For the past four years, one of my very favorite weeks has been spent at Fido’s Farm in Olympia, Washington. Every year, this week has been a wonderful learning experience for me and my canine partners! 2010 was no exception. The four instructors: Chris Soderstrom, Dave Viklund, Karen Child and Elsie Rhodes provided awesome training for dogs and people! The other teams attending were supportive as well as great fun! There was much laughter as well as many ‘aha’ moments throughout the week. The setting is gorgeous, the livestock exceptional, food was abundant and tasty and we had the ever supportive Sylvia making sure that everything ran smoothly. One of my favorite parts of camp is being able to camp in their beautiful field and of course I love the bonfire nights!
Such a setting provides many opportunities for photography, although my main ‘focus’ was on herding. Here are a few images to help tell the story of a wonderful week!
We had the opportunity to herd ducks. For those who don’t know, there is a course of obstacles that you ultimately want to quietly move the ducks through! It can be quite a challenge at times, but is great fun!
We did spend most of our time working with sheep. A young dog is often started in a small pen.
There is much to learn about the communication with your dog. Special terms are used to tell the dog what you want it to do, along with the use of body language and for more advanced teams, whistles. It can be very confusing for all involved, but when it finally works, it is such a wondrous feeling!
…..and getting a really great pen is always time for Celebration!
We had many opportunities to spend very special time with our wonder K-9 partners.
We all made new friends!
….and this is why we do what we do…….!!!!!
This last image totally portrays the serenity and peacefulness of a handler and her dog in total communication, moving a group of sheep in a relaxed walk-about…..job well done Pat and Woody!
Oh, and just to prove that I really was at camp, here is one last photo that another camper, Mary Peaslee took of moi and Spyder!
You may view two photo galleries of images from Camp at:
Click on Dog Event Galleries at the top on the menu bar. There are two different galleries from camp. Please use the contact link if you have any problems.
For those of you who want to see even more………tomorrow I am going to put up a video that I made from several of the photos that I took at camp.
by DancingDogPhotography/Debbie Z Dunne
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