Dan the Australian shepherd vying for another title at Calgary Stampede stock dog competition

In the world of stock dogs, border collies rule — unless you're an Australian shepherd named Dan.

In 2018, he became the first non-border collie to take home top prize at the annual World Stock Dog Championship at the Calgary Stampede.

Dan was the first dog Billie Richardson ever trained. Richardson, owner of Yknott Ranch in Okotoks, is now an international stock dog trainer.

This year, Dan and Richardson are going for the title again at the Stampede.

Richardson, who is competing for the eighth time at the Stampede, spoke with The Homestretch on Monday about the competition.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Question: Tell us about Dan.

Richardson: Dan was the first dog I ever trained. He's just a great dog. He's very fast and he loves loves to work. He's never dragged his heels and said, 'Aw, do I have to?' He loves competition. He likes pressure. That's what's made him such a successful dog for me.

Q: And you're going to have Dan with some company, you're taking a couple of other dogs. Tell us about them.

R: I do. I have a dog named Vinny, who's also an Australian shepherd. He's five. He's very distantly related to Dan, but he's not Dan's son, which some people may think. And then I actually have a two-year-old border collie named Twist, whom I'm going to give a go with. 

Q: They're ready for competition at two?

R: Yes. I actually have a one-year-old that I was going to put in, too. I know when I first watched the Stampede years ago and they would announce that the dogs were two and I thought, 'how could you train a dog at two to do that?' But  some of them are just really, really talented. They can take a lot of pressure and they love the work.

Q: Let's talk about the competition.… What exactly is a stock dog competition? 

R: The Calgary Stampede World Stock Dog is a time-and-points arena trial. You have four minutes to complete a course. You manoeuvre three sheep around a set of barrels in a certain course. For each obstacle, each barrel that you get your sheep around, you get points for that.

Typically, the obstacles and the points would be between 15 to 18 points. It just depends on the course. The sheep, they come in fresh, actually getting delivered tonight. It's a fairly tough competition. We may make it look easy, but I guarantee you it's not. 

Q: Is it important that the sheep are fresh then? You don't have any prior interaction and they don't know the course, is that the idea? 

R: It's not just that they don't know the course, it's that they're fresh in the sense that where these particular sheep come from, it is a large colony. So they do use dogs. They are familiar with dog work. But when you stick range sheep into an arena where they're not familiar with, typically it can be a little worrisome for them and so your dog has to be able to to deal with all the people and the anxious sheep. 

Q: You do seem to prefer Australian shepherds in a competition that is typically dominated by border collies. Why is that?

R: I went to a sheep camp many, many years ago and there was a lady and she's a very dear friend of mine now.… And she had these Aussies at this clinic, and at the end of the day, she would work her Aussies in the field. And I just said, 'One day, I wanted to have a dog like that.' She helped me get Dan.… I guess in some regards there was a bit of luck with it. But I had the right mentors and the right friends to help me get there.