Skip was purchased in November 2002 from Terry Martin in Hico, Texas.  I feel very fortunate to have been able to first, meet Terry, secondly have Red at her place to be bred by Skip and lastly have Skip part of our family.  We brought Skip home a mere month shy of his third birthday.

Skip has been with us a full year now and has adjusted quite nicely to living in the house and sleeping on the couch with the kid.  He has an amazing personality.  He loves the attention he gets and has a strong desire to be friends with the cats, who don’t always wish to be friends. 

We work Skip regularly on the sheep.  He has learned to pace himself.  He stays off naturally but has learned where he needs to be to move each type of livestock.  When working lambs he will stay back 15-30 feet without any pressure from the handler.  He has learned not to push the stock passed the handler.  His down has become a lot better.  And now Amanda even has a call off with him. 

Amanda and Skip have been doing a lot of work together and he is quickly becoming "her dog."  Amanda has plans to get Skip in the breed ring.  Structure wise he is VERY sound.  At Nationals, even the breed people like the looks of him.  He is very solid.  Like a brick house.  I don’t think he has an ounce of fat on him.  Amanda is hoping to have him ready to show in the breed ring and the trial arena for the 2004 Nationals in CA.   We will have to wait and see how ready the duo is in May.  They start an obedience class in January, which should help with the bond.