I
was raised on a dairy in Salinas, CA and attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo
to graduate with a B.S. in Dairy Science. There I met my husband, Ron Wesen.
Ron and I moved to Bow, WA., and for 8 years worked together on the Wesen
family farm feeding calves and milking. We do have time to play, too! Recently
we built a new, deluxe training building and it is being enjoyed by all my
students. I became interested in dogs and got into Kelpies because Ron gave
me some criteria when choosing a breed:
· They had to do something useful.
· Short hair - that eliminated 99%of the herding breeds. We
have dairy cattle so I was looking for a farm dog.
· Couldn't be a couch potato. They had to have a job.
· Ron had to like the dog's looks.
I knew someone who had taught obedience to someone with a Kelpie and suggested I look at Australian Kelpies and Corgies. I really liked the Kelpies, and found someone who had Kelpies locally. I took Ron to investigate the breed and they meet all 4 criteria. The rest is history. As my dog activities increased it became difficult for both of us to get away, so I looked for an interesting job, and found it at Udder Health Systems, Inc. Udder Health Systems is a Milk Bacteria and Certified State Drinking Water laboratory in Bellingham, WA. I work there as a field and lab technician, and we say, "If it has to do with bacteria we play with it!" 2001 has brought some changes and spend more time teaching herding, and obedience classes.
Kelpie's and Aussie's came into our lives when I wanted a farm dog and dog to play the versatile dog game. So playing and learning about conformation has been fun. Working Stockdog’s is my main interest and love. Doing obedience and working stockdog puts it all together for a well rounded dog. My interest in a rounded dog is when I begin to work with Aussie's in all venues and enjoy working with them on a daily basis.
Of course, my main interests are my 6 Australian Kelpies, 3 Australian Shepherds, and I train and compete in herding, obedience, tracking and flyball. I also teach herding and obedience, and you can E-mail me if you'd like more info. I have been feeding my dogs a BARF raw feeding for 6 years. I have been working with my Kelpies for 16 years, and have competed in Australian Shepherd Club of America trials, American Kennel Club, American Herding Breed Assn, Working Kelpie Inc. trials and Border Collie trials. My husband and I work our dogs on our 350-cow dairy farm doing a variety of chores: bringing cows in for milking, holding gates, sorting, and letting us know when livestock are trying to escape.
My background on the farm and trialing has increased my awareness of the importance of having a well-trained dog. The more advanced the dog's training, the better you do in trials and the more work you can do on the farm. Each day I am learning to improve my technique and my dogs.
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Page Updated 10.22.2007