In March 1998, I attended the Australian Shepherd Futurity/Maturity and ASCA sanctioned trial that was held in Baton Rouge with the intent of learning about trailing Aussies and to possibly purchase a started Aussie that weekend.  At the trial, I met a lot of nice Aussie people who were more than willing to answer any questions I might have.  I consider the people I met there among my favorite friends to this day.  At the trial, I finally got to meet Terry and Steve.  For 20 years, I had heard about the Slash V line, and had always wanted to get a pup from Terry and Steve.  It just so happened that they had a litter of pups at the Trial, but all the pups were spoken for.  As Terry and Steve were presently living in Louisiana, I was able to stay in contact with Terry in regards to any pups they might have, and to say I “pestered” Terry about it is probably an understatement. 

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In the meantime, I had seen an advertisement about the WildRose Futurity in Edmonton, Alberta that was being held in November 1999.  I decided to try and attend the futurity, but knew that if I was able to acquire a pup to enter in the futurity, I doubted whether I would be able to train and handle the Aussie in the futurity since at the time I didn’t have access to stock to be able to train a pup.  The next time I talked with Terry about a pup, she mentioned she had a couple of young dogs available for the futurity if I was interested.  Of course I jumped at the chance.  Needless to say, the day I picked “Sly” up from Terry was the beginning of an “adventure” for Sly and myself.

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I contacted Bruce Nelson in Nebraska whom I had met at the Baton Rouge Futurity about possibly training and handling Sly for me at the WildRose Futurity.  At the time I contacted him, I found out that he was going to get the other young dog from Terry and enter it in the WildRose Futurity as well.  Sly placed 5th at the WildRose Futurity. 

 Being a novice handler, to say that “Sly” was a lot of dog for me was an understatement.  He likes to work fast and if he’s challenged by stock, watch out!  He will very seldom hit a heel, but hits a head hard.  It has been a slow learning process for the both of us and will continue to be.

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The first weekend after the Futurity, Sly was awarded “Most Promising Started” dog at the Southeast Australian Shepherd Club trial in Dothan, AL and two (2) weeks later, he also received the “Most Promising Started” award at a Lone Star Trial in Sanger, TX and the rest is now in the books.  It’s taken us a while to finally complete the WTCH as I was trying to learn how to handle Aussies and Sly was trying to learn how to stay in control. Sly has become a great companion for me.  When not on stock, all he wants to do is please and is a joy to be around. 

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To date, Sly has produced 21 pups with W Lazy J Katie Elder ATDc  STDsd (WTCH Crown Point Red Baron X East Fork Miss Blue Freckles STD csd).  Because I presently reside in Louisiana most pups went to non-trialing homes, but of the pups that have gone to trailing homes, they show promise for having great herding instincts.