08/30/2026
This past week, we said a final goodbye to a friend. We can’t tell you exactly how long we had known Sara-Jo Gahm, but it’s in the neighborhood of 30 plus years. At the time we met her, back in the 90’s, we were trialling Australian Cattle Dogs, as was she. Fast forward a few years, somewhere around 2010, and Sara-Jo started coming to our training clinics, and then started hosting her own XP Clinics at On The Lamb Farm, in Washington state. She and her husband John, and son Eli, had a very quiet, picturesque farm, surrounded on three sides by the Stillaguamish River, at the end of a long and winding switchback dead end road in a protected little valley. Five minutes from everything, but you would swear you were out in the middle of nowhere.
Sara-Jo loved training and trialing dogs. She loved her ACD’s, and became pretty successful in their world, winning quite an impressive number of National Herding Champions at their National Specialty every year. While that was special to her, the more she learned, the more she wanted to raise the bar, both on quality of dog work and her handling. She not only wanted to know how to train a dog, but to also understand the psychology that was happening throughout the process. She loved Kent’s training methods and quickly found out she couldn’t come up with a training question he couldn’t answer. Kent encouraged her to branch out and start trialing in other venues, and she jumped right in without hesitation. She eventually began expressing interest in purchasing a started dog, and wanted it to be a Border Collie. Specifically, she wanted it to be a Border Collie that Kent had not only trained, but felt would be a good fit for her, knowing her style of handling and her environment.
In 2011, we got a young Border Collie back that we had bred and sold, and our intention was to keep him and make him an Open trial dog for Kent. His name was XP Boss, and he was a smooth coated, prick eared, tri-colored dog that had plenty of push, presence and potential, but was still quite biddable. Kent made the off-hand comment one day to Sara Jo that it was too bad he was keeping Boss, because he would probably be a really good fit for her. From that moment on, it was Game On. Sara Jo began relentlessly asking Kent if he would sell Boss to her. I think every time we talked she asked again. And again. And one day he finally said “Okay, Sara-Jo, you can give him a try.” We never got the dog back. It was a match made in heaven.
Boss was Sara-Jo’s first Border Collie, but many have followed in his footsteps. Hank. Pace. Molly. Digr. Pi. Carey. Annie. Buddy. Fly. She would often see a dog she was interested in at a trial, then ask Kent to watch the dog work and give his opinion on whether the dog was a good fit for her. He was always honest, and most times he agreed it would be a good fit. She stepped her game up and started putting in more time, and a lot of miles on the road all year long. She started traveling by herself across the United States and even up into Canada, and started chasing her Dream. She loved it. She was trialing in the National Cattledog Association, the Mountain States Stockdog Association, and the United States Border Collie Handlers Association trials, and qualifying for and attending all of their National Finals. When she retired from her job as an ER Doctor, she put even more time in and traveled even more miles. She began teaching and helping other people get into herding.
Earlier this year, Sara-Jo and her husband John made the move up into Canada and settled just northwest of Calgary. It was her dream ranch, 62 acres with a gorgeous home, horse stable, indoor working arena, and lots of fields to work in. She bought sheep and cattle. We were all set to go up and start working with her again next month, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. Sara Jo was unexpectedly diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer six weeks ago. She tried to fight it, but there was no treatment plan that would gain her any time with any quality of life. She passed away on Friday morning, August 28, surrounded by her family and friends, and photos of her dogs, by her request. It was a six week journey filled with a lot of ups and downs.
One of the first messages we got from Sara Jo when she heard her diagnosis, was to ask us if we would take care of her dogs. Of course, we said yes, without hesitation. We waited until she let us know it was time, then we made arrangements to make the 3,100 mile round trip to pick them up. They have been with us now for a couple of weeks. We told her we would continue to trial them to continue their careers in her honor. She told us she liked that idea. A lot. We will be entering Buddy, Digr, and Carey in the USBCHA National Cattle Finals to be held in October in Iowa, as she had already earned qualifying points on them. Fly, one of her Nursery dogs, is expecting a litter any day now, so watch for an announcement on that soon.
We messaged back and forth daily with Sara-Jo from the time she was diagnosed until the last day. Thanks, Sara-Jo, for a lot of years of great memories, awesome dog training and good conversations. We have been blessed by your friendship. You will be missed by many who felt the same way. We offer our sincere condolences to husband John, and son Eli, and the rest of Sara-Jo’s family. You are all in our prayers.
