactly is AKC going to know if someone is a USBCHA judge, since there really is no such thing. We hire judges to judge our USBCHA trials, but they go thru no real sanctioning process for 90% of the trials and are nominated/voted in by their peers for the other 10%. I've sure never seen a USBCHA judges card. Not that I think that would be a bad idea...

I know when I first joined the PRCA (pro. rodeo cowboys assoc.) I had to fill a permit first. That meant I had to win $2500 to be able to gain full membership and enter better rodeo's. The way the PRCA takes entries at the bigger rodeo's is somthing like this. 1. world champions 2. NFR qualifiers 3.top 50 in standings 4.circut money (region money won) 5.permits (if any) They take a certin percent of all of the above with the top contestants assured entry in the rodeo.This seems pretty fair,you get your top contestants plus a few of the lower ranked cowboys. With the sheep dog world in need of a bigger fan base to grow the sport, we need our top handlers running, not getting maxed out of a entry at a top trial.I see nothing wrong with letting a few (not trying to offend) of the lower end of the open handlers have a small percent of the entries.But to grow our sport I think we need all the top handlers at the top trials.It should be a earned entry,not a lotto entry. (just a very novice opinion)

Jimmy Walker lives in Hillsboro,Tx. You can go to Texassheepdog.org for his web site adress. If Jimmy dont have time to train any outside dog's Iam sure he can point you in the right direction. We have a place in Sulpher Springs(east texas) if your just looking to get your dog on stock let us know. You can also contact the Texas association(above web site)and talk to Francis Raley about someone in your area.

At our house we strictly go by working ability... We have (Pulfer's) Tweed (one of the top open dogs in his day) who appears to be blue because he is white factor with heavy, heavy ticking. Then there is his half brother Gringo, who has a coat similar to a dalmantion or springer spaniel, mostly white with ticking that looks like spots. We have several tri colors, a red tri color, and just recently parted with a slate blue (black dilute) to a friend. Oh yea, we do have 2 plain old black and whites...All of these dogs come from working lines. And did I mention these also cover the gamet from rough coated to slick coated as well... We obviously do not care what color they are, just how the perform while on stock. We do breed occasionally, most pups go to top USBCHA handlers, we try really hard to put them in working homes. The ones that we are breeding will have been proven trial winners, had their eyes and hips checked, etc.

Eileen, Your last post said all that needed saying...You're my HERO!

Better late than never.I have read many post by both Eileen and PennyT and have found them nothing but well thought out and done with taste.I wish I could say the same of my post's.As far as breeding for color, I would like to read your opinion on this topic Cathy.Instead your jumping on PennyT for crossposting,Eileen for making a polite comment, and me for being rude.Yes, PennyT was crossposting,Eileen was making polite comment's and yes I was rude.

Hey Eileen,did you catch my post wondering what percent of the ABCA member's also belong to the HA? Thanks

Iam not trying to come off as the bad guy here..but....I'll call black black and white white. I went too the web site and looked at her dog's, and if chasing A group of sheep around a pen with their tail in the air is a well planned out breeding I would hate to see the cull's.I don't care what color a dog is,but I do care about people breeding for color and then try to pass it off as breeding for working line's!

I agree 100% with you Dixie Girl. Having been in the horse biz all my life I know that color has alway's sold. I try to buy horses out of own son's or daughter's that have earned money (cutters and reiners)and if they have some color that's a bonus. I need the same thing in a horse as I do a dog. Decent conformation, biddible and ton's of god givin talent. So to me if your not breeding stock with all three of these trait's why are (or should)you be breeding at all!The horse market is at it's lowest point in twenty year's,(the good one's are alway's high)the bc rescue's are alway's full of dog's and then you have people talking about breeding for a certin color! WOW

Just wanted to let Y'all know that we are having a series of three trial's in March. Emil Luedeke's trial wil be March10-12, Ron burky's will be March 17-19 and Mike and Steph Goracke's trial will be the weekend before the USBCHA cattle dog final's March 24-26. Award's to the high point dog's in all classes for the series. For more info you can go to www.texassheepdogassoc.org ,All trials will be TSDA and USBCHA.

Hey Pearse, The class that this person filled was a ranch class.They had four handler's enter two or three dog's each. This is a small monthly trial with ten dollar entry fee's and enter as many dog's as you want.(mostly AKC people)As far as going to the post already marked RT and running your dog, your guess is as good as mine.Our state BOD's really dropped the ball on this one.Heck two of the parties involved were just elected to the board!

Been waiting for this one. Two month's ago I attended a monthly trial that our association count's for year end points. One of our handler's was two or three point's behind the point leader. Long story short this person filled the class with eleven dog's.(three dog's per point)The total class ended up with 14 dog's.Out of 14, 11 went to the post marked RT and then just ran the course.A complaint was made to one of our board member's the same day.Needless to say by the time our year end final's (one month later)arrived nothing had been done.You guessed it the cheating party ended up winning the year end award. We only count your best eight trial's for point's and this person went to every trial we had this year and still had to resort to cheating to win.What's this say for our sport at the state level? Why should the person that worked at it all year be the one who loses in the end(no Iwas not the leader in point's)So don't act like every thing's ok and insult all of us who can see right through it. Maybe you should work your dog's a little more and you would not have to cheat to win a prize you don't deserve.I just hope that this behavior will not be tolerated at any level of trialing. Let's keep real guy's