Hold your herding event at Terra Norte!

OUR FACULTY -

Session Schedule & Description|Faculty Bios| Registration Form| Hotel & Nearby Attractions

Rancho Terra Norté is blessed with the number of herding professionals who give their time and expertise to our program. The faculty set to present at this year’s Summer Symposium are truly some of the most gifted instructors & judges in the county who have agreed to share their knowledge with our students.

Deborah Stull:
		Deborah Stull lives in Bovina, TX with her Border Collies and Belgian Sheepdog.

Benoit Voisin:
		Benoit Voisin is a municipal shepherd, Beauceron breeder and SCC judge in France. With the help of his Pyrenean Shepherd, Odge and Beauceron Paia, manage a flock of 240 sheep helping to maintain the plots of the of the Évreux Portes de Normandie agglomeration. They spend the summer season on the slopes of Saint-Michel and Nétreville (classified Natura 2000) and on other plots, the sheep then winter at the educational Farm of Navarre.The pregnant ewes will give birth in late February, early March. Once the forage starts to come back in the Spring, Benoit, the dogs and flock return to frolic in the high meadows ensuring the maintenance of the plots, while preserving biodiversity.
Mary Alice Wisecarver:
		Mary Wisecarver has been training and trialing herding dogs for over 15 years. She competes in a multitude of venues including AKC, AHBA, ASCA and USBCHA with various breeds. She is also a judge in both AKC and AHBA. Mary Wisecarver started her herding career relatively young at the age of 7 years old. Through the years she proved age doesn’t matter as she competed both as a junior handler as well as regular classes with great success. In ASCA Mary truly shined and received a multitude of awards including the number one junior for 10 years in a row and competing in the ASCA Nationals Finals multiple times and finishing in the top 5. In AKC Mary has obtained two Herding Champions on her Border Collies and the Herding Excellent title with her Australian Shepherd with countless high in trial and high combined awards. Natural progression led Mary to start training and trailing others dogs professionally. This vastly increased the breeds she trained which continued to teach her about the different temperaments of dogs and training techniques. Mary believes in continued education and still attends clinics and learns from other competitors.
Liane Ehrich
		Liane Ehrich has worked with livestock and dogs for her entire life. She took her first herding lesson in 2003 with a mixed breed, and since that time has immersed herself in stock dogs, stock dog breeds, and handling the various types of stock faced at local trials and ranches in the West. Liane opened her dog training business, Empire Ridge Ranch, first as an opportunity to provide stock dog training and then as a means to help people cope with the many difficulties encountered when a herding dog’s needs are not appropriately met. Liane hosted the Miniature American Shepherd Nationals herding trial for 2020  (held in 2021), as well as the Canaan Dog Nationals instinct testing in 2021, she and her dogs have been invited to demonstrate stock handling at AKC events, and Liane was invited to judge the Legacy Class at the Border Collie Specialty in Arizona in 2023. Liane lives in Vail, Arizona with her husband, flocks of geese and sheep, three cows, a couple of chickens, six herding dogs, and a livestock guardian dog.
Val Manning:
		Val's interest in herding started when working as a Pet Food Specialist for Farmland Industries in the late 80's and early 90's. During this time, Farmland was the official Pet Food of The Meeker Classic, The National Western Stock Show and other trials in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. At that time - very few people were trialing with upright dogs, and fewer with German Shepherds. In 1995, Val finished her first conformation champion - CH Hickory Hill's Excalibur "Magic" and decided that the next goal would be to compete in herding. She and Magic started working with Jerry Rowe that June, and started trialing in October. Since that time, Terra Norte' GSD's have been both conformation champions and herding dogs. In 2004 with the help of Hildy Morgan, Jerry Rowe and others - Val started Rancho Terra Norte' and the Northern Colorado Herding Cooperative was established. Working with beginning students and their dogs is highly rewarding. While most trainers can take a dog and trial successfully, it takes a Coach to teach the owner how to herd and build on the relationship between dog & handler. Diversity is what builds a better mousetrap - Val has been successful in helping GSD's, Aussies, BCs, Rotties, Giant Schnauzers, Briards, and Cattledogs and their owners herd proficiently and achieve success in the herding arena or field.

Roy Sage
		Roy Sage comes to us from Nyssa, OR and brings a lifetime of experience working with dogs, livestock, and dogs with livestock. He and his wife Annette's Osage Australian Shepherd Kennel has recieved the special recognition of being a Hall of Fame (HOF) Kennel producing a number of Working Trial Champions (WTCH). Roy has conducted clinics and judged trials across the nation and the globe with all breeds of herding/working dogs. Roy shares his daily work load with an Aussie, a Belgian Sheepdog and a Border Collie. He really enjoys working with novice dogs and handlers

Carol Lucero
		Carol Lucero resides in Fort Lupton, Colorado just north of Denver. She has put several herding championships on her dogs with the American Herding Breed Association (AHBA), Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA); American Kennel Club (AKC), with several of her dogs earning points in major Border Collie field trials sanctioned by the United States Border Collie Handlers Association (USBCHA). In addition to her judging assignments Carol continues to compete in trials on a variety of courses at the advanced levels working cattle, sheep and ducks. “I believe for me to judge fairly I need to be in that arena to see what my exhibitors experience when they trial.” Carol was recruited to assist in the early organization of the AKC Herding Program and was one of the first individuals to become a certified herding judge for AKC. Over the past twenty plus years it has been her privilege to have judged multiple AKC trials on A, B & C-courses, on all approved livestock. You may have seen Carol as a Herding judge at numerous breed Nationals and Specialties which have included Beardies, Shelties, Corgis, Belgium Sheepdogs and Tervurens, German Shepherds, Bernese Mountain Dogs , Border Collies and others. “I have enjoyed witnessing the advances in the AKC Herding program, especially seeing more herding breeds compete. Through the years it has been my pleasure to see dogs progress in their ability to read and confidently control and manage movement of livestock. The handlers also continue to improve in their herding skills, in teamwork with their dogs exhibiting a better understanding of how to work cattle, sheep and ducks. Plus, the handlers continue to expand their knowledge of program requirements by attending clinics and seminars.
Chelle Schumann, DVM
		Michelle (Chelle) Schumann DVM I am a 1990 graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in St.Paul Minnesota. I then practiced in Albuquerque New Mexico for 15 years first as an associate veterinarian and the served as Medical director in several related specialty practices in the area. My career has since taken me to the beauty of Montana where I have practiced mainly emergency medicine as well as some general practice for the last 12 years. My love of the German Shepherd Dog began before I was school age as my father was a border patrol agent with a working GSD in southern New Mexico. Since then I have been blessed with “ the best dog in the world” many times and they are all remembered with love and a smile. My current dogs are PAM Violet, PAM Bee! and young Cat! who are multi talented and titled in agility, herding, rally, barn hunt, tracking and dock diving.
Hallie McMullen
		Hallie has been training dogs for law enforcement detection work for over 20 years.  She was so excited to see the sport world getting involved and providing the opportunity for all dogs to enjoy this work. Hallie is an instructor for Scent Work and also a judge for NACSW and the AKC. She loves starting older dogs. They already understand some things about training/learning and the handler usually reads their behavior pretty well because they have a relationship. She uses the same initial techniques as puppies and makes adjustments more by the drive and motivation of the individual dog than the age. She likes to take advantage of what comes naturally to each Dog. It is really important that it is always fun and engaging. The handler needs to be dynamic without interfering with their dog. Trust Your Dog!!
Bailey Bremner
		With several thousand miles to her name and more nights spent sleeping outside than in a bed last year, saying that Bailey loves the outdoors would likely be an understatement. Fortunately her dogs, Prima and Skittles, appear to love hiking just as much as she does and do their best to keep her out of trouble. Last year they joined the elite ranks of dogs that have successfully hiked from Canada to Mexico on the Continental Divide Trail, totalling nearly 2600 miles of walking over the course of 6 months. They have also successfully thru hiked the 750 mile San Luis Loop and the 400 mile Pinhoti Trail. Prima, Skittles, and Bailey have experience hiking everywhere from Alaska to Georgia and pretty much everywhere in between. In addition to being an avid hiker, Bailey is passionate about education and helping others have a better experience in the outdoors. She has a YouTube channel and website where she makes informational content for others who are looking to hike long distances with their dogs. When not at the Symposium, the three will be blazing a new 750 mile backpacking route across Colorado this summer.
Sam Lieurance
		Aloha, my name is Samantha Lieurance. I have been teaching yoga sense 2007. My classes focus on the breath, mind and body connection. In class I hope to help students find equanimity. Yoga comes from the word yoke. A yoke is a tool that connects animal to a plow or allows that animal to carry heavy loads. Just as yoga connects the mind, body and breath. When our breathing is labored due to stress created from the body or mind yoga can help us learn how to come back into a more relaxed breathe. In turn we find our center. Practicing yoga one morning my new pup, Tenzing a black mouth cur, laid across my mat. Just as her predecessors have done (Buddy and Lady). Being a puppy I was still working on her basic obedience commands. I needed her to move so I started to tell her to go here and sit, then to go over to another corner of my mat and lay down. She did wonderfully! Later that day during our second obedience session she was nothing but obedient and I was not centered, but a little flustered as well as tired from my busy day. So I scrapped the session, rolled out my yoga mat and started working on letting go of stress through some pranayama (a yogic method of breathing that helps reduce stress). Tenzing followed suite laying in front of me and with a big sigh we let go of our day. One of my passions in life is my dog. I am always looking for ways to deepen my relationship with Tenzing. We started herding and found that staying centered when my communication with my dog was off caused the sheep/goats to not respond to me in a manner I wanted. Remembering the story above I have used some yoga poses and breathing techniques to help with performance anxiety and staying calm in the ring. If you would like to learn some ways to find that connection between your breath, mind and body please join me at the summer symposium!