Where there's wool, these dogs have a way - sheep dog trials in Meeker, Colorado - Brief Article

Sunset, Sept, 2000 by Hal Clifford

Cunning collies show who's boss at the sheepdog trials in Meeker, Colorado

"This is the World Series of sheepdog trials," intones a lanky cowboy holding a microphone up to his red mustache. "The wool versus the will."

The sounds of a bagpipe drift over sere grass. Several thousand people are gathered around a paddock on a September day in northern Colorado. Rough, scraggly hills roll away from the hay fields of the White River Valley and the tiny, one-stoplight town of Meeker. A small black-and-white dog--a border collie, as are all the dogs who compete here--appears in the paddock, bounding excitedly around the feet of its handler. The finals of the Meeker Classic Sheepdog Championship Trials are about to begin.

"I've been coming up here for four years," the man next to me says. "This and the NCAA basketball finals are must-sees."

Sheepdog trials originated in Great Britain (the first was held in Bala, North Wales, in 1873) with a simple idea: Test a dog and its handler under real-world conditions on the skills necessary to manage a flock of sheep.

It's no easy task. Moving sheep is like pushing mercury around with the point of a pin. In trials, the dog is the pin. The handler communicates with the dog via individualized whistle and voice commands. (For instance, one long blast might stop a dog; two short tweets walk the dog toward the livestock.) The finals involve asking a dog to retrieve two distant flocks of sheep, herd them through three gates (gaps between two fence panels), help the handler cut several marked animals out of the flock, and then get them all into a pen.

Sheep, of course, want nothing to do with this. The sheep at Meeker are almost feral, having spent 18 months on the range--one reason Meeker's is considered the most challenging trial on the continent. Judges subtract points for mistakes--the sheep moving unevenly, animals running around the ends of the fences instead of through the gates. So much can go wrong, it's amazing that anything goes right.

"If you win at Meeker, you've really won," says Alasdair MacRae, a Scottish dog trainer who moved to Virginia five years ago. He won Britain's national championship in 1993 and Meeker in 1997 and 1998.

Meeker's trials date back to the mid-1980s, when former Meeker Mayor Gus Halandras, himself a sheep rancher, and city council members decided the event might attract tourists. Today it offers a $12,000 prize purse and draws hundreds of handlers and dogs from around North America--yet it's run entirely on volunteer labor.

After five days of trials, the original 136 contestants have been pared to 10. Some finalists don't finish the course in their allotted 30 minutes. But Angie Pickle, a 29-year-old, soft spoken rancher from Oklahoma, seems to work magic. She has managed to get two dogs, Gunner and Sweep, into the finals. Pickle and Gunner tie defending champion MacRae and his dog Cap with 127 points. Pickle steps into the paddock again with Sweep, who cuts through the grass like water. Pickle never raises her voice, yet the sheep go where she wants.

"She's a sheep whisperer," my neighbor murmurs.

With time to spare, Pickle bang the pen's gate shut on the flock and the crowd roars. Angie Pickle and Sweep have scored 128 points am won first prize. The sheep, no longer disturbed, graze the last of the summer's grass.

Meeker travel planner

Meeker is in northwestern Colorado, about 100 miles northeast of Grand Junction and about 40 miles north of Rifle.

EVENT. The 14th annual Meeker Classic Sheepdog Championship Trials runs September 6-10. $15 for a five-day pass. (970) 878-5483.

LODGING. The Meeker Hotel & Cafe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. From $65. 560 Main St.; (800) 847-6470.