Alice – ABC 391799

TRIAL RECORD HIGHLIGHTS:

• USBCHA National Nursery Champion (2013) and Reserve Nursery Champion (2014)
• Canadian Champion (2018) and Canadian Reserve Champion (2015)
• Western Canadian Champion (2016, 2017, 2020) and Reserve Champion (2021)
• Kentucky Bluegrass Classic Champion (2018, 2019) and Reserve Champion (2021)
• Solider Hollow Gold Medalist (2018) and Silver Medalist (2019)
• Meeker Classic Champion (2021)
• USBCHA National Champion (2016, 2017 and 2019)
• Numerous 0pen Trial wins throughout the years

OFFSPRING OF NOTE:

• Grit – Table Top Double Lift, Multiple Open trial winner, Meeker Biggest Heart ward
• Kell – USBCHA Nursery National Finals 4th place (2019)
• Roy – Canadian Nursery Champion (2022)
• Tim – Canadian Open Champion (2022), Canadian Cattle Dog Reserve Champ (2022), multiple Open Trials winner
• Mist (granddaughter, sired by Tim) – USBCHA National Finals 2023 Reserve Open Champion, Multi-Nursery Trial Winner, Hotchkiss Open, Hotchkiss Open Overall, Table Top Open Overall, Ranch Masters Open Overall and World Trial Competitor.

IN BRIEF:

(Excerpts from the induction ceremony presentation by Jenny Glen)
“When I learned Alice had been named to the ABCA Hall of Fame, I asked if I could do her speech. It’s easy enough to find her accomplishments…but none of those stats tell Alice’s story.

Her proud papa was Scott’s Don a two-time national champion who was the son of Star, a three-time national champion. Her mother was Wendy Schmaltz’s Gin. Gin could work both sheep and cattle. In 2010 she won National Reserve Champion Cattle dog, third place in the Sheep Nationals winning the All Around Stockdog Award.
…
What they learn first they learn best, right? Well, I turned Alice on to sheep when she was 10 weeks old. Alice followed me around while I did chores. When we had lambs, I was hoping to get one of those cute, puppy and lamb photographs, but neither Alice or the lamb would have anything to do with each other or even stay on the same straw bale so I gave up on the picture and went to grab the lamb to put it back. I missed my catch and as the lamb took off so did this little fuzzy speckled pup. Alice immediately got around the lamb, pushed it back towards me and laid down. I wondered if I had just seen what I thought I had seen and walked away from the lamb. Alice had no plans of letting it escape and flanked around and balanced it to me again. She was balancing a single lamb to me at only 10 weeks old. A couple weeks later I was in the field with her while Scott was working the flock. He told me to be careful that pup didn’t chase off the sheep. I told him not to worry, look what she could do and showed him how she would go around the whole flock both ways without splitting any off. That was the last time I ever got my hands on Alice as a working dog.

Scott took over and by the time she was 10 months old he could rough out a course with her. She was 22 months old when we went to the 2013 Nationals in Virginia. It was a difficult nursery course but Alice had the magic touch winning the Nursery Nationals before she was two years old , the same year Don won the Open Nationals. The next year she was the Reserve Nursery Champion, moved up to Open and won her first Open trial 2015. It was onward and upward as she won most of the major trials in North America.

Alice had four litters, a total of 13 pups. She loved her pups, but not as a mother, she loved them as playmates. Grit was her favorite and it didn’t matter that he wasn’t into playing with dogs, she would stalk him as he tried to ignore her, and then pounce on him and drag him by his scruff until he would agree to pay attention to her. In 2021 when she was 9, we figured she would be ready to be retired, but Alice had other plans and we were torn about whether it was actually time to or not. As Meeker, the last major trial that she had not won, approached we kept saying, wouldn’t it be nice if only she could go out on top… Alice did not disappoint. In the double lift she did a flawless turn back, a quick shed and then, just to keep us all on the edge of our seats, used almost all of 10 minutes to get that pen saving it until the clock was near to running out. When it was done, it was clear she had won it and it was the last jewel in the crown for the Queen.
…
I consider myself privileged to have known a great dog like her so well. To have shared a home and a life with her and cheered her on in all her accomplishments and I am grateful that she and Scott are in the Hall of Fame together as their partnership was beautiful to watch. She did not leave us empty handed. Her legacy lives on in her granddaughter, Mist, who is Alice in attitude and work and hopefully, the freckles I see on her great grandson, Butch are a hint of greatness to come.”