Judges
Alison Holmes
- TX
I think my first word was “Dog.� I have been an animal lover all of my life. I likely inherited that gene from my father’s side of the family, although my mother is wonderful with the critters. As a city kid, I built extended dog families from Legos. But I have always been country at heart. My husband, Herbert, and I traveled North America for a number of years, competing in USBCHA trials and conducting clinics. I started training dogs for the public and starting young dogs I got Chip in for training . . . a grandson of Battle’s Cap. Chip and I competed for about 3 years, making the top 10 in the National Nursery Finals at Klamath. After Chip moved to Open, one year I ran him at The Big One SDT in Bowman, South Dakota. I also made the top ten in the USBCHA Nursery Finals in later years with my very special Britt. But the dog that I likely learned the most about training with, was a male named Rys. He was a difficult kind of dog to train. We placed third in the first open go round at Carbondale one year, on very stiff sheep. We also won a Stockmanship award at Meeker. We had a wonderful time attending a lot of North American dog trials and more importantly, made lifelong friendships from this sport.