January, 2006

Robin's abilities as a dog trainer speak for themselves, one just needs to take a look at the extensive lists of wins, HIT's, etc. that she has accumulated over the years.

This is more a testimonial to Robin's ability as a team(dog/handler)trainer.  I came to Robin with Sadie my three year old Australian Shepherd with hopes she could help us with training.  I had worked with Sadie off and on for a couple of years under various trainers making little progress, in fact we had yet to make it out of the round pen.  Sadie was my first attempt training a dog for anything, so I was indeed a truly novice handler.  Believe me, Robin had her work cut out for her with this team.  Sadie and I had spent so much time doing the wrong things that Robin had to spend a significant amount of our training time trying to get us over all of our bad habits.  Sadie is an extremely talented but strong willed Aussie and I was, to put it mildly, a bit dense.  Any lesser of a trainer would have given up on us.

We were slowly making progress when Robin picked out a little 8 week old border collie for me out of one of her litters.  She chose a pup with a biddable temperament that would best suit me.  His name is Jet.  He is now two years old and he is just what I needed to finally understand what this thing called herding was all about.  Under Robin's guidance we have become a great team.  Thru Robin's nurturing we gained the confidence and skills needed to enter our first couple of trials this last fall.  Jet actually earned his AKC HSAS and HSBS titles with a HIT along the way.  He also earned his AHBA HDRII and HTDI titles.  The learning process that Robin took Jet and I thru has made me a better handler which in turn has allowed additional progress to be made with Sadie.   Sadie has started to feel that I might be of some benefit to the team and doesn't feel that she is the only one out there that has a clue!  We actually earned Sadie's AKC HSAS title this past summer.  I can not over emphasize what a huge accomplishment this was.

As a testament to the quality of dogs that Robin's breeding program produces, Jet achieved his AKC breed championship this past summer and is excelling in agility as well.

To make a long story short, I would recommend Robin hands down as the trainer of choice for any herding training needs that one might have.  She has the talent and skills to handle it all!