Lisa Kristof started
agility in 1998 with her Rottweiler Kumba, then she got Wicket in 2000. Lisa
and Wicky MACH'd in 2004, and Lisa passed Wicket along to Terry in 2005. Lisa
got the 1st and 2nd ever MAD on a Chinese Crested with Snowbird (owned
by Alicia Ward) & Diva.
Lisa was teaching dogs from the age of 8 in herding, and had a JRT as
her house dog for many years, then a Chihuahua who had definite behavior
issues (aggressive) but with many hours of work, Stormy became a friendly,
playful boy who loved life, and adored chasing Jack when Jack was
hunting rabbits! Lisa worked with many Border Collies (some
great - others not so great), 'Heading Dogs' and Hunterways while
mustering in the high country of New Zealand. Lisa worked with a
animal behaviorist in Australia along with a Vet/Chiropractor/acupuncturist for
animals. It is here Lisa picked up even more experience. Lisa's
father could 'read' animals and it truly seems that Lisa has picked up
this unique gift, although she doesn't openly admit it often. Lisa
feels a dogs discomfort and pain. Lisa was involved in Rottweiler
Rescue for 5yrs, and was in fact TampaBay Rottweiler Rescue under the St
Francis Animal Rescue Organization (501 3c). Lisa took in over 253
Rottweilers as fosters, many from puppy mills and abused homes, worked
with them, and each one went out with it's CGC (neutered/spayed, microchipped
and fully vaccinated) before being rehomed. Of those dogs, there
are 93 still alive, many of them in their twilight years, some still competiting
in agility and rally. Lisa knows where each and everyone of those
dogs are.
Lisa taught obedience at Dog Training Club
of Tampa , under the watchful eye of Bonnie McDonald. Lisa
assisted with agility training under both Bonnie & Bill McDonald
( BonJon Shepherd Ranch ). Lisa
also offered reduce cost classes to those in apartments who had dogs,
the management welcomed us in, and her classes of six weeks long
would fill up within a day of it being advertised. All this was
part of Lisa's effect to educate the public on responsible dog ownership.
Lisa assisted Hillsborough Animal Services in a variety of ways from writing
educational material for them (that is still being published today). Lisa
offered many early rescue groups her educational library, including forms
and contact lists to improve communication between the rescue groups. Lisa
was thrilled to see how well rescue groups and the Hillsborough Animal
Services Department worked together and it proved to her that if we work
together as groups, we will do the best coverage of public education.
Lisa then moved to Texas where she started training with Laura Yarbrough
( Chuting Stars ) (who judged
both AKC, USDAA - along as having the first ever Agility Champion dog in
the country (ADCH Cody, Pom).
Lisa is a Certified ISO9000 Auditor, and was in the corporate world for
many years, she is now retired from that type of work and dedicates her
life to her dogs and helping others train their dogs, and to sort out behavior
issues to enable people to keep them dogs instead of them ending up in
shelters and rescue groups. Lisa is available for private in-home
sessions in the Dallas Metroplex area.
Lisa is a member of good standing with the American Chinese Crested Club.
New Zealand Kennel Club, with her dogs registered to do agility in: AKC,
CPE, NADAC, USDAA.
Lisa is working to bring Canine Performance
Events (CPE) to Texas, if you would like to assist in this endeavor,
please email Lisa .
Lisa grew up in New in New Zealand on a 500 acre horse ranch. My
parents bred, trained and raced Standardbred horses. I was in the
showring at the age of three competiting and at the age of 5 competed in
my first ever One Day Event (Dressage, Cross Country, Show jumping).
When she was eleven she teamed up with Fury, a 14.2hh Welsh/Cob/Arab with
the power of a freight train, boy could that pony jump, Fury took me to
heights in the sport of Eventing and Showjumping that would have never
been possible without his spirit, drive and will (he was a border collie
in a horses body!). He lived up to his name, being an absolute fireball
when it came to jumping, steady, fast and willing every time. She
hunted with the hounds regularly and at the age of 13 I was going on 'adult'
hunts through the week. Initially Fury's biggest issue was Lisa,
she had come of a string of horses that although good, did not pull and
get the bit between his mouth like Fury. Lisa and Fury were
a competitive team riding in the highest level for six years. Lisa
states that Fury educated her initially, then she educated him, then they
learned together and a great team was formed.
After Fury Lisa worked with Pal, (17hh Palamino (QuarterHouse/WarmBlood)
he was wild when Lisa got him and she worked hard with him both eventing
(won his first time out), showing and sheep mustering. Pal was a
shy horse, who spooked at a variety of new things in his environment, but
Lisa was persistent and Pal ended up being pretty stable in all situations. Pal
starred in commercials in New Zealand and ended up being a good all round
horse. Lisa left New Zealand and the co-owner (who's high country
hill property I found him on when mustering sheep) took him and continued
to use him to muster sheep and as a pleasure horse.
Just so you get an understanding when Lisa talks about mustering sheep,
we use to leave the main house at 4.30am in the morning, feed the horses & dogs,
then at 5am the horses were saddled up and 'ridden out' - we would ride
for up to two hours to 'the point' - often this would be a 1000acre land
block on steep country. the dogs would either come along with us,
or else would come in the helicopter that would drop them and shepherds
on foot to 'the point'.
Around 6am the chopper would come in, drop the dogs off, and we were ready
to start the day. For the next 7 hours, the dogs would bring
the sheep into a flock, often at one or two at a time. You ride through
thick tussock, major rockslides and course prickly gorse, you get hot,
sweaty, cranky with the sheep who really can be stupid. If
you are lucky you have part of your section flanked by a glacier
fed river, that is just delightful to stop for 5mins for a quick dunk,
cool off, unsaddle the horse, and they them swim (Pal was a swimmer, Fury
did it but didn't love it as much as Pal did). I use to give the
dogs a break as well they would just go and lay in the water, and chase
each other, but they knew the job wasn't finished and it was only a brief
break in the day, but one that was appreciated.
You are normally working a section on your own and you meet up with the
other shepherds within a few hours, and the flock grows, it's dusty, stinky
work that is a load of fun. Slowly but surely you work the sheep
back down to the shearing shed, sometimes having to cross busy roads with
a thousand plus head of sheep. you get the sheep into the sheep yards,
take care of the horses and dogs, then you have an hour break for lunch,
then it's time to get back to work. This time you are in the shearing
shed, sorting fleeces, brushing the boards or chasing sheep up into the
chutes and ensuring at all times there are sheep in the pens. Come
6pm and you are done, you feed the horses and dogs, go inside and clean
up, eat then you are so darn tired you can't stay awake. Then wake
up and do it the next day. Great school holiday job, horses remained
fit (I would rotate horses), dogs loved it, and I did too.
Will post some horse pics as soon as I get them scanned
them.
Behind this range is where we did most of our mustering
