A good friend of mine (not to mention a good friend of Shelties in general, Sheltie rescue, and performance Shelties) died a few days ago. Jean Clodwick finally lost a long battle with cancer.

Jean and I became friends at the 2004 ASSA National right here in Utah when we both became embroiled in a controversial proposal from the ASSA board of directors to severely restrict the people who would be eligible to become ASSA members. We both thought that the proposal was ill-advised, unfair, unreasonable, elitist, and definitely unnecessary…beside which it wouldn’t have the salutary effect they claimed it would. (But, other than that, it was just fine.) We fought it hard for the next several months until the formal ballot was issues…and the proposal was defeated!

Jean was on the board at that time, so it was really great to get support from her (and many others, including others on the board). But the real partnership that we developed was in the advancement of the interests of people who did other things with their Shelties besides conformation showing – things like obedience, herding, and agility. Jean put performance titles on most, if not all, of her dogs and she firmly believed in the all-around dog. While she had some of the most gorgeous and well-structured Shelties in the country coming out of her breeding program, she insisted that they had to be physically sound, emotionally and temperamentally sound, and intelligent. That was probably the cause of her unpopularity in certain circles.

But Jean was a steadfast friend, a great mentor, and a powerful, persistent voice for Shelties.

She’ll be missed for a very long time.