CrossDrive Farm
Vernon, CT
SVCH A-CH WTCH NATCH ATCH5 ADCH-B MACH PDCH-B
Caitland She's Like the Wind
ASCA CD, RN, OF, HSAsd, PKCH-S, PJCH-B, PGCH-B, PTM-S, PRCH-B, PSCH-B, AXP, OAJP, TN-E, TG-O, WV-N, Novice Versatility, LAA-Silver
"Indy"
5/23/01 – 6/25/12
Sire: Ch Blue Isle The Critics Are Raving
Dam: Ch Caitland Boot Scoot N Boogie
Bred By: Cathy Bishop, Caitland Aussies
Additional Achievements:
HIT AKC and ASCA Herding
2005 ASCA Agility Finals 7th place
2005 & 2006 2nd Place MVA HMM
2006 & 2007 Altered RWB ASCA Nationals
2011 ASCA Agility Veteran Finals 4th place
The Heart of a Dog
She wasn’t even supposed to come to Connecticut. I was 5th on the
waiting list and there were only 2 girls in the litter. She was going
to be a show dog in Alaska, but turned out they said she wasn’t
“flashy” enough for... them. So when Cathy sent me the email asking if I
wanted the black tri bitch I jumped at the chance. She had a mind of
her own from day 1. Her first act coming out of the crate was to try
and grab the jowls of Dianne’s akita.
She came home and pretty much took over the house. If she saw it, it
was hers. If she wanted it, it was hers. Luckily the rest of the
crew was pretty patient with her and helped her understand the
boundaries. Z had to flatten her once when she crossed the line,
grabbing his pants to try and keep him from getting to the tennis ball
first. Not a mark on her, but she never did it again. Casey, my
newf, adored her like he adored all the aussie pups. He was too old
to really play with her, but he came up with a new game just for her.
He’d lay on his bed all tense and pretend to growl at her while she
wiggled up to him. Then when she’d get close he’d bark and spread his
front legs really fast and she’d go racing around the room. When she
stopped they’d start the whole thing over again.
She was always my little resource guarder. If there was food on the
counter she knew it wasn’t hers, but she’d stay by the counter and
make sure no one else touched it either. That applied to garbage
cans, bags, anything that might be edible.
She took to agility like she had been born to it. Weave poles became
a special favorite. I could send her to them from anywhere in the
yard. She did obstacles just for the love of doing them. Had the
most perfect two on, two off in the yard. Don’t know that I ever saw
that in a trial though…. She was convinced that she knew where we
were going and we had some interesting runs. I think she was 8 before
she decided that maybe I really did know where we were going. AKC was
not her favorite venue. Just not enough to do over the course of a
day. By the time we’d get to the second run, she’d be mentally fried
from sitting. Walks, ball games just weren’t enough. She wanted to
work. Her favorite class in any venue was gamblers. The farther away
she could work the happier she was and the faster she would go. I
always said she could read the numbers as she frequently finished the
gamble before I got to the end of the 1st obstacle.
The not so flashy dog was a hit in the altered breed ring. She won
the Open Black class at the GA nationals in 2005, and was Altered RWB
at Nationals in 2006 and 2007. Special thanks to Kathy Hubbard,
Morgan Hubbard and Jillayne Karras for showing her to her majors. She
had to put up with me as her handler for her singles. She wasn’t
totally enthralled with the breed ring but she knew how to strut her
stuff and like everything else felt that it should be all about her.
She had a good time pushing Kathy’s buttons. At nationals Kathy went
to back her up and she did a sit pretty for the judge. She also
managed to jump up in the air, catch a fly and land back in her stack.
She started out as a wonderful herding dog. Then after her first
season, all stock became terrifying and she wanted nothing to do with
them. Thankfully we found Lynette Milville who was patient with her.
We spent a year getting her back. Lynette helped teach her that cows
were fun and she was allowed to work the cows however she wanted to.
Get ‘em became one of her favorite commands. Then it was work to
teach her she had to do one thing before she could “get ‘em”, and then
two until gradually she was back to working. She earned multiple HITs
and MVA placements over her herding career. Several of those HITs
came from the cattle class. She showed everyone that being pretty
didn't stop you from being a good stockdog.
Her favorite days were ones where she could just go from activity to
activity. One of her best shows was Harvest Moon. She had been doing
agility all day, Kathy took her to prep for the breed ring. I had to
grab her from Kathy and do our Open sheep run (they had different
sheep for started so I had to go before they switched stock). Kathy
came running to get her for breed as we’re walking out of the sheep
ring, and as the judge was handing her the BOW ribbon I was grabbing
the leash to sneak her in as the last dog in jumpers. She qualified
in all of those venues and earned her first major that day.
Her favorite activities at home included ball, (no one could beat her
to the ball and she didn’t care who she had to run over or through to
make sure of that), swimming, and making sure I didn’t go anywhere
without her. She was never a people dog except for mom. If she
wasn’t in the breed ring she didn’t care for pets or attention from
anyone but me. If they had food that was a different story. I was
talking to a friend at an agility trial once. She was sitting in a
chair holding her dog and I had Indy. She reached into her coat
pocket to get a treat for her dog and they were all gone. Indy had
picked her pocket and licked it clean while she was wearing the coat!
She wasn’t big on playing with the other dogs either. Occasionally
she’d come down from her lofty height and play “stick” with someone,
but if they put a paw on her they’d learn better fast. Running with
another dog and barking at each other was always fun though. Not sure
it was fun for the neighbors, but she always enjoyed it.
She had something to say about everything. One of the breed shows we
went to, I remember walking in the door and hearing Pete Dolan say
“Indy’s here”. He couldn’t see the door, but Indy had to announce
herself whenever she came in.
She was the dog who slept on the bed every night. Again a resource to
be guarded, but only from some dogs. She never liked having Sam on
the bed, but it was ok for Caper or Z. She’d start out at the bottom
by my feet, but every morning I’d find her curled up against my
stomach (I’m a side sleeper) as tight as she could get.
Indy put her whole heart into everything she did and always did
everything I asked, even if she had to embellish it. Should couldn’t
possibly be seen to be doing something that somebody else wanted. She
always had to make it look like it was her decision. I’ve never seen
a dog that would give 150% to everything even getting up in the
morning until I met her. This winter she ran agility like there was
no tomorrow. I was running her at 16” in AKC this winter and she
frequently had the fastest time of all the 16” qualifiers in Time 2
Beat and Jumpers with Weaves even though she was probably the oldest
dog out there. Three weeks ago she ran at an ASCA trial and the week
after in USDAA.
Some of her accomplishments include:
2005 – NATCH, ATCH
2006 - ADCH
2007 – MACH, WTCH, ATCH2
2008 – ACH, VCH, SVCH
2009 – ATCH3
2010 – ADCH-Bronze, PDCH, LAA-Bronze, ATCH4
2011 – ATCH5
2012 – PDCH-Bronze, LAA-Silver
Her greatest accomplishment was just in being my best friend and
always being there for me.
