Hello and welcome to Dakota Life.

I'm Michelle Van Maanan.

Whether or not we recognize it, most of us create something in life.

The satisfaction of taking raw materials and turning them into something useful or unique is an integral part of the human spirit.

Our materials are as individual as we are.

Some of us find a creative outlet and crafts.

Some of us build houses, and still others turn empty canvases into works of art.

Our first segment takes us to Rapid City to meet a woman whose artistic endeavors began years ago as a passion for collecting dolls.

When Cheryl Livermore's love for these porcelain creations grew beyond her budget, she didn't give up her hobby.

She transformed it into something beautiful.

Whether it has blue eyes or brown long hair or short a smile or frown.

Every doll that Cheryl Livermore makes is different.

And that's a lot of dolls.

Considering this Rapid City native has produced over 1000.

I started making dolls in 1977.

I had two daughters at the time, and I'd always liked loved dolls and started collecting cloth dolls.

One of a kind dolls, by different local artists and some collectors dolls, and walked into ceramics shop and they were offering a porcelain doll class.

And I knew at that time the only way that I could afford the porcelain dolls that I wanted was to make them, because I wanted them for my daughters, but I also wanted them for myself.

Ten years later, Cheryl opened her own doll making studio.

She now teaches doll enthusiasts from all over America how to create their own porcelain beauties.

Our dolls.

We do one of a kind costume.

We create our own patterns.

We do.

I teach the sewing classes.

The the students are not allowed to use patterns.

And we we recommend that they do one of a kind and not duplicate what they're doing.

Because most, QVC dolls are the same molds that are provided to us.

Only they may do 1 to 5000.

One of 10,000.

I don't believe in numbering dolls, because I'm only going to do one of that type of costume.

What we do on our dolls that is different is at the time the doll is cleaned and before it's fired, we put the month, the day in the year that the doll is done.

So you can tell by, you know, the, the and the back of the mold.

You can tell when that doll was done and I, which I feel is better than number.

And when you're doing one of a kind.

The first thing that I do when I walk into a studio and I look at a doll is lift up or slip.

I think the underclothes, should be just as pretty as the outer clothes.

And when you've put that much into a doll, I don't think that underclothes are something that should be skimped on.

We put nothing on the doll that cannot be taken off, cannot be cleaned.

I don't believe that doll should be in cases.

I think dolls are something you want to walk up and touch.

So, therefore, we get many calls asking if we, carry doll cases, and I. My answer, of course, is always no, because I think they should be touched.

I think they should be touchable.

My husband does all the pouring my he does all the cleaning of the best for me.

He brushes the bodies.

He does all the.

He says he does all the grunt work, which is the things that he likes to do.

I get to do the fun stuff.

I get to paint the faces, and I get to create the costumes and put them together.

After the molds are poured and the bisque is cleaned.

The pieces are fired at about 2300 degrees.

The skin tone of the doll is in the liquid porcelain.

So whether you're producing a Native American doll, an Oriental doll, or a Victorian princess, after it's cooled, you're ready to start creating the dolls expressions.

First painting you're painting the eyelashes, the shadow eyebrow, the mouth, and you're brushing the body.

Your second painting, you're putting the hairs in your eyebrow and, blushing the cheeks.

And the reason we don't do the brushing of the cheeks on the first one, is not only we don't want to run into the eyelashes, but also because the more that you fire, usually your red, so your cheek colors will turn orange and the firing.

So the more it's fired.

Beginning student may do one set of eyelashes on one eye.

Lower eyelashes.

The heads can be fired up to ten times.

And the porcelain, finishing or completing a face, depending upon how quickly you know you do it.

I kind of make it as I go.

You know it.

My husband always says that he can tell where I'm at when I'm painting a doll by the finished look of it.

You know, when I'm done.

Maybe you are in a really super mood that day.

And maybe you're felt a little quieter.

And he he believes that, you know, it always shows up in the painting.

And so I don't have a clue most of the time.

How I may, you know, have some idea that whether it's going to be a little girl doll or if I'm going to dress it as a Lady Dollar, a Victorian doll, but I don't have a clue what I'm going to do until I start cutting out that fabric, until I start laying out my lace, until I'm finished with it.

I just create as I go.

Peggy Sue is kind of one of my favorite dolls.

We call it the Brat.

And the reason?

She's one of my favorite dolls.

When you get upset, this is kind of how we feel.

So I think all of our husbands need to know that.

So this should be sitting right in front of them.

Okay.

And I, not only costuming, this we did with the, in pin tucking and took the embroidery machine, and we embroidered I own embroidery work on it, and we can turn around, and it also shows on her little sleeves, and she has lots of ruffles on her little panties.

Don't let the sashes and lace scare you away from this creative art form, according to Cheryl.

This is a hobby anyone can enjoy.

There are men that are involved in it, and even, some of the men artists, are do reproduction dolls.

And I would have to say a lot of your men one week had several men students, and they really, probably catch on a little bit faster than women do because the men are perfectionists.

It's not as easy.

But anyone can do it.

You know, the only thing that holds us back is, you know, they're saying we can't do them.

It's something anyone can do.

We've had art.

We've had portrait artists come in, we've had or, you know, oil canvas artists come in and they think they're going to sit down and just whip a doll right out.

And that's not true.

It takes them some time.

Besides making dolls beautiful, Cheryl also works on people in her beauty shop, which doubles as a showroom for some of her favorite creations.

This is, pouty, and she's the second doll that I did, so she was probably done in 1978.

And this doll I chose because she reminded me of my, oldest daughter, Leslie.

And, I was asked to do a presentation at a church, and so I took several of the dolls.

After, besides this one that I had done.

And, bringing her back home, I dropped and broke her.

So I took this doll and took the costume and put it on her and replaced her back on our daughter's dresser.

And a couple days after that, she asked me where her doll was, and I said, well, she's on your dresser.

And she said, no, she's not.

And I said, well, yes, she is.

And she said, mother, that is not my doll.

So people really, you know, know their dolls, they know the personality.

They know what they liked about the painting.

And she was probably ten years old at the time, and she knew that that was not her doll.

With a wall full of molds, students attending her class from all over the country, and an endless imagination.

Cheryl says she plans on making dolls for a long, long time.

Besides serving as a creative outlet, doll making can also be quite profitable.

Porcelain dolls have always been considered collectibles, but in recent years they've become some of the most collected items in the world.

Cheryl's handcrafted creations range in cost anywhere from 200 to $2000 to Cheryl.

However, each and every one of her unique beauties is priceless.

Our next segment takes us to Howard, where we'll meet a group that spends its time creating something both unique and useful.

Their raw materials are dogs.

Their final products are heroes.

The process used to get them there takes time and dedication.

On the surface, it may seem like an elaborate game of hide and go seek, but as producer Stephanie Ressler shows us, it's a game with a very serious purpose.

The dog is often referred to as man's best friend.

He's loyal, a good listener, and probably the only species that loves you more than he loves himself.

There is one group of dogs that have taken their love for man one step further.

Meet Tyra, Molly.

Jake.

Jake can be there.

He can't get Heidi.

And Ryker from the whole Koka search and rescue dog unit out of Howard.

The name of the group is Search and Rescue.

It's an Indian word meaning central, which, if you do geographic lines.

South Dakota is kind of central.

The dogs, they're looking just for human beings.

We do not do drugs.

Another thing that we do not do is, criminals, convicted criminals, unless we know absolutely that they're not armed.

When people call, we need to know for sure where, where we're going, which is pretty obvious.

And, we want them to get us a map.

Wind direction.

They can give us the wind direction.

The age, what interest the person has.

If they're if they like to walk, if they like to sit and watch TV or what some characteristics of the person.

And that will give you some idea where they will go.

People who like water will follow.

Strange people like mountains will climb mountains.

The training is it's kind of like a jungle seek game.

We start out when they're little puppies.

The owner of the dog goes and lays in the grass and somebody else is with you.

They'll hold them and then stand behind them and tell them to go find.

So the puppy sees them, you know, so he'll run up to the owner.

You just keep doing that repetitious.

Then you just keep going further back and further back.

Eventually you go.

So, the puppy sees you, but then you hide behind something so he doesn't see you, and he's always going into the wind.

So he's picking up that scent.

And that's basically how we start.

Own.

Although this search is nothing more than a game to the dogs.

If it's your life or a loved one's life on the line, this game of hide and go seek may determine whether you live or die.

The thing that you need to call early for is like a four year old that you think can't go very far, can probably walk two miles in an hour.

So when you don't know which direction you're going, that gets two miles in every direction.

So all at once you got an area that's five or 6 or 8 sections or nine sections.

And so while you're organizing and the half hour takes us to get ready and then get wherever we're going, all that time is going by, it's been documented, not our dogs, but it's been documented in different areas that, they can find people in water up to 100ft deep or deeper, depending on the situation.

They use dogs out in Colorado for snow avalanches.

We strictly just have German shepherds.

Now, that's not saying that you can't use another dog, but that's nationally art, which is, you know, National Search and Rescue dog unit.

That's what their standards are, is to have German Shepherds.

And another reason why we use German Shepherds is they're kind of a universal dog.

They can adapt to the climate, you know, like cold or heat.

They can adapt a lot better than a lab with a bloodhound.

They basically get locked on one scent and that's what they're locked on where the, you know, other dogs, the shepherds, are that they walk.

They're they're trained to kind of like, you know, go for a mouthful of victims.

See, your body's always giving off a particle scent, kill just particles of skin.

That skin.

And that's what they're picking up on.

And so when we do a search in an area, we like to have the area cleared at least 20 minutes to a half hour before we get there.

And realistically, most of the time it isn't.

But the dogs are always going after the freshest human scent.

Right now we're going to put the dogs to the test.

Henry's about 70 yards away from me with Molly.

He's going to release her in about 30s.

Now, if I were someone in need of being rescued, let's see if they could find me.

Okay, show me.

Come on.

Charlie.

Molly, don't get excited.

Good girl.

My girl.

She found us.

This canine dream team have done their share of high profile cases, including the search for murderer Benny Lively.

The crash of an airplane in the Missouri River and searching for a murder victim.

Piper Riley.

We searched from 5 or 6 days on Australia.

Search different places in, I think McCook, Turner County.

We we searched, which really made me believe that it's there's a lot of places to hide because we were going on slews of farm buildings, dead end roads, all kinds of things going to places where they thought the man was comfortable being.

We pretty much go where we're called.

We've been in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota.

So we go all over.

If we got called someplace in the United States, depending on what it is.

Yeah, we'd probably go depending on the situation.

Normally, what we do when we're doing a search, we clean everybody up and get the dogs ready to go.

We get into a group, you know, of.

It's actually kind of a line pattern, like when you're pheasant hunting.

We get in a line.

If we're doing a big area, sometimes we're split up into different groups, and if we do that, we try to team up with two.

So but then we get get the dogs ready to go, come on Jake.

And then we go and we just give them the command.

Let's go find.

Come on Jake, go find.

Unfortunately, over half of the people the dogs are called to search for are found before the unit even arrives.

But just one rescue makes it worthwhile.

Whether it's successful, even if we don't make it there, they're still successful because the person has been found.

When the dogs do successfully find a victim, they are rewarded with praise.

Good job, good job, good job Molly.

And of course, another game of hide and go seek with none other than their best friend.

Come on, Jake, let's go find mine.

Him.

Good boy.

Jake.

Good boy.

The whole Koca Canine Search and Rescue dog unit is on call 24 hours a day for anyone needing help.

They can be reached through the minor county police station and their services are free.

Sometimes the creative process involves taking something that's already there, improving it, and molding it to suit our needs.

In our next segment, we'll meet a man from Viborg who does just that.

Like the group in our last segment.

He too works with dogs.

These, however, are not your run of the mill family pets.

These are dogs whose natural instincts, when combined with proper training, make them hardworking and loyal allies to farmers and ranchers.

The relationship between man and his dog is centuries old.

The bond that humans share with their canine companions is like none other in the animal kingdom.

Many people treasure the feeling of companionship they share with their dog.

For others, that bond is even deeper.

For Viborg native Tim Flint, it's a relationship of trust, loyalty, and the ability to work together.

In South Dakota pastures, tending to herds of sheep and cattle.

Go have some fun.

Jim breeds and trains his dogs to work alongside him.

His dogs are border collies.

They make the perfect livestock dog.

That's what their natural instinct is, is to gather stock and bring them to you.

And when you get one train, if they can see him, they'll be I mean, it can be.

If they can see him at a mile away, they'll they'll they'll round them up and bring them to you at a mile away.

Border collies have been bred for centuries to acquire the characteristics that make them the ideal herding dog.

Their intelligence and stamina are two of their most prominent traits, and their fine tuned hearing is key to performing their job.

The hearing is exceptional.

In the training process, we we start out using voice commands.

Come on.

They've got the voice commands, and we'll, go to a whistle.

And just about everybody that handles, a border collie will will use a whistle because they can hear it at 4 or 500 yards.

It's like you're standing next to the.

It's easy to see why the ranchers of yesterday treasured these dogs.

Even today, many ranchers like Tim appreciate the efforts of those so many years ago to breed the perfect ranching companion.

They're the smartest dogs there.

If, once you once you get one up, they're old enough.

And what I really appreciate about them is, you can, once you get get them trained.

They'll they'll remember what you trained them to do.

And it's just repetition.

You know, they're they're a cheap hired man.

They really are.

You know, with, like, yesterday and today, you know, it was bull.

You got to do chores and stuff.

He's right there beside you.

You know, weather, weather don't make no difference.

You know, to them, they're, they're they they work.

They're bred to work.

And then we'll work until they die.

I guess what you learn to appreciate is their heart.

They just just won't quit.

Despite all the careful breeding that goes into these dogs, they aren't born with the proper education.

They need to do their job.

It takes daily training and years of experience to mold these young pops into master herders.

And for Tim, that's one of the greatest perks of being a breeder.

I like to watch the little puppies.

A lot of times the instincts will start coming out in these pups at all.

Three months old, four months old in there.

And what what what you can see the pups will do is the first, if they spot something that interests them, their head will drop down and when when their head drops down and they stare at something, that's what we call eye.

So they'll they'll be eyes and stuff.

Yeah.

Pretty soon you'll just.

They'll just track in behind a sheep or something, which will last for 15 20s.

And then they're then they're gone because their attention span isn't there, you know, and I just, I like I like the whole process, from puppies all the way up to training.

I really enjoy training them.

It's, my stress reliever.

Once the pups get a little older, around 7 or 8 months, the real training begins.

This is the style in the eye that the guy likes to see, that I like to see come out in these pups.

He's got enough power.

At seven months old, he can hold his sheep up against the fence.

So there are a lot of commands these young dogs have to get straight.

When you're training, you've got right hand commands and left hand commands.

Clockwise or counterclockwise.

And your right hand command is a way, left hand is come by.

And then we teach him to lie down, which is, is is a natural instinct of for a lot of border collies is they'll just naturally lie down on their belly.

You teach them to walk up on their livestock and, around.

A lot of guys will put a bite command on, And I never do it verbally, but I'll put a bite command on on with a whistle.

This is where a lot of my where my bite command will come from.

And, yes, you got to have dog bites.

You know, it.

I like to have a pup when they're seven, eight, nine months old to be able to bite it.

It gives them confidence.

You know, generally you think as a border collie is is a sheepdog, but they'll, they'll work anything from ducks to water buffaloes.

And, you know, that's just their instinct.

So when you send one of these out to cattle, to a cattlemen, they've got to be able to bite, you know, to defend themselves with hard work and a lot of patience.

These dogs will not only learn their verbal commands, but their corresponding whistles as well.

Each dog learns its own pitch.

So Tim can work with 2 or 3 dogs at a time, using only his whistle commands to direct the dogs border colleagues have acquired many fans over the years, impressing crowds with their physical ability and intelligence.

Tim has taken his dogs to events like Highland Days in Scotland and the Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City to demonstrate their skill.

Although Tim wants the crowds to appreciate the dogs, he can't stress enough the fact that these are herding dogs, not house pets.

Years of breeding have given border collies the ability to us with their skill, but he will only sell his dogs to fellow ranchers who will use them to their full potential.

Tim cautions anyone wishing to bring one of these bundles of energy into their home they're hyperactive.

If if a border collie doesn't have something to do, it will create something to do.

You know, for for one of these to go to town is just like putting a person in prison.

I mean, they don't have anything to do.

So what they'll do is they'll start chasing cars and.

And, birds, birds is real, real good thing for him.

And you'll even see him trying to herd the kids around the yard.

I mean, it's it's natural for them to do something.

I mean, and they're hurting that their instinct is to hurt.

And it doesn't matter what it is.

They're.

If they're bored enough, they'll they'll they'll hurt it.

But as far you know, for a farm dog, I mean, they're a ranch dog.

They're just perfect for Tim.

The relationship between his dogs and himself is more than just one of companionship.

It is one of camaraderie.

They work as a team and a very successful one.

An old dog training adage says every dog owner gets the dog he or she deserves.

One look at the skill and Tim's dogs.

And you can see how the old adage rings true.

Come on, let's go have some fun.

Okay?

Come on.

Not only have Tim's border collies gained a strong reputation as loyal ranch hands, they've had success in competitions as well.

Over the years, several of his dogs have won awards for their skills.

Well, that wraps up this edition of Dakota Life.

As always, you're invited to be a part of our creative process.

If you have a story idea for a future show or just like to comment on what you've seen, send 518 00:26:00,759 --> 00:26:04,262 You can also see some of your favorite segments from past shows at our website.

Until next time for South Dakota Public Television, I'm Michelle Van Maanan.

Thanks for watching.