The 69 Annual Lakes District Fall Fair and Music Festival is going to the dogs. Again. For the second year in a row sheep dog trials will be part of the entertainment at the fair, and Bryan Looker is in charge of the event.

"I won't be competing in the event this year but I'll be doing the announcing and I'm going to be doing a demonstration about 15 to 20 minutes before the first run," said Looker.

The competition consists of a herding dog and a dog handler teaming up to push three sheep through an obstacle course and into a pen combing points and time to determine a winner.

"They have to really move in the course that I've laid out because there's not a great deal of time. So you've got to get the most points and if you have more than one person with the same amount of points, then time is the determining factor. It's designed to display the finesse of the handler and the dog," he said.

There will be three days of competition, Friday through Sunday,  Sept. 7, 8, and 9. On Friday at 6 p.m. the new-bees kick off the trials. They will be herding three sheep as in the other classes, but are allowed to accompany the dog through the entire course.

"Basically what we're looking for is just to expose new people, young people, whoever, to working some sheep through the course. It can be done on a leash if they wish, but we must have the dogs under control at all times," explained Looker.

The pro-novice and the open classes will compete starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. In the pro-novice the competitors must stand in a designated area and 'send' their dogs down to the sheep, after which they can join the dogs to help drive the sheep through the obstacle course.

In the open division, the handlers must send the dogs to the sheep and stay at the 'post' until the dogs, following voice and whistle commands, have brought the sheep through the obstacles, where the handlers can then rejoin the dogs to pen the sheep.

"The dogs are working dogs," said Looker. "It's mostly ranchers that will be there and these are the dogs that they use every day to move cattle and sheep on the ranch. If you're going to get efficiency from a dog in a work environment, you have to have a strong bond, or the dog is working for itself and not with you. The single most important factor in the training of the dog is probably the bond between the dog and the handler," he said.

The handlers will be competing for cash prizes said Looker, and he is happy to be returning to the Lakes District fair. "Last year was the first one and it was a great experience for everybody," he said.

"The crowds sure enjoyed it, we had exceptionally large crowds, which really surprised me. The community does a bang-up job of that fall fair, and the support that we get from them is just phenomenal," he concluded.