Anne Mock lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, near Sacramento, California. This is a long way from her roots in Australia and the Kurrajong wool shed where her grandfather had upwards of 15,000 merino sheep which would take 6 weeks to shear, and generate about 500 bales of wool. It was a time where each shearer signed an ‘employment’ contract stating “No irregular language, cursing, swearing or loud talking to be carried on in the wool shed.” Fancy that!
Anne enjoyed growing up in this environment so perhaps it is no surprise that she has taken to sheepdog trialling with such zeal. Her rise through the ranks has been relatively speedy and largely the result of hard work, determination, a positive attitude, top-class mentors in Bobby Dalziel (Scotland) and Bill Berhow (California), and a wonderfully supportive husband, Joe. Every year for the last few years, Anne has spent several weeks living and training at Bobby and Shiela Dalziel’s. In fact, about this time of the year, Shiela starts saving all her plastic milk jugs as Anne is famous in the Ettrick Valley for her shedding rings made from the milk jugs.
Collectively, Bobby and Bill have taught Anne to: be patient; pay attention to details; forget about ego and pride; never give up; build a dog’s confidence; and be in-tune with your dog and show mutual respect. They also taught her that if one day doesn’t go as well as expected, tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to do better. As a result, Anne has a tremendous amount of confidence in her training and, consequently, in her dogs.
Taff and Ben are the two dogs Anne will be competing with at the 2011 World Trial. Taff comes from the bloodlines of Moel Hemp, Price’s Davy and Wyn Edwards’s Bill. According to Anne, Taff is an extra-ordinary dog with a huge desire to please. He has style, speed and brains – and he can outsmart her if she is not careful. Anne likes a dog that wants to please and is eager to listen.
When trialling, Anne never lets the environment influence her. She concentrates on proper execution and likes to focus on positive things to keep her in the right frame of mind. For people new to sheepdog trialling, she counsels one to just go out and enjoy what you are doing – and to be patient. Anne believes that every day she wakes up it is a gift. It is another day to train, trial and simply love her dogs. And love her dogs she does.
As a child, Anne used to run around the top of the fences surrounding the Kurrajong wool shed, and listen to the stories about 6 men being employed full-time to breed and train sheepdogs just to get the 15,000 sheep mustered (gathered). She could not have imagined that one day it would be her training and trialling sheepdogs in America and in the U.K., let alone representing her country at the World Trial. Perhaps if Anne had lived in her grandfather’s time, the stories might have been ‘5 men and 1 woman employed to train sheepdogs...’
