Description
Ike, a 6-year old male, is what Les calls his “blue-collar worker” that seems to always get the job done and excels when the going really gets tough. He is a kind and confident hard-working dog, but not the dog that gets noticed as much as others. He has a very keen ability to read livestock. Ike is extremely loyal and gives everything he has to please Les and accomplish the task at hand. Ike is this year’s Texas Sheepdog Association Champion. Ike’s sire is Moel Sweep imported from Wales by Jamie Mitchell and his dam is Nan, who belonged to Jill Hefner.
Les, and his wife Katrece, live near Childress, Texas, in the Texas Panhandle. Les was raised on ranches in southwest Texas where his family raised sheep, cattle and goats, and he credits this experience for developing his ability to read livestock. Throughout his youth, he focused mainly on team roping, qualifying for the College National Finals while attending Sul Ross State University. His dad, Eddie Hale, was a long-time sheep dog trainer and began trialing in the 1960s, so Les was around working dogs all his life but didn’t really get involved in training or trialing until after college. He got his first border collie in 1986 which his dad helped him train. From then on, he has had the sheepdog bug and it eventually replaced his love for horse training. Although there was about a 25 year pause in his trialing career, Les has jumped back in with more passion and dedication than ever! He serves as a director for the Texas Sheep Dog Association and has earned Open Ranch, Ranch, and Nursery Dog-of-the-Year awards in that association as well as recently winning the double lift finals at the TSDA year-end trial with Ike. With his two current open dogs, he has won eleven open trials in the last two years. Les’s greatest satisfaction comes from the journey of taking a pup through the training process to becoming a competitive open-class dog. Throughout his life Les has been a rancher, farrier, police communications officer and currently holds a business development position for Angus Measurement Services.
