St. Anthony boy and his dog win national stockdog competition

ST. ANTHONY — Hayes Crapo and his dog, Ann, won first place in the Junior Handlers Class at the 2023 National Finals of the Mountain States Stockdog Association (MSSA) held in Afton, Wyoming on June 19-24.

Hayes is nine years old and competed with 14 handlers from eight different states. The Junior Handlers Class is the youngest out of six competition classes in the national finals. His mom, Mandi Crapo, told EastIdahoNews.com the Junior handlers are usually five to nine years old, but teams are divided up more by the skill of the handler than age.

Hayes qualified for his spot at the national finals by earning points at competitions called “trials” throughout the year. These are competitions where each handler/dog team is awarded points for moving a group of cows or sheep through an obstacle course. Teams qualify for nationals when they earn enough points. Hayes earned his qualifying points at the Idaho State Fair last year, Crapo said.

“I was super excited,” Hayes said of qualifying. He had been competing in trials for a year or two, he told EastIdahoNews.com.

Dog handling is a family affair for the Crapo family.

“My brother, he’s 12, he got me into it,” Hayes said.

“We use dogs a lot on the ranch,” Crapo said. “The kids got excited about giving their dogs commands and watching them do the work.”

Now, Hayes and his brother Hagen go to trials with their dad, Weston Crapo, and they all trial their own dogs.

Hayes’ and Ann’s success is even more surprising, given that they had only been training together for a few weeks before the finals.

“The dog he usually runs trials with broke her leg,” Crapo explained. Eventually, the leg had to be amputated, and that left Hayes in a tough spot. Both members of a team — dog and handler — have to be qualified for the finals. He couldn’t train up a new dog. Especially with the trial only a couple of months away.

Although Hayes’ injured partner is still part of the family, she wasn’t up to handling competition, let alone working cattle on the ranch. So, the Crapos bought a new ranch dog. With Hayes in mind, they bought Ann; she already had enough qualifying points for nationals.

Ann came pre-trained, but that didn’t mean Hayes would automatically take her to the national competition.

“(Ann) took a liking to Hayes,” Crapo remembered. “Some dogs won’t listen to more than one person. They’ll only listen to one — maybe two — people.” It was their ability to work together that was ultimately the deciding factor on teaming up.

With only three or four training sessions to prepare, he was really nervous, Hayes said. “Because I really wanted to win.”

Junior teams work with cows, Hayes said. The handler/dog teams works together to bring the cows through a makeshift cattle chute, then out a gate the handler opens. They started their trial with a “come-by” command, Hayes said.

“That sends them to the left and clear around the cows … and she brings them toward me,” he explained.

As you can see in the video above, the duo make it look easy.

Crapo said having kids who trial dogs is a little but unique, but she likes that they can feel successful doing “other things” besides sports.

“I really like trialing,” Hayes said. “I like the friends that are there.”

Hayes won a belt buckle ant $100. He plans to keep trialing dogs and competing. When asked if he could tell people one thing about trialing dogs, he answered, “They’re really smart.”

The MSSA stages finals each year. This year’s event hosted competitors from 19 states and one Canadian province. Over 100 handlers displayed the talents of over 200 dogs in this year’s competition. Handlers and dogs competed for over $100,000 in prize money and awards.