Kathy Keats hails originally from Western Canada and spent much of her youth on her grandfather’s farm near Edmonton, Alberta, watching him bring in his cattle with his working dogs. Unbeknownst to her at the time, her grandfather had been a sheep farmer in England, not far from the World Trial venue, prior to him emigrating to Canada. With this upbringing, it seemed natural for Kathy to find herself on her own farm, with her own sheep and, of course, sheepdogs.
Although she grew up around dogs, and farm dogs, and has competed in agility for many years, winning the 2004 IFCS 22" World Agility Championship with her Border Collie Mojo, Kathy's first 'true' sheepdog was Moss. Moss is a grandson of John Atkinson’s Jay. One day when Moss was just 8 weeks old, she was sitting watching some herding and a full grown ram broke away from the group. Moss broke his leash, took off and turned the ram back to the group. Kathy's first thought was that she was in trouble. Moss was a lot of dog for a new sheepdog trainer. He was fast and keen but also a great listener and all heart. No matter how difficult the sheep, he would bring them. As Kathy says he"turned out well, tolerated my mistakes and kept on working."
The dog Kathy will run at this year's World Trial is four-year-old Craig (ISDS 289133). Kathy purchased Craig as a young dog from 2005 World Champion Gordon Watt. Craig is a nephew of Ron Snoeck’s Nell who was the Reserve World Champion in 2008. Craig is a good listerner and a nice way with his sheep. He is a great shedding dog, very smooth with sheep, and a very free type of dog with a nice amount of eye. He and Kathy just seemed to connect right from the start.
Kathy has been fortunate to work with many great trainers and handlers. "They all have so much to give. Some will emphasize one aspect more than another. I try to learn as much as I can from each of them. It’s so easy to miss the little gold nuggets of information they drop. Understanding falls into place bit by bit as your foundation gets stronger and you have to actively work at it. John Atkinson, Denis Birchall, Gordon Watt, Jim and Shirley Cropper, Bobby Dalziel, John Griffith, Kevin Evans, Alisdair MacRae, Thomas Longton, Emyr Lloyd and Elvin Kopp have all been important to my development in some way. Often the most valuable advice was the hardest to hear." She and Craig will bring all of this learning to the 2011 World Trial and fly the flag for Canada. Good luck to you both.