Sheepdog National Finals Judges 2017
| The Judges are as follows: |
|---|
|
Bruce Fogt James McGee Joni Tietjen Shirley Cropper |
| Bruce Fogt and James McGee will judge the Open. Joni Tietjen and Shirley Cropper will judge Nursery and Open Semi-final. All judges will judge the Final Round. |
James P McGee
Irish National- 2005, 2007
International- 2015 (Supreme Champion)
World Champion- 2011
Occupation: Full time farmer
Judged Irish National-2012
Judged Continental-2013
Joni Tietjen
Joni Tietjen is an experienced sheepdog trial judge; she is known for being fair, unbiased and accurate. She has judged many Open trials and double lift finals including The Western Canadian Championships and Kelly Creek Double Lift. Joni uses her many years of experience ranching and raising sheep to accurately assess situations on the trial field. Joni is very familiar with running on and judging western range ewes.
Joni has won numerous open and nursery trials across the country and on the national level has had ten nursery dogs in the top-10 at the National Finals and has won the National Nursery Finals twice. She has finished in the top-10 at The Bluegrass Classic, Kingston Championship, and The Meeker Classic. She was the 2017 Reserve Meeker Champion. She has won the District Two Finals Championship on three occasions.
Joni has ranched most of her life, raising sheep and cattle to make a living. She first got into stock dogs as help on her ranch and she soon found them to be an essential part of her operation. For over 25 years Joni has had a passion for breeding, training, using and trialing her Border Collies. Joni focuses on breeding dogs that can do daily ranch work on sheep and cattle, as well as being top trial dogs.
Joni is dedicated to the Border Collie breed and serves on the USBCHA board. Joni is available to judge the 2018 Nationals Finals and would be honored to do so.
Shirley Cropper
Shirley has been running dogs and judged for approximately 22yrs and, according to Shirley was, taught by the best, Jim Cropper. This year Shirley will judge the biggest trial and double gather in the UK, which is our trial the Deerplay hill which he won last year
Shirley has also judged double gathers in Switzerland, Denmark and here in the U.K.
Shirley has been on the English National Team 3 times with 3 different dogs, one of the hardest national teams to qualify for compared to other UK teams. Shirley has competed at nursery level and open trials for many years winning numerous trials, including Longshaw open n double lift, Hope, Scrimgeour’s, Freebirch,and Macclesfield double lift
Bruce Fogt
Bruce is a nationally recognized stock dog trainer, having trained hundreds of dogs for farm use and trial competition. Bruce has trialed extensively throughout the US and as one the National Finals twice, has multiple top 10 finishes in the National Finals, and has won Meeker and many other top trials. Has been trialing and training border collies since the 1970s. Publisher of the Working Border Collie Magazine. Author of the training book “Lessons From a Stock Dog”
Bruce is also a well-known clinician, teaching many training, handling and judging clinics over the last 30 years. Has judged multiple double lift trials including the National Finals, most recently in 2015. Bruce is recognized as a fair and meticulous judge.