Ethel was the first of my pups from Craig, the 1995 International winner.  Her mother
is last year's Ontario Champion, Grace.  Ethel was a squirmy, irritating puppy - traits she has maintained throughout her life, so I often left her at home.  Customarily, my pups ride with me so that we can commune on the road, but Ethel was too vexing.  I still do not like to ride with her loose in the truck: she pokes and jibes and fidgets far too much.  Maybe she was a one off, since I do not know which parent to blame for this.

She continued her contrariness throughout her training, but exhibited just sufficient flashes of  brilliance to keep her on.  We schooled and schooled and she was very good at home, but    took advantage at a trial, almost always running hot, shy on poise and self control.  It was good fortune that she stayed home for the bulk of 2002, since most trials allowed only two dogs.  I had two better bitches, her mother Grace, and Eucher, her aunt.  She took a defacto year off, shelved, sidelined, left to her own devices.  It worked.  This year is the first where she has exercised caution on the sheep, actually seeking order in lieu of her customary chaos.  She has sometimes even stopped of her own accord, before I ask her to  do so, and before damage gets done.  I like that from a dog who almost always barges in and blows the sheep.  Her pace has improved - less cantering behind her stock.  Her shedding, which has always been one of her strengths, is breathtakingly good - she loves  to pry sheep apart.  Her outrunning is testimony to that strength in her parents.   

We have come to an understanding where the overbearing, pushy twisting is concerned.  It   is easy to come to an understanding about almost anything when they run as well as she does.  Her style is very plain and upright.  She lacks the more compelling look of her  younger brother Bart.  Sheep like the plain dogs and they like her.

I still think of her as juvenile and still slowly maturing.  Everyone hopes their dog will improve next year.  I am one of those that believes it.