Gothenburg (Göteborg), the second largest city in Sweden and the birthplace of Volvo cars, is home to Katia Maines. Gothenburg is strategically important as the Swedish gateway to the west, lying on the west coast in the narrow area between the territories of Denmark and Norway, and it is west Katia will be heading when she attends the 2011 World Sheep Dog Trials in September. She knows the western trail well, as she has been a regular visitor to Scotland for the last couple of years.
Katia started her fascination with border collies many years ago when she competed with her unregistered dog in agility and obedience. After a wee detour to tracking and obedience with an Australian Shepherd, Katia soon found her way back to border collies with the thought of competing in sheepdog trials. With that thought in mind, Katia purchased Rat from Norway – a bitch by Bobby Dalziel’s Cap and out of Moel Lykke.
Rat was a terrific bitch with lots of stamina but Katia admits she could not handle her irrespective of the amount of professional advice she received. She struggled with Rat – often fighting back tears – as she tried and tried and tried some more to learn how to run her. When she bred Rat to Roger Nilsson's Rob (who competed at the 2008 World Trial), she kept a dog called Loki and it is Loki Katia will bring west with her to compete for Sweden at the World Trial.
Loki has been a godsend for Katia. He is a joy to train and is ever-willing to listen, learn and cooperate with Katia. A far cry from Rat. Loki has given Katia the opportunity to learn and extend her skills and quite obviously with selection for the competitive Swedish team, Katia has learnt a lot. Katia has been mentored by Bobby Dalziel and she says “his way of training really suits me very well.” The foundation training is solid and Katia feels that once this is in place, her job is to give the dog experience to bring them along. During the past year, Katia has also trained with Henrik Nilsson, Ann Blomkvist and Lotta Oredsson, who are also competing on the Swedish team at the World Trial. Having training partners of this calibre has allowed Katia to share ideas, compare the different ways in which dogs solve problems, and share training ideas.
Leading up to the World Trial, Katia and Loki will be working on fitness and making sure to keep a balanced approach to training. As Katia wisely points out “it is easy to focus on something special and miss something else.” We wish you the best of luck, Katia and Loki.