Wendy Auzqui and Quirt

(upbeat music) - If you ever meet this five-year-old Border Collie named Quirt, then you'll be in the presence of greatness.

This super smart canine is the World Champion stock dog, a title she and trainer Wendy Auzqui won at the Calgary Stampede.

We'll meet Wendy Auzqui and Quirt.

I'm Steve Peck of Wyoming PBS, and this is "Wyoming Chronicle".

(upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is made possible in part by The Wyoming Humanities Council, helping Wyoming take a closer look at life through the humanities; ThinkWy.org; and by the members of the Wyoming PBS Foundation.

Thank you for your support.

- Let me just say, first off, if there's a nicer place to be on Planet Earth today than right here where we are, outside of Claremont, I'd be surprised.

Tell us about the property that we're on.

- So this belongs to my husband's family, Paul and Carol Auzqui.

They are Spanish Basque and this has been in the family for many, many years and I'm just blessed to be a part of it.

- So what do you do here?

Besides train championship dogs, which you're gonna talk about.

What else happens?

- So we run cow-calf operation and we run some sheep.

We put up a lot of hay, which requires a lot of irrigating, tractor time.

I always say haying rules our life because we're either putting it up or feeding it to something or cleaning it up.

So it revolves around haying.

- Somehow, you found, you find and have found time to do lots of other things in your life.

You were a jockey at one time, is that right?

- I was, yep.

- What about that?

Tell us about that.

- So I grew up on a ranch, and when you're young, alls you wanna do is go fast.

and so my dad said to me, "Why don't you be a jockey?"

And I said, "Okay."

- [Steve] Where was that?

- I lived in Gillette, Wyoming, yep.

So as it turns out, I went to college in Laramie and a guy by the name of Ray Wardell called me and said, "What do you weigh?"

And I said, "Oh, like 104," of course back then, you know?

And he said, "Do you wanna be a jockey?"

I said, "Yep, I can be there Monday."

- Wow.

- So I quit college to be a jockey.

I thought maybe that would be something to regret, but I don't.

- Hmm, and you did that for how long?

- I did it until I got hurt.

- Really?

- Yeah, which... - Happens.

- I got hurt a few times, but when I ended up breaking a vertebrae in my upper back, and so I decided that was probably enough.

- [Steve] Did you have some success?

- Yeah, oh yeah, a lot of success.

- I know that it's an exciting thing to do and an intensely competitive thing to do.

So you've got that in you.

- Yeah.

- You like to race.

- Yeah, I like to go fast and I do like to compete.

- Well, you're speaking of competition, now, we're in the presence of a championship dog.

Not the only one that you've had.

This is Quirt.

She recently had a high achievement.

What was it?

- She did, so we went to Calgary to the Stampede and Quirt ended up winning the, they call it the "World Championship Stock Dog", and she had the fastest time in the third round.

You get a preliminary run, and then they take the top 16 back and then they take the top 12 back.

Or maybe it's 20, and then 12.

But anyways, her and my other dog got back in the top 12 and she ended up the winner.

- Now as I think I've read, or heard, you knew she's a good dog, but the other dog, Frank, had the better sort of competitive pedigree to that point.

- Yeah, Frank had actually won in 2019.

- He did?

- So this is what was going through my mind in the Top 12.

She ran first and I thought, "You know what?

"She'll be my practice dog.

"I'll go out there and I'll make a smooth run with Quirt "to just kind of practice.

"But then I'll bring Frank out "and then I'll really do some damage."

- What does the dog, in the end, you, what do you have to do to win?

She's in the arena with sheep.

- Yeah, so it's a timed course.

You can't touch the sheep.

The dog can't touch the sheep.

And I talk to her through a whistle and I tell her where to take the sheep.

And the course is already established.

And then I whistle her through the course.

And at the end, you pen the sheep and whoever does that fastest is the winner.

- When we were shooting video of you out in your hayfield here, you were speaking to her often, but in the competition, you can't do that.

Is that right?

- Oh, no, I can speak to her.

- You can, but you didn't.

- Yeah.

I choose to use a whistle.

Sometimes, if you're outside, there could be wind.

If you're inside, there could be crowd noise and the whistle just goes, is better received by the dog.

- There's only gonna be one whistle that she hears.

There might be other voices.

- Yep, yep.

- I've seen this, some video of her winning run.

So it's a combination that she's doing it fast and the sheep are in a group and they go through a series of obstacles and then have to be penned, and it's timed.

What's it like at the Calgary Stampede?

Is there a huge crowd there watching?

It's indoors?

- Yeah.

When you finally get to the final round, it's packed with people.

A lot of people from other places, a lot of foreign people, and they totally love it and they get into it.

It gets very loud and there's a lot of energy.

So trying to maintain your composure and your dog maintaining its composure with all that going on, it's a little tricky.

- [Steve] Watch now as Quirt works the final portion of her world championship run in Calgary, responding instantly to Wendy's whistle until the pen gate is closed.

I think people think of the Calgary Stampede as a big rodeo, but this is a sort of thing that spectators just love, isn't it?

- Yeah, because they can get right into the sport.

They feel like they're part of the action.

In fact, even if your dog bites a sheep, which will disqualify you, the crowd goes wild.

(both laugh) - They don't mind.

I guess it's just different from watching somebody ride a bull.

I'm sorry to say, I cannot identify with that at all, but I can with working with a dog or hoping the dog will do what, working together or doing what I want her to do, or hoping that she'll do.

Now you competed in other things as well and she's a championship contender wherever she goes, right?

- Yeah, she really does hold her own.

She usually places somewhere in the top five or six and just kind of depends on what we draw for livestock.

- I've thought about this in four ways, and you tell me if I've got this right.

First there's the breed of dog, and she's a border collie, is that right?

Correct.

- And border collies, if there's such a thing as being born to the work, they are.

- Absolutely.

- She wants to hassle those sheep just about from the first time she sees them as a puppy, right?

- She does, yes.

- And then there's these time-tested training methods that I assume must be centuries old, right?

- Yes.

- They've been known forever because they're doing a job.

It's not just a stunt, it's not just a competition.

They're these things that, that she knows how to do, that you know how to do.

or have been helpful and useful for people who are herding animals.

- Oh yes.

- For a reason And then there's, beyond that, there's this individual specimen of dog and just like in any other activity, some are better at it than others.

- Yes.

- And she's good.

- Yeah, so I think what makes a dog, and this is just my opinion, there's thousands, but my opinion- - Yours is a good one.

- The dog that is successful is biddable, which means they're easily trained, they care what I think, and they try to please me.

They are athletic, they're smart, and they have what you call, feel.

Feel is hard to describe, but the best way I can describe it is livestock have a bubble around them and the dog has a bubble.

And when the dog's bubble interacts with the livestock, that's what makes the livestock move.

So if the dog has feel, it knows where the bubble is and it works its livestock from outside the bubble.

If a dog doesn't have feel, they are completely through the bubble, scattering livestock.

So the dog that has feel makes my job easier.

- And then the fourth part of it is the trainer.

So you're good at this, too.

You've done it a long time.

Learned a lot about it.

You had excellent training, as I understand.

- Yes, I had a great coach.

- Who was that?

- Several.

So the first person that introduced me to the Border Collie is married to my neighbor down here.

- Really?

- When he remarried Joanie, then her and I became friends and she taught me so much about the sport and the dog and it's been downhill ever since.

- Had you done any of it before then, or?

- No.

- She introduced you to it?

- She introduced me to the Border Collie.

I had always had dogs, but she introduced me to the Border Collie and then a long list of mentors, Buzz Sharon, Allison and Charlie Gerard, Joe Woodbury, Lisa Keeler.

When I was just getting started, everybody was so helpful to me, you know?

And so I'm trying to do the same thing back.

When people get started.

I try to help 'em as much as I can.

- So this is a business for you, among other things.

- Yes.

- And you will both bring in a dog to work with, or the dog and the trainer and work with both of them.

- Yeah, my favorite thing is dog and trainer together.

It just speeds up the learning process for everyone.

- What is it about this breed of dog?

She just got its incredible energy, of course.

She just can go and go and go and go and is always willing.

But I'm assuming it's more than just energy.

It's you and she working together to, what would the word be, channel it?

- Communication and relationship.

To me, the success comes when you have both of those things.

When you have a relationship with the dog and you can successfully communicate with the dog, that's when the success shows up, And there's probably thousands of ways to do it, but that's the way I choose to do it.

- A relationship.

- Yeah!

- So I'm recalling an interview I heard once with a football player, played for the Denver Broncos, and he'd had two coaches recently, they both had departed and they're two different types.

And what he said quickly was, he equated it with dogs that he had, and he said, "There's one kind of dog trainer who will, if you welcome the dog and include it and befriend it and encourage it and reward it and teach it, be patient with it, the dog will do anything for you.

- Right.

- "For you."

And the other is, if you lay down the law to that dog and snap at it and bark at it and command it and order it and threaten it and intimidate it, he'll do whatever you say.

- [Wendy] He'll do whatever you say, yes.

- And you've seen both, I presume, in your work.

I take it you're the former, not the latter.

- Correct.

The dog knows more about herding than I'll ever know.

She was born with it, it's in the DNA.

I'll never be able to know more about livestock than she does.

But what I do know is where I'm going with the livestock and the speed I want 'em to go, so I relay that to her.

She actually handles the livestock.

I tell her where we're going and what speed we're going.

And it'd be silly to do it any other way 'cause I will never know as much as she knows about the livestock.

And I will give a correction.

I mean, if she needs a spanking, she'll get one.

But then we go back to work.

- Go back to it.

- Nobody's upset.

- She doesn't hold a grudge and neither do you.

- No, no, uh-uh.

- The whistle that you're talking about, it's peculiar to your field?

- Yes it is.

- [Steve] It's not a whistle that I go buy at the dime store, I presume?

- Right, it's a shepherd's whistle.

There's lots of material that makes 'em up.

This one's aluminum.

I've had all kinds.

I cannot whistle without a whistle.

(Wendy laughs) So I have to have one.

There are a lot of people that can whistle without it and they do.

Very jealous of those people, but it's not me, I have to have the whistle.

- Well, it's quite a gadget.

I mean it's one of the tools of the trade that's been so interesting.

I think most people probably know, particularly maybe in among our Wyoming viewers, why you're doing this and what the job is.

Why are we herding sheep, exactly?

- Well, here at home we need to move 'em from one pasture to the other pasture.

We maybe need to catch one.

We maybe need, we might need to doctor it.

We need to load 'em, ship 'em, move 'em.

And you can do all that without a dog, but that's where cuss words come from.

- Is that right?

- Yes, yeah.

(chuckling) If you have a dog and the dog understands the livestock, there's less cussing, so, yeah.

And the dog, the dog has a special way of speaking to the livestock that I don't feel people have.

You know what I mean?

- So when she's out working with the sheep, you'll hear her talking to 'em a little bit.

- She talks to 'em with her eyes and her body language, yep.

- I see, I see.

- She doesn't talk to 'em with her mouth unless she bites one.

- [Steve] And sometimes that would happen?

- Yes, she is allowed to bite here at the ranch.

If the sheep aren't moving, we'd like her to bite the heel.

And if the sheep is challenging her, I'm okay for her to bite the face.

But it's just a bite, and then everybody moves on.

- And then occasionally there would be a sheep that would do that?

- Oh yes.

- The sheep are different too?

- [Wendy] Yes, yes.

- In the Calgary Stampede, how many sheep is she working with in the competition?

- I believe there was three.

- Three?

- Yeah.

- Now here we saw her with a larger group.

What's the biggest herd that she might ever work with by herself?

- So she's worked our sheep here, which is between 600 and 700.

- Oh my gosh.

- And she can do that by herself or I can add other dogs to it.

We can work several dogs at a time or just one.

- She's worked primarily with sheep or does she do cattle?

- She also does cattle, yeah.

She has some wins in the cattle dog trials as well.

- You have cattle on your place here?

- [Wendy] Correct.

- You do.

- Yeah.

- And it's the same process?

Or is it a little different?

- It's a little different.

One thing that's very different is the flight zone of sheep and the flight zone of cattle.

So when we talked about the bubbles earlier affecting each other, the sheep have a bigger flight zone.

So the dog doesn't have to get near as close to the sheep to affect them.

But they can get a lot closer to the cattle before the cows respect the dog.

- When we were arriving here today, she was in her pen and greeted us very kindly.

But as soon as she got out, she wanted to go.

- Yeah, she did.

- Looking for work.

Tell us about something that happened out in the field, you mentioned earlier.

We have my videographer, Steve McKnight, is here, and he flew the drone camera, which we're getting some great stuff there, But she went far away, farther away from you than you needed her to.

What was going on?

- Well, I had placed just a few lambs out here on the hayfield that she actually put 'em there.

So she knew they were there.

But when I sent her, she was gonna gather the whole hayfield, which is fine.

I would like that.

And she did find another bunch of sheep that I had out there.

And so I called her off of those and brought her back to the sheep that we wanted worked.

But that's what I love about her.

She doesn't shortcut.

She's got energy and she's willing to go out there and have a big gather.

- A big gather, meaning she's willing, that's a larger number of sheep or a larger- - Larger area.

- Area.

- So for instance, in the winter, the sheep will be on the other side of the house on the north side, in a much bigger field and the dogs don't know where they're at, but if I send a dog, they'll just hit the fence line and gather the pasture.

- They'll find.

- Yeah.

- Am I right in saying, as well, that there are occasions when what you need the dog to do is to keep the sheep in a certain place for a long time, and she'll do it.

- She'll do it.

Early on, my body tells her what to do and my whistle and my words, but at this point in our career, we do a lot of stuff that I don't tell her what to do.

She just knows what the job is and she fill in the gaps.

So, but if I wanted her to hold some sheep or stay in a gate, I would just tell her to "Lie down and stay," and then I could go do whatever, and when I got back, it could be half an hour later, she would still be there, doing her job.

And with a smile on her face, not upset about it.

- Part of that is the two of you working together.

What's the difference between Frank and Quirt, for example?

- Yeah, there's some differences.

Frank does not wanna be in trouble.

And so a correction for Frank might be, I might just look at him and give him the look and he would be upset about that.

She, on the other hand, could take a spanking (chuckles) and then she would learn from it, but Frank is very sensitive and he reads my mind a lot.

Dogs will read your mind and Frank reads mine very well.

I'm not exactly sure why.

We had a really good bond in the beginning, I think, and he just developed it.

But my favorite story about Frank is I was sorting some sheep and I had big white sheep and little black sheep.

And I was at the gate, Frank was bringing them, I was doing the sorting.

We got to the last one, it was a black sheep and I accidentally put it in with the white sheep.

So Frank came through the gate behind me and I was putting my gates back the way I wanted them.

And I heard a commotion and he had caught that black one, sorted it out of the white and brought it right back to me.

And I'm like, "Oh gosh!"

- He did not- - He's like, "Open the gate!"

So he knew.

- Think of that, huh!

- He knew exactly what the job was, and when I messed up, he fixed it for me.

There's a something extra between you and Quirt that you feel she's your, what was the, you used the word "alter ego".

- Yes, so I'm writing a book and the book is mainly about life, things that I've experienced.

90% of it is about dogs because of the things they teach me about myself and about them.

But when I met Quirt, she was very subdued and she was working at about 50%.

She was kind of worried about working with any speed and she was just kind of a subdued dog.

So I had called Buzz 'cause Buzz owned Quirt, and I said, "Hey, do you mind "if we take all the screws out of this dog?

"I'll put the screws on the table.

"I know where they go.

"We'll put 'em back as needed, "but I just feel like we need to take the screws out."

He's like, "You're in charge.

So, took all the screws out, which means there was no rules for quite a while.

I'd say "Go get sheep."

I didn't care how fast she went, I just wanted her to get in the game and enjoy it.

And in about two weeks time, I think it was, she was spinning out in the driveway, throwing gravel behind her, to go get sheep.

Totally different dog.

So then slowly we put the screws back in where they needed to go.

- So she could, she maintained that enthusiasm but then you added... - Put the rules back on.

- Some rules, okay.

- And so I feel like that's me in dog form.

Like, I don't really need a lot of rules.

I can have rules, but I kind of need to be me.

And so we had a great understanding after that.

I think that really made us buddies.

- How old was she when you started working with her?

- A year old.

- Year old.

And she's how old now?

- I think she's five.

- Five years old.

Still in her prime, would you say, as a...?

- Yeah, you hate to see this part because now six, seven, and eight, you know, they're going down the other side.

- Yeah, Frank struck me, I met Frank earlier, he strikes me as an older dog.

- Frank, I believe, was born in 2014.

- So he's a little older, but he still works?

- Oh yeah, and he still does some ranch jobs, but I kind of hand-pick the jobs for him.

- I think she's on camera some of the time here.

And so one of my curiosities about her, based on some experience I've had with observing working dogs and training, I wasn't sure what kind of dog she was gonna be.

But I think what we can tell here is that she's a very nice companion dog for you too, isn't she?

- She is, yes, and she's very devoted to me.

- She likes you!

- Yeah!

- I've heard other trainers or supposed dog experts say, "Well, we don't wanna attribute "human characteristics to the dog," but so many times they seem to be able to do things that are meaningful in that way.

- The book that I write, these dogs, they teach you about yourself, if you'll be open to the idea, They teach you about them, and they teach you about life, and they all definitely have a personality.

- What does she eat?

Do you feed her...?

She's a championship dog, world champ!

- Yeah!

- What does she eat, dog food?

- So, she gets expensive Purina, but it's good.

And right now, it's pricey, but we buy it.

They get fed once a day in the evening when the work's done.

- She sleeps, uh... - In a kennel, they all have a kennel.

- [Steve] Not in bed with you.

- No, no.

I have too many dogs for that.

- [Steve] We saw when she needs a drink, what she does.

- [Wendy] Yep, she goes and gets a drink.

- She goes right down into the creek and gets wet, gets water.

So you're writing a book.

Have you done that before?

Writing's been part of your life?

- No, I'm married to the best man in the world.

- That's a break, huh?

- Yeah, I got lucky.

If it wasn't for him, I couldn't do what I do.

When I'm on the road doing the dog thing, he stays home and takes care of the other dogs and everything else that needs taken care of.

He's my biggest fan.

Number one supporter, teaches me a lot and he keeps me grounded, keeps me centered.

Yeah, he's the guy.

- He's helping you learn to write a book or giving you the space you need to start doing it, or... - Well, the book started at 3:00 AM one morning.

So, the best husband in the world, I woke him up and said, "I'm hungry."

And he said, "What do you want?"

I said, "A pop tart, of course "and with butter."

So he brought that back to me and I ate it and then I couldn't sleep.

I don't know what it was, but when I got up, I had a lot of stuff running through my mind.

So I just started writing it down and turns out that they turned into chapters and yeah, I don't tell myself I need to go write, but when something inspires me, I go write it down.

- [Steve] It's a nice way to be able to do it.

Wait for the inspiration.

- I think there's 34 chapters at this point.

No kidding!

So like two books, maybe?

- Yeah, it may never see the light of day, but it's beneficial for me because it's funny, as you write the book, you wrote the book and then you go away and you come back later and you read it and you're like, "Did I write that?"

- I know the experience exactly.

- You know what I'm talking about?

Yes!

- It's like "Wow!

"That was pretty good!

"I wrote that, huh?"

- I know, it's almost like- - [Steve] You don't really remember doing it, either.

- No, I feel like maybe somebody else is writing the book through me because then when I go back and read it I'm like, "Huh, that wasn't too bad."

(chuckles) - How does it start?

- The book?

- Yeah.

- The first chapter is the one that got me outta bed and it was about opinions.

Social media is good and bad, in my opinion.

The opinions on social media are a multitude of opinions.

- [Steve] That's the way to put it.

- And I think that's fine; I think what happens that's not good is when you get caught up in one's opinion or you try to push your opinion on somebody else.

So I was thinking, okay, it's kind of like when I feed dogs, maybe 12 dogs get fed every night, right around that number, depends on the time of the year.

So I put dog food in for the first dog and he just goes to eating it.

Not a big deal.

And I put dog food in for the second dog and he goes to eat, and the third dog, I mean, he's growling and biting and barking and this is his dog food.

And he's very defensive about his dog food.

And I thought, "People are the same way with their opinion.

Some people, "This is my opinion, I have to really defend it."

And I thought, "No, you don't.

"You can have an opinion "and you don't have to defend it at all."

I'm not gonna defend mine.

I have one and it won't be altered, but I'm not gonna defend it or I'm not gonna enforce it on anyone else.

But anyway, so that turned into chapter one.

And then, from then, most of the chapters after that are a lot lighter, more comical about dumb things I do on a daily basis.

- You've seen a lot of things, I'm sure, that you have a smile on your face most of the time.

- Yeah.

- That makes life easier, doesn't it?

- Yeah, I got the best job ever.

- I interviewed Kate Fox, who's the chief justice of State of Wyoming, and she said, "I've got the best job in the world."

You said that to me, too.

Tell me what's great about it.

- I think, number one, I'm my own boss, so if I wanna get up at 5:00 and get started, I do.

Or if I wanna get up at 8:00 and get started, I do.

Typically, I can't wait to get outside and see the dogs.

So right now, this time of year, it's hard, because daylight is slow getting around.

But I'm ready to go at 5:30 or 6:00 and then I gotta wait for some daylight.

But yeah, number one, I can't wait to get out and see my dogs and I just can't wait to get started on the training because every day you'll see something new with the dog, some progress, and it's very rewarding to see that.

- And that was a question I thought of.

Is it ever, are you ever finished training or is she ever finished learning?

- Actually, I would call her a finished dog.

She's completely trained, but there are things we work on.

Especially if we do some ranching for a couple weeks and then there's a trial, then we go back and we sharpen our things up just a little bit because it could get a little bit sloppier while we're ranching, just because we need to get the job done.

- Different thing.

- Yeah.

But she's okay to go back and sharpen it up, she doesn't care.

- So you're your own boss.

- My own boss.

- What else?

- Well, this is my office.

- Nice office.

- The people I work with, which are dogs mainly, they don't complain.

They don't care what time we start.

They don't care what time we quit.

There's no complaining, no whining.

I hate complaining and whining.

They don't do that.

I get to work side by side with my husband every day.

I don't get a...

It's not like I see him at the end of the day and we catch up 'cause we can catch up all day.

My in-laws and John's sister works here as well, and they're great to work with.

I got the best job.

People say to me, "Oh, I'm so glad you won Calgary.

You work hard at this."

I said, "I don't, I don't work hard at anything."

- Not how you feel about it.

- Never feels like work.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is made possible in part by The Wyoming Humanities Council, helping Wyoming take a closer look at life through the humanities; ThinkWy.org; and by the members of the Wyoming PBS Foundation.

Thank you for your support.