I was a graduate student when Tammy was a puppy, and I trained her by myself as best I could.  When she was a year old, I went with my neighbor to watch a dog show in Lawrence, Kansas.  We were both absolutely fascinated by the obedience trial.  We were watching a Novice class when my neighbor turned to me and said, "Tammy can do that."   And I realized that she could.

So I got hold of a copy of the AKC Obedience Regulations, and discovered that Tammy needed to learn a finish and a stand for examination.  I taught her those, and entered an obedience trial.  She was shaking like a leaf, but she qualified with third place, and I was hooked.  I went to the local bookstore, and bought Blanche Saunder's Training You To Train Your Dog.  I trained her through Utility straight out of that book.  Tammy earned her CD in three trials, her CDX in four trials and her UD in four trials.  By then we had moved to Wyoming, and the Laramie Kennel Club gave us a special award for being the first local dog to earn a UD.  She never attended an obedience class in her entire life.

Yes, that's a 24 inch jump.  I don't remember if she had to jump 22 or 24 inches in competition, but she never had any trouble doing it.  This article appeared in the Laramie Daily Boomerang in November 1973.

Tammy was a great demonstration dog.  She would do her job any place, any time, regardless of distractions.  She showed school children several utility level exercises, and could discriminate among mixed scent articles less than an hour after they had last been handled.  She would retrieve anything we asked her to, and on snowy mornings, she was the dog who was sent out to find and bring in the newspaper.

Yes, Tammy was probably white-factored.  Had she been bred, she could have produced predominantly white puppies.  That band of white fur down the front of her stifle is a dead giveaway.  Her father was from the old Astolat lines, which had many color-headed whites.  Both her parents appear in the pedigrees of later champions.

Sure-footed, dependable, and enjoying herself, serious-minded Tammy was a great backpacking companion.  The orange pack she wears in this photo could carry all the dog food she needed for a week on the trail.  I had to make the packs for the Shelties myself, because all the doggie packs on the market were designed for large breed dogs.