TEMPO

MACH U-ACHX U-CDX
Oelamp's Step In Time
UD MX MXJ OAC OJC EGC PT JHD

Tempo was bred by Laura Kincaid of Oelamp Border Collies and was born on 4/13/98 as part of a litter of six puppies. Click here to see Tempo and her littermates at the age of 7 months. Tempo is the puppy in the lower right hand corner. Tempo is closely related to Simon. Click Simon's name to visit his web page. Vist the Oelamp Border Collie web site for more information on Tempo and her family.

Tempo was my 'unplanned' puppy. I didn't know I was getting her almost until the day I took her home. I wasn't even looking for a puppy at the time. Arrangements with the person who had planned to take her fell through. Since I had expressed an interest in another Oelamp border collie sometime in the future, the breeder (Laura) gave me the first chance at her. At first I said 'No', that I wasn't ready for another puppy yet, and I tend to prefer male dogs. But we all met at the UKC Premier when Laura brought the puppies to Michigan to meet their new owners, and after spending a couple nights in the hotel room with Tempo I was hooked.

Tempo would have been Laura's pick puppy if she had decided to keep a pup from this litter so I was very flattered that she entrusted this wonderful little dog to me. As a young pup she was active and bold and very self-assured. She also came with a definite streak of independence and a mind of her own!

She has since matured into a lovable cuddly dog who could be considered the 'Tigger' of our household because of the way she adds a happy bounce to everything she does. She's a cute, cuddly playful little dog, and while I can still see that strong independent nature in her, she also loves attention and loves to learn various tricks and games just so she can show off what she knows. Some of her favorite things to do are going after her target in agility training, and slapping the wall with her paws or nose for her obedience go outs. Her two favorite tricks are shake paws and bark (preferably at the same time!). We butt heads sometimes due to her independent thinking (this combined with a sensitive nature can make things difficult sometimes), but when the time comes for me to rely on her to do something in agility (her very favorite 'job') I can count on her to come through for me.

Obedience

I started seriously training Tempo for obedience shortly after she turned two. Before that we just played around with it on occasion. I am constantly amazed at how quickly she learns new things and how well she retains what she's learned.

Tempo had her obedience debut in UKC obedience on March 31st 2001, just short of her third birthday. She earned her first two U-CD legs, both with a score of 195. Her work was very nice and I received compliments on her happy and spirited performance. Most of her points were lost all at one time when she took a brief detour during heeling to check the walls for cheese, because we use cheese on the wall for go out training. She completed her U-CD April 30, 2001, finishing up with a 198.5 and winning a runoff against her brother Kilo. Tempo completed her AKC CD in June of 2001 with all scores in the 190's, and her AKC CDX in December of 2001 again with all scores in the 190's. She completed her AKC UD in June of 2002, completing all three AKC titles in only one year and one month. She started the quest for the UDX in August of 2002, and to date has earned eight UDX legs. We haven't shown much obedience in 2003 or 2004 because of all of our other activities, but will be out there looking to finish up that UDX in the near future.

Agility

Tempo is a natural agility dog and has turned out to be my best agility dog so far. She's a speedy little dog and very light on her feet; she can land and turn like a cat while maintaining her speed. She also just seems to have a good sense of the course flow and great obstacle recognition and distance skills. Now that we've been working and showing together for a number of years, our team work has really come together. Her ability to read my slightest cue is amazing (it can also get me into trouble!). Often it seems all I have to do is think about where we're going next, and she's there. I thought at first she would just be a medium speed dog. It turns out I was very wrong about that! Her brother, Simon, who is the speed demon of the family, appears to be faster, but I noticed early on that often when they had run the same course with the same score Tempo had beaten his time. These days it's very rare for Simon to beat his little sister's time.

Tempo went quickly through her Novice and Open classes, and within her first year of showing completed her AX and AXJ titles and earned her first MXJ leg. She qualified for the 2000 AKC Nationals and competed there at the age of two years old, and also qualified and competed at the 2001 and 2002 Nationals. We qualified for 2003 but were not able to attend. She qualified for the 2005 Nationals by February 2004, so look for us in Florida in 2005!

Tempo earned her MACH (with a grand total of 45 Std legs, 44 JWW legs, and over 2300 MACH points) on November 30, 2003, at the Illiana Collie Club trial in Merrillville IN. She was a good girl and didn't keep me in suspense too long - she earned her 19th double Q that Friday, and then picked up double Q #20 only two days later on Sunday.

Tempo has been a great teacher for me. When she's unsure what I want or my handling is bad she'll 'talk back'. This is a sign to me to examine what I'm doing and fix it, so we quickly developed our teamwork. I run my other dogs much better in agility these days thanks to Tempo's great teaching job.

Here is Tempo's MACH photo. From left to right: Handler Diana Antlitz, Tempo, Judge Annette Narel, Judge Karen Holik. Tempo is wondering when I'll let her off that A-frame to go do the rest of the course!

Herding

Tempo earned her Herding Capability Tested (HCT) certificate from the American Herding Breed Association (AHBA) in June of 1999. This title is roughly equivalent to the AKC HT. She earned her first AKC HT leg at the BCSA National Specialty October 1999, then earned her first PT leg at her next trial on April 29, 2000, and completed the PT title May 20, 2000. In October of 2001 she earned her AHBA JHD title. Tempo took some time off of herding so we could focus on other activities, but we have recently started up with herding again, working on her driving. Now that her clueless handler has learned a lot more, maybe we'll be out there competing in herding again in the near future.In the meantime, she's just enjoying bossing those sheep around, and I'm enjoying watching her figure them out.



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