Sad News

I got some very sad news last night that my good friend Jeff had lost his beloved Duke to a twisted bowel and renal failure. Jeff & Dee are dog-family; their dogs and mine are all related. Jeff's Mick is a littermate to Blair, Dee's Cap is littermate to Owen's mom, Dharma, Duke and Dusty are littermates. Duke was a black & white version of my Dusty - both big boys. But Duke was completely fearless on sheep from an early age.
Duke was with Martha for his early sheepdog education. I remember the first time she worked him; it was during a lunch time puppy starting demo during a week long Herding Camp that I had organized. The students had been divided into teams for various frivolous activities as well as some camp duties. One of which was 'sheep care' for the day; watering, feeding etc. During Duke's demo, one of the students came up to whisper in my ear - inquiring if the sheep in the round pen were 'ok'? As I watched I realized what she meant; several of the sheep appeared to be quite bloody! But it turned out the sheep were perfectly fine, Duke had inadvertantly bit his tongue in his extreme eagerness to get to them. And during the course of his work, like many young keen dogs there was some attempted flossing as well. We all had a good chuckle.
I saw Duke's progress over the next few months as his brother, Dusty was also at McHardy Boot Camp. So I visited quite often and could see how different the two boys were in their approach to the work. Duke went on very quickly, qualifying and running in Nursery at Klamath in '06 along with littermate, Dharma. Also coming along in Open the last couple years. Duke was 'the' special one for Jeff so I know how devastated he must feel. They do have some Dharma youngsters coming up but nobody will take Duke's place in Jeff's heart. The 'Big Happy' will be missed by all of us. The group picture of the 'D' litter shows from left to right; Duke, Dharma, older brother, Cap, Drift and Dusty.