Local handler gets a write up FL Today

[MyTDogs]

The following article can be found HERE along with a nice little video & couple pix.

 

Malabar trainer allows dogs

to live by instinct

 

 

Trainer Judith Kelly helps herding dogs,

owners reach full potential

 

 

BY CHRIS KRIDLER • FLORIDA TODAY•

December 5, 2010

 

 

There is something completely satisfying about

doing the thing you were born to do. At least, the

dogs at Asher-Dell Farm in Malabar think so.

 

There, Judith Kelly teaches handlers that a herding

dog's instinct is an essential tool. In the process of

herding sheep, the dogs find a purposeful joy, and

their people bond with them in a whole new way.

 

"You don't want to make them all totally mechanical,"

Kelly says of herding dogs. "You want to make them

listen and biddable, but you don't want to take all

that natural instinct, or you've got nothing."

 

The dogs' handler also plays a part, of course, and

few can match Kelly, a youthful 71. She understands

the balance between commanding a dog and letting

him follow his breeding. On a recent morning, she

called out a sing-song language on her sheep-horn

whistle to border collie Dustin, telling him to move

a herd of sheep up and down a vast field, split them

and even corral a few nosy goats in a pen.

 

Students variously call her strict, demanding and

intense with her tough-love approach, but they have

great respect for her.

 

"Judith is a lost breed, so to speak," says Ron

Brautigam of Rockledge, president of the Central

Florida Herding Club and a student of Kelly's. "There

is no person out there that can quite get the results

from a dog and a handler like Judith can. There are

many trainers in the state of Florida, but when

people really have problems, they all come to

Judith."

 

Kelly is not just a taskmaster. She has an instinct,

too, for understanding dogs.

 

She has six border collies, and many of their

progeny herd sheep under the hand of her students.

She's an American Kennel Club stock dog judge and

a judge for the American Herding Breed Association.

She spent 30 years racing sled dogs and almost that

training border collies.

 

"She just has a natural way with animals," Brautigam says. "She can take a dog

that . . . has a bad problem with behavior, and

within minutes can get that dog to behave as if it

had never had a problem."

 

 

The 'sheep lady'

 

Kelly's reputation is almost legendary, at least at the

dog park, where Ken and Karen Mitchell of

Melbourne took their Australian shepherd to run off

his "abundance of exuberance."

 

 

"It's almost an urban legend about this 'sheep lady,'

" Ken Mitchell says of the rumors he'd hear. "Nobody

really knew the telephone number or how to get a

hold of her or even her name. They'd just talk about

the sheep lady. And I was beginning to think it was

my imagination."

 

Then one day he heard the name of her farm, and

when he called Kelly, she suggested they come in

for an evaluation. Mitchell was skeptical of Kelly's

claim that dog Joey would naturally want to herd

sheep.

 

"It was exactly as she said it was," Mitchell said. "She

got into the pen with the sheep, and he knew exactly

what to do. It's the human beings that have the

problem."

 

When Kelly lent them a sheep-herding DVD, Joey

couldn't take his eyes off the TV.

 

The dog has more focus and is calmer.

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"He's a working dog," Mitchell said. "Gotta have stuff

to do. And that's why I think the sheep herding was

so good. There's something cool about watching

your dog do the thing that they were bred to do."

 

 

'Life-altering gift'

 

 

Debbie Moleski of Indialantic found Kelly in a

different way.

 

"I had a border collie that I'd gotten from a rescue,

and he just showed no interest in anything," Moleski

says. Then her husband, Charlie, got her what he

billed a "life-altering gift."

 

She thought maybe it was a house in Ireland. She

loves Ireland.

 

"But it was a whistle from Judith," says Moleski, who

works in attendance at Melbourne High.

 

Moleski took Blarney to the ranch to see how he'd

do.

 

"He hated sheep," she says. "He had absolutely no

instinct whatsoever."

 

And Moleski had another challenge. Now 59, she

suffered a stroke when she was just 19. It was three

hours before hospital workers got to her. Her left

side was temporarily paralyzed. Now she limps and

has limited use of her left arm, which most handlers

use to help with commands.

 

She stuck with the training and did pretty well with

Blarney despite his reluctance. Then she bought

border collie Tyler from Kelly, whose instinct is

evident in his every move.

 

"He is just an absolute delight," Moleski says. "He

knows more than I do. We have gone toe to paw

recently, because he's like a teenager . . . and Judith

has just absolutely been wonderful."

 

 

Personally, she's noticed changes, too, as she visits

the farm twice a week for training.

 

"I limped really bad before I started," Moleski says.

"Now, I still limp, but the left leg has got-

ten much stronger, and I'm using the left arm more."

 

Herding has kept her strong, she says, despite other

health struggles, including a bilateral mastectomy

and melanoma.

 

 

She dreams of taking Tyler to a national

competition, given he comes from Kelly's

champions.

 

"I really have to step up to the plate, because I really

want to make her proud," Moleski says.

 

 

Rolls-Royce of dogs

 

 

Kelly trains all the herding breeds, but her love for

dogs began before she got into border collies.

 

Born in St. Louis and raised in Iowa, the avid

horsewoman met and married a sled-dog racer from

Canada. While racing, she met the dog that would,

circuitously, lead her to herding sheep.

 

"A border collie was leading a team of huskies, and

that dog did all kinds of things," Kelly says. "It was

amazing what he could do."

 

Seeing that dog work -- and herd a mouse into a

matchbox in a friend's barn -- convinced her she

wanted one someday. She began working with them

in Iowa.

 

A border collie is the Rolls-Royce of herding dogs,

she says. And they love the work.

 

"It's their life," Kelly says. "My border collies are an

extension of my arm. They're doing what I literally

can't do. They're part of your soul when you start

working with them like that."

 

After a divorce, she connected with Jim Kelly, whom

she dated in high school. She moved to Florida with

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five border collies to be with him and eventually

purchased what became, after much work, Asher-

Dell Farm.

 

Now a widow, she has three adult children and four

grandchildren and is active in her church.

Otherwise, it's all about the dogs.

 

She starts a student and a dog in a small circular

pen with a few sheep -- "heavy" sheep, which are

more likely to hover around people -- and takes the

dog around the perimeter. "Once that's done, then

we come in behind the sheep, and you can tell,"

Kelly says. "It's just like the light bulb goes off."

 

 

A dog that isn't bred for herding won't see the light,

she says.

 

"If the dog has instinct and the person likes a lot of

hard work and a little bit of smelly sheep rubbing

up against their knees," Kelly says, "then they're

either on, or they decide it's too much work."

 

 

Born and bred

 

 

Student Dawn Thomason, who drives all the way

from Deerfield Beach to work with Kelly, is one of

the ones who likes the hard work.

 

"I love it," she says. "You get to see what the dogs

do naturally, what they were bred to do."

 

She became a certified pet dog trainer when she got

her first sheltie, which had fear and aggression

issues. That dog was just OK with sheep; the second

sheltie she brought to Malabar was a natural.

 

In a field at Asher-Dell, Thomason works with the

dog, Faolan, which means "little wolf." As little as he

is, the sheep move out of his way.

 

"His first two out-runs were actually really nice," she

tells Kelly, "and then they kind of broke down."

 

"Why did they break down?" Kelly asks.

 

"He didn't want to do come-by, so I made an issue

out of it, and then he started barking, and then it

kind of all fell apart."

 

They talk about it, then get 2-year-old Faolan

rolling again. Kelly tells Thomason not to let the

dog get beyond her, or he'll take control. "Stop him!"

she shouts.

 

 

In a neighboring field, Stuart Ballantyne works with

his border collie, Rock, his whistles carrying on the

air as the dog maneuvers the sheep. A special

mouth whistle amplifies Ballantyne's sounds, which

are uniquely understood by his dog.

 

Ballantyne is from Scotland, where he worked with

sheep. Those skills make him a perfect helper at

Asher-Dell, where he lives, and he's expanded his

involvement in the sport by handcrafting shepherd's

crooks of fine woods and sheep's horn.

 

"They're born and bred for this," he says of the

herding dogs. "They live and die for it. They really

do. It's something you can't describe. They just

wake up and see sheep. . . . It's truly an amazing

feeling, and it's a pleasure to be in the company of

such a good dog."

 

 

 

Teacher and friend

 

 

When Kelly sets Dustin on the Katahdin sheep, she

says: "See sheep. See sheep." Instantly, he is poised

for action, in a crouch that implies he could pounce

at any moment. When she says "ducks," he knows it's

time to herd the birds. And after a good round of

herding, when she calls him off with a "that'll do," he

dunks himself in a washtub and sits in the water

until he cools off.

 

The bucolic setting and Judith's skills draw several

students every Saturday for $45 sessions, though

this weekend, the farm is hosting an AKC herding

trial.

 

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"They all respect her highly," Brautigam says of

Kelly. "There are people who have come out there

and just absolutely turned themselves around as far

as how they react to their own animal."

 

"She's amazing," Ballantyne says. "She's a very good

friend. She's a very good tutor. I've learned a lot. I

thought I knew something, but I knew nothing,

really."

 

Here, handlers learn to be students as much as the

dogs do.

 

"You need to pay attention," says Mitchell, a land

developer. "She's a very strict teacher. I'm 57 years

old, and I'm very successful in my own right, but I'm

telling you, she can be intimidating," he adds with a

laugh.

 

Moleski says Kelly is one of the strongest women

she's ever known.

 

"She just has this dynamic energy and insight to

dogs," she says. "She's like the dog whisperer of the

herding world to me. I just admire her so much."

 

Contact Kridler at 321-242-3633or

ckridler@floridatoday.com.

 

Herding breeds

 

Asher-Dell Farm's Judith Kelly says only dogs bred for

herding can herd sheep, and because so many have

been bred for conformation instead of work, not all of

them will necessarily have the instinct. A handler like

Kelly can help you determine if your dog is a herder.

These are the herding, or stock dog, breeds

recognized by the American Kennel Club:

Australian Cattle Dog, Australian Kelpie, Australian

Sheep Dog, Bearded Collie, Belgian Malcnois, Belgian

Sheep Dog, Belgian Tervuren, Border Collie, Bouvier,

Briard, Collie (rough and smooth), German Shepherd,

Norwegian Elkhound, Old English Sheep Dog, Puli,

Queensland, Rottweiler, Shetland Sheep Dog and Welsh

Corgi (Cardigan and Pembroke)