Laura Gibson
A Little About Me
I moved to New Braunfels, Texas, (between Austin and San Antonio) in July 2009. My kids are grown now, so it's just me and my wonderful husband, Scott, and our eight Aussies and five cats. I taught English forever and now am the English / Language Arts Curriculum Coodinator for Comal ISD. Life is good!
I enjoy competing in conformation, herding, agility and obedience. I feel that Aussie breeders have an obligation to preserve the intelligence, the athleticism and the instinct that makes this breed special to us all.
Aussies and Me
I fell in
love with Aussies in Colorado in 1984 when I met my first one.
The teacher that I was doing my student teaching with brought her Aussie
to the end-of-school picnic to play with the kids. Her Aussie was a blue
merle bitch, and after that day, I knew that my next dog would be an Aussie.
The man I married already had a dog, and we had our children, Lyndsay and
Ian, so I had to wait until 1995 for that dream to come true.
I was living in Corpus Christi, Texas, at the time, but I decided to go to Bryan, home of ASCA, to hunt for my Aussie.....it seemed to make sense to me :) So, I packed up the husband and the kids and headed to an AKC show in the spring of 1995.
I watched the breed ring both days, talking to anyone who would talk to me. One blonde, curly-haired woman was winning with everything she took in the ring - she came in with one beautiful Aussie after another. But, when she came in with her champion blue bitch, my heart was set. That woman was Lauri Butler and that bitch was Amanda, Ch. Cimarron's Gotcha Number.
I wanted an Amanda.
Lauri didn't have any blue bitches at the time, but she did have a black tri male, which I decided to take. That dog was my Chase. He sat in my lap all the home from Austin to Corpus with me dreaming of the great champion stud dog he would be. Unfortunately, sometimes we have our plans, but God has others. I had to neuter Chase and I would never have his puppies like I had hoped, so instead, all of my dogs carry his name, hence Chase Australian Shepherds.
The best gift that my friend, Lauri, gave me was introducing me to Sue Fullington of Po Aussies, who lived only an hour from me. Sue became my mentor, teaching me to handle, to evaluate, to whelp a litter, to do everything Aussie. But, most importantly, she became one of my best friends, and she was the breeder of my foundation bitch, Chelsea. I laughingly tell people interested in getting an Aussie to be careful because they are like Lays potato chips - you can't have just one! Even though I had Chase, I still wanted a blue bitch, and when I met her, Sue had a litter, and I fell in love with a blue bitch puppy which I named Po's Chase's Away the Blues. Thank you, God, for Chelsea and for Sue, two blessings in my life.
For the next four years my Aussies and I competed in conformation, agility, obedience and herding, and we had a lot of fun and success. But, in 1999, my husband surprised me with a divorce, and my kids, my dogs and I moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, to rebuild our lives. I didn't have the time or the money to compete for six years. Many of my dogs were never able to finish the titles that we had begun. In 2006, Sue helped me get a new start by sending her bitch, Po's Simple Wish, to my HOF Arrow who was owned and loved by Sheryl Kaminski in Wisconsin. That co-bred litter produced three beautiful pups, and now my dogs and I are trying to take up where we left off.
It seems
like fourteen years have gone by in a flash. My Chase is gone, but Chelsea
and her granddaughter are lying at my feet as I type this. There have been
heart-breaking times and some disappointments, but lots and lots of wiggle-butt
joy that I wouldn't trade for the world. Email me at Chaseaussies@aol.com
