2024 Meeker Classic Champions
Scott Glen & Pip, 6-year-old Male
New Dayton, Alberta CANADA
Scott Glen placed with two dogs in the top twelve at the 2024 Meeker Classic.
Pip, a 6 year old male placed first in the Double Lift with a solid score of 126. Scott recalls the run, “Pip’s crossdrive was going well and he had them on the line but I made a mistake and changed the line and we missed it. I figured that lost him the trial but it ended up that the dogs that had better runs around the course than he didn’t manage to get the shed finished. Pip had a decent shed and pen and that was what helped him win the trial.”
Scott Glen and Pip didn’t compete at the 2023 Meeker Classic. He and other North American handlers were in Ireland at the World Sheepdog Trial. He and Pip placed 3rd in the world . By placing 3rd in the World trial, Pip is the highest placing dog trained in North America to date.
Pip is a son of Ricky Hutchinson’s Sweep
an English National champion, and he was bred by Scott Macaulay in Scotland. “Pip was special right from the start and you got the feeling from the moment he got off the plane that he was going to be something,” says Scott. “He had a quiet demeanor and was clever but sensitive.” When not on the road for trials, Pip works sheep every day and cattle only occasionally. He doesn’t get much time on cattle but manages to place in most of the cattle trials he goes to. In addition to placing 3rd at the World Trial in 2023, and winning Meeker in 2024, Pip has won Soldier Hollow twice and was the Reserve National Finals champion twice and National Finals Champion once.
This marks Scott’s fourth time as the Meeker Classic Champion.
His first win was in 2005 with Pleat. Remembering Pleat’s run, Scott said that Pleat had a good hold of his sheep on the lift but they leaned on him a little on the start of the fetch. He made too sharp of a flank to correct it so there was some wobble before we got it straightened out. He had a great turn back and a wide turn after the panel on the first leg of the drive but the rest of it went pretty well.
Scott’s next win was in 2019 with Taff. Taff had a good run around the course, but couldn’t get the shed finished in time. Other handlers had the same trouble and Taff’s good outwork won him the trial.
Alice’s 2021 Championship at the Meeker Classic
made her the most decorated Border Collie in North America. Sadly only weeks later, while travelling east to the USBCHA National Finals, Alice was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was unable to compete at the finals. Scott’s wife Jenny eloquently describes Alice’s final journey: “The brain tumor grew rather rapidly and she ended up almost totally blind and with severe dementia. We had to put her down the day after we got home from the finals. We keep saying we can’t believe she won Meeker just the month before. You gotta’ be at the top of your game to do that and a month later she barely knew her name. The two things she still knew were sheep and Scott.”
Three year old Mist is a grand daughter of Alice
and was Scott’s 6th place dog at the 2024 Meeker Classic.She has some of the same moves as her grandmother but is not as smooth as she was at this point. She has a lot of forward which helped her place as the reserve National Champion when she was 2 years old. She is quite spoiled and is Scott’s best friend and not only sleeps on the couch at home, but in the camper too when we are on the road.
Scott Glen grew up on a cattle ranch in Southern Alberta, Canada. His family always had ranch dogs around, but they weren’t expected to help much with the stock work. When he was in his early twenties, he decided to start raising sheep. Scott attended a sheep convention where he was planning to learn how to shear but got distracted by a sheepdog herding demonstration. He never made it to the shearing class, but he has been hooked on herding ever since. Scott has been training border collies to herd sheep and cattle for over 25 years now and made it a full-time profession in 1997. He and his wife Jenny manage their kennel, Alta-Pete Stock Dogs (named after his family’s Scottish clan motto). Alta-Pete means “Aim High”. Most winters they can be found on their Alberta ranch where Scott trains sheep herding dogs for customers. Jenny does the night lambing and Scott takes over in the morning. They spend two months each spring trialing and giving clinics and then summertime finds them getting ready for the fall trials. During the fall, they’re back on the road trialing again at Soldier Hollow, Meeker and the National Finals.
A week after returning from the World Trial in 2023, Scott and his dog Alice were both inducted into the Border Collie Hall of Fame at the USBCHA National Finals. We congratulate Scott on his achievements. He and Jenny are a team that work together juggling schedules, dogs, training and work on the place in Alberta. It’s always a pleasure to have them in Meeker and we look forward to seeing them compete in 2025!