CANTON -- Spots are filling up fast to work with professional sheep dog trainer and competitor Barbara Armata, who will hold a workshop for dog owners and their canines Oct. 30 and 31 at Brackett’s Horse Farm arena in Canton. The two-day workshop will provide dog owners with two lessons each day.

Barbara Armata has been training sheep herding dogs since 1991 and has been giving lessons and holding workshops for 15 years.

She and her husband Bernie breed and train border collies and breed Scottish blackface and Montadale sheep at their Taravale Farm & Kennel in Esperance.

She and her dogs compete in trials throughout the Northeastern U.S. and in Canada. This year two of her dogs qualified to compete in U.S. Border Collie Handlers Association National Sheepdog Finals in Virginia. Barb

Workshop organizer Betsy Hodge, a sheepdog owner and Livestock Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County says, “Working with a professional trainer can help you learn more about your dog and improve your dog’s herding skills. I have attended Barb’s clinics and always feel it is time well spent.”

The workshop cost is $85 per person per dog. All herding breeds are welcome to participate. Observers may attend for a fee to cover lunch.

Hodge says, “Those attending without dogs can learn a lot by watching and the lunchhour discussion will be about the dog-owner teams that Barbara worked with in the morning session, their style of working sheep, and how to work with different dogs.”

Contact Hodge at 379-9192 or bmf9@cornell.edu for more details and to register.