Tane' Mahuta

Tane'

      Tane' Mahutah.  Pronounced "tawn-ay".  Named by Sandra his owner.  Tane' is 'boy' in the native New Zealand tongue.  Boy is Monty's nick-name.  Sandra has had a long love affair with Monty, Tane's sire. He is not my dog.

     It was circumstance that Monty stopped by when my young dog Val was receptive on his way to the National Finals in Klamath Falls.  It was my first litter of pups.  Val is a nice Helsley bred dog whom I was starting the learning curve with at the time.  Tane' was delivered in my master bathroom.

     This picture I snapped and sent to Sandra to let her know that her Monty had arrived.

     

     Sandra and Tane' started their working relationship right away.

If I would have put forth a tiny bit of effort, I think his ears 

would have been pricked.

But we didn't care.

     The goal for Tane' was to be a work/ranch dog.  It was never to be a trial dog.  Sandra did all his formative sheep exposure young dog manners work.  He was a nice mix of very thoughtful, very biddable, sensitive and full of presence.  I started him on sheep.   The rest of his training was either done with Sandra doing work that made sense to him, or with me out in the big field.

     During his training, I was very busy learning with my open dog Feist.  Tane' is completely different than Feist.   Feist was teaching me.  I was teaching Tane'.  Tane' was so much fun to train.  He was a sponge.  What he learned one day, he would remember if it made sense, and we would build on the next day. 

     I packed Tane' along to trials if they had a nursery class and I could spare an extra day.  I wanted all dogs to just be like Feist, so I didn't have to learn more methods myself.  Tane' is nothing like Feist.

     About two weeks before Zamora and Sonoma, Sandra and Tane' helped Ted with shearing.  San was helping shift a good number of ewes and didn't see the LGD protector.  The big white dog took offense to Tane' and nailed him a good one.  Ted put the dog away and Sandra and Tane' finished the job at hand.

     I, on the other hand, was NOT HAPPY.  That night I sutured and reattached four of this shoulder muscles back in place.  Installed several drains.  Very very very relieved that he survived the assault, I kissed his chances of running in the upcoming trials good-bye.

     Very much like his Mom-Val, Tane' is a mix of power and sensitivity.  I had to keep him down to heal.  Here he is running in Zamora with his right shoulder still healing.  Didn't miss a step.

Love this one. Serious but thoughtful in Idaho

Photo by Morgen

Photo by Gloria

Photo by Gloria

Alturas USBCHA National Finals

     I am so proud of this 'boy'.  Tane', that will forever trial as Tane (like Zane).  We both had a big rookie mistake that cost our team in a big way.  But we recovered and he put a run together that I will always be proud of.  One of the judges, Ricky Hutchinson, took the time to talk to us post run, and express how much he liked his style.

Tane'

In the off season we are starting our open career 

together.  Another set of learning objectives.

He will be so much

fun.