2003 USBCHA Open Champion
Alasdair MacRae & Bill

2003 USBCHA
 Reserve Open Champion
Julie Matthews and Moss

Plus Julie is Rookie of the Year for 2003

MOSS; AKA. Pigpen. Bred by Ellen Skillings, from her bitch Jen and dog Caleb, was bought as a pup. He was one of two pups I brought home with two weeks to decide which one I wanted. It was Moss that Ellen had chosen for me and it was his self contained reserve that was the deciding factor in keeping him. He was a wise dog right from the beginning and has an inordinate ability to take charge in a situation and just do what needs doing. As a pup he was an easy dog to train, he simply did his job and as a novice handler he was more that I could of hoped for. He has spent 11 years patiently working with and for me, he has been my teacher, my work partner, my dog trialing champion and a friend bar none. Moss is not a dog that enjoys the drill of training, he will work without pause but during training and sometimes on the trial field a certain stubbornness can be cause for problems. If there is a job, Moss is there, he has worked and will work for anyone invited or not. He's been sent down the road after run away cows with commands like "Get em", rescued sheep from ponds, cared for baby lambs, herded sheep in the dark of night and brought tears to more than a few spectators eyes with his grace on the trial field. He is a dog of great kindness, natural ability, stock sense and courage. He loves to work and has lived to do so, cows, sheep, pigs, goats. It is his ability to interpret a situation and matter of factly take care of the job at hand, that is his signature. He is a great dog and I have been blessed to share this life with such a man and will be forever grateful for the opportunities I have had due to his partnership with me.

Julie Matthews, born in New Zealand grew up firstly on a dairy and then later a sheep farm. On leaving school she worked for the New Zealand Livestock Improvement Association and on a 3500 head sheep and beef farm. As a child Julie wanted only to be a dog and spent her former years working along side her fathers' huntaway (hence, her bark is still worse than her bite). It was not an uncommon event to find her sleeping in the dog kennel at 5 am when the dog (Luke) was sent for the cows. At 22 she left NZ to travel and after 3 years of living mainly in Greece and the UK she made her way to the US where she firstly lived in Cheyenne and ran a painting company. Life away from living things was short lived and her next few years were spent in the organic produce industry, where she worked on a 1000 acre produce farm in Colorado and then in the organic produce wholesale industry in San Francisco. Events finally led to Seattle and it was the discovery of the San Juan Islands that had her back in the life of farming. After 11 years on Lopez she had built up a flock of 700 Coopworth ewes and found herself involved in the world of dogs with her purchase of Moss her first border collie from Ellen Skillings in 93. With her dogs and her love of wandering she has left the San Juans to work with her dogs and trial but it is farming and the love of green grass that will no doubt have her back somewhere with her feet on the ground and off the accelerator. For now she is based in Fort Collins, Colorado and is working with her dogs, giving lessons and building a stawbale house.   

2003 Nursery Champion
Ralph Pulfer and Gail

Ralph Pulfer became interested in Border Collies in the early 1950's after seeing a sheep dog trial. Originally, he purchased his first border collie for work in his herd of dairy cattle on his farm in Ohio. It was from this early beginning that he got the "bug" for border collies and trialing. He has been competing and/or judging for over forty years. When Pulfer first started out there were three or four trials a year compared to now with an average of 300 to 400 each year throughout the United States and Canada. Mr. Pulfer co-founded the American Border Collie Association in the late 1970's with his dream of a registry for border collies in America. He and a friend, using their own finances, supported this initiative. From the beginning they started with 25 dogs in the registry having grown to 200,000 today. Pulfer is also co-founder of the United States Border Collie Handlers Association.
Pulfer is one of the early pioneers in initiating trials across America beginning with contacts with universities and extending the interests to individuals and support groups in various locations across the United States and Canada.
A few of his many credits are winning the major National Trails as well as continuing to place in the top five and winning the National Purina Herding Dog of the Year Award. Ralph Pulfer was the first person inducted into the United States Border Collie Handlers Association's Hall of Fame. His dog, Shep, was also one of the first dogs inducted in to the hall of fame based on his legendary work in trails. Pulfer was the first American to judge the National Finals. Most recently, Ralph Pulfer and his dog, Gail, won the 2003 Nursery Finals. Although Pulfer enjoys competing, he feels it is his duty to take turns judging trials and that being asked to judge a trail is an honor.Mr. Pulfer has trained, traded, and bought hundreds of border collie dogs. He has purchased several hundred border collie dogs from the United Kingdom.
Ralph Pulfer and his wife, Lenora, have been married for fifty-five years. They have five children, three daughters and two sons, ten grandchildren, seven boys and three girls, one great-grandson and one great-granddaughter. Pulfer is a retired dairy and grain farmer. He and his wife winter in Texas and summer in Ohio at their home. Although Ralph Pulfer states that he has slowed down some, at seventy-eight years of age he presently has three trained border collies that he uses for trial work and is training a new dog.

2003 Reserve 
Nursery Champion Dennis
Dennis Gellings & Jan
 

The sheep were bought after dogs started to appear on the place. Dennis started training dogs after he went to a dog clinic in 1998, and most of the first years the dogs were used for working cows on the ranch.  There are very few trials right in our area, so in the last three to four years we have started going south to the trials in USA. having a lot of fun and meeting a lot of very nice people at the trials.

Return Home