End of October: Water Cress and Fescue and Ivy SDT

Continuing on our relentless streak of trialing, we headed down to Jan's beautiful TN farm for the Water Cress SDT the weekend following the Trifecta.  Gabe was up first in the PN and it was, shockingly, another RT as I left the post when he failed to lie down after the lift.  Sigh.

Liv and brother Deuce sneak in a quick romp.

Rae was up early the next morning in the Open.  It was cold and the sheep were surprisingly light and pressure-sensitive.  They certainly knew where the set-out was from the previous day, and ran hard toward the former site of the pens en route to the exhaust.  I don't really remember the details of our run, but there was plenty of handler error to put her in a difficult situation.  Sending her left into the pressure has caused her to get sticky on the way out in the past, and the dog ahead of me had trouble with her eye when sent left.  So I sent right, and Rae surprised me by coming in tight and pushing them off toward the pressure.  They had the head start and she never quite got ahold of them, though we fumbled around til some point on the cross-drive when I finally gave in to the reality that things weren't going well.  RT.

For various reasons, I didn't go back to the trial the second day of Open, but instead had a friend over to work dogs at the airport.

Christine and Tess and a sun cross

The following weekend, the last in October, I had Dad ride along with me out to OH for his first dog trial experience.  And, it was his birthday, too!  This was a new trial to me.  After a long trip across snowy WV mountains in the dark, we arrived very late Friday night at our cute little cabin rental. 

Ella needs to patrol the scene from the high ground.

Though I was up second from last with Rae in a very small, 25 dog class, we got up early in the morning to head out to the trial site.  A very pretty farm that was mostly flatt-ish with some gentle rolls.  It was a cold, frosty morning with a substantial fog delay.

Walking the cross-drive.

Five hair sheep, 2 ewes and 3 lambs were used on a narrow field with an off-course wooded ravine bordering the left side of the fetch.  The drive away was on an obtuse angle away from the post (yes, nerdy geometry usage) and the cross-drive was nearly parallel to the fetch.  The sheep were quite light and very few managed pens.  Rae ran out perfectly until about 2:00 where she hitched up and stuck.  Annoyed, I whistled her on.  She came around to lift them neatly when suddenly a lamb shot off for the ravine.  I bet she knew something was up while she was coming around on her outrun.  Throughout the course of the weekend, this happened to a few other dogs (some caused by the dog, some not), and I feel pretty certain Rae didn't cause this, seeing as she is very settling and kind to her sheep.  Anyway, the runs that I saw where a single ran for the ravine ended in DQs, but darn if Rae didn't outsmart and outmanuever the single to catch it, but she also muscled it back to the group and continued on.  We fought like crazy with the uncooperative lamb who wanted nothing to do with the other 4 and made a heck of a go out of it up through the turn to start the cross-drive.  The lamb saw the barn and took off in the exact opposite direction as the other 4.  Rae caught it and held it, but while fighting the lamb the others drifted so far away that there was no hope for us to put things back together, so I walked.  Many asked me if I was getting a re-run because the lamb was noticeably sick and not acting right; I didn't expect one since we did half the course.  We did get lots of compliments on our work, just not in the form of a score.  Really proud of Rae that run and what we accomplished!!

Rae is ready.

Lamb who kept leaving

For Sunday's run, our sheep were flighty as could be for the first part of the fetch.  Rae actually listened too well and when I flanked her hard to catch them, she ended up almost heading them.  That's what I get for practicing too much on loosening up her flanks on her occasional reluctance to flank on the fetch.  After missing the fetch panels I was so emotionally deflated that my brain pretty much shut down.  She was working really well but I managed to miss both panels at literally the last split second, it probably looked like I *tried* to miss them it was so ridiculous!  One got a little spastic at the Y-chute so we gave up on that and did a half-hearted split to put an end to a disappointing weekend.

Seemed promising

Take two.

Gabe was supposed to run PN, but the class was canceled due to the fog delay.  He wasn't allowed to run Ranch NC, so we headed home. 

The leaves were outstanding in the WV mountains.

Last But Not Least: Lexington SDT

Lexington was the third of the VA fall series, my first time at this trial, and it was very enjoyable.  David and Cheryl's Montadales were quite nice to work and the field certainly has it's extra challenges due to the various horse obstacles strewn about.  Tom Wilson judged, a unique treat for all of us.

When sending your dog, the left outrun allows you to see your dog the whole way out, but the dog loses sight of it's sheep, whereas the right outrun, you lose sight of your dog until almost the lift, but the dog can spot it's sheep well en route.  In that situation, it was so nice to be able to feel confident sending Rae right and knowing that she'd be fine.  There's not a whole lot to say about our run.  It was a little tricky keeping one lamb with the group, she seemed a bit of an independent thinker, but Rae listened really well and we got the group around with good lines and made all of our panels.  It took me a minute to get a good shed set up, but she came through well and we continued on for a clean pen.  Turns out our run was good enough for an 87, which put us in 5th behind three-89s and an 88.  We were awarded the 6th place ribbon and check, but according to the trial host, the results on Sheepdog-L, and the local newsletter, we took 5th.  There was a three-way tie with 87s, so I guess it was a bit unclear how the tie was broken.  Whatever the placement, it was a good run for us, and luck would have it...I have it on video!  I have always been leary of video-taping my runs for fear of jinxing myself, but this time I just bit the bullet and had someone tape for me.  At 10.5 years, Rae isn't getting any younger, and I *really* wanted to have video of us.  So here it is!  (Thanks to Nancy S. for filming)

Our second run was pretty good, too, though I didn't think it felt as nice in the moment.  Nearly identical in score except that we didn't get our pen: I let them circle once and then took my sweet old time getting them in.  We timed out as I was closing the pen door.  We wouldn't have placed after the pen mishap, anyhow, but I still should've been more aware.

Rae keeps the line on the return leg.

Working the split

 Pen

Gabe put in some good work on the exhaust field.  There was a dog taking sheep off the field and then relaying them to us to drive away to put in a holding pen.  He worked a couple hours there over the course of the weekend, some tricky work plus you couldn't whistle or otherwise make much noise.  A good experience, but maybe not so good for his trial runs.  He was way overly excited and couldn't listen, a definite disappointment.  Both his PN runs were retires since he wasn't quite remembering that I was a part of the equation.

Gabe's no dummy: when I told him to "look" he first turned around to spot the sheep in the other field that he'd been working all weekend.  Good thing we've been working on spotting sheep,

I was able to get him going for the *correct* ones.

(All photos courtesy of M. Dobbs)

Round 2: Quiet Acres SDT

Mid-week brought a new trial hosted by Dan and Sylvia at their beautiful Quiet Acres Farm.  It got a little chillier and the rain showed up uninvited, but we (of course) still had a blast!  A nice rolling field with a few blind spots and lovely Katahdins.  The farm was in great shape and the catered handler's dinner was excellent!

Rae ran toward the end of the class and unfortunately drew a mature ewe who did not feel very inclined to participate.  Dog and sheep were out of sight on the fetch longer than expected, so I'm not sure what exactly was being discussed between Rae and that ewe.  She eventually got them up and going again around the post and onto the drive.  We tried hard to convince her to go, but we had some trouble moving her.  The work was extra tricky in that the other ewe and 2 lambs thought they'd like to run off, which worried Rae, so we alternated between pushing on the lagging ewe and racing ahead to catch the others, which of course stopped our progression on moving the lagger along.  We actually had pretty good lines, but ate up so much of our time pushing, then catching, then pushing again.  We got to the shed ring and either got a quick half-hearted shed or timed-out, I forget.  Not that memorable of a run, really.

Next day we ran in the pouring rain.  Had a decent run going until Rae hit the dip in front of the driveaway panel and couldn't hear me.  She didn't know what to do, so kept trying to bring me sheep, then one of my whistles or shouts would get through to her and she'd get them righted, only to lose contact with me and decide to bring them again.  We tried and tried and eventually turned the panel low to get out of that spot.  Good rest of the drive, shed, but timed out as I grabbed the pen rope.  I was really sad to see that she couldn't hear me, but it *was* raining really hard and she *was* in a spot on the field where other younger dogs showed that the hearing was poor.

So rainy...and I didn't have rain pants. 

(Photo by R. French who was toying with a new lens)

I'd been driving back and forth from home to get in a couple days of work in between the trials, and on Rae's day off between QA and Lexington, she developed a small swelling on her left cheek under her eye.  I started her on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for a suspected tooth root abscess, but she seemed to be feeling OK and was eating fine.  Later her face blew up in a rather impressive way, so I wonder if she actually wasn't feeling herself for her runs.  Though I'm sure she wouldn't have asked to sit them out!

The VA Trifecta: Edgeworth

Mid-October provided a week of trialing in the central VA area with Edgeworth, Quiet Acres, and Lexington SDTs.  I had to run back-and-forth from home to squeeze in a couple days of work, so it was a busy week for me, but so worth it!

The grass at Tommy and Florence Wilson's was pretty darn tall this year, and plenty of seasoned dogs did some odd things as they got disoriented and frequently lost site of their sheep even when hot on their tails.  Rae, who has always gone on a left outrun, showed me that she wanted to go right, and whaddyaknow...I still hadn't learned my lesson.  I made her go left and she proceeded to ignore my redirects and cross-over on her way out.  Yeah, it's a tough outrun over tricky terrain, it's almost 600yds I think, and the grass was taller than she, but still, she's been to the top plenty of times and I was totally surprised that she crossed.  Not listening at all, she even started coming back down the field on her original trajectory as I desperately tried to get her to turn back.  Then she was out of site behind some hills for a ridiculous amount of time, even ignored my recalls...I did think we were going to have to fire up the Mule to go find her.  Thought maybe she'd gone to a neighboring field looking for sheep.  Well, she turned out to be very clever, once she hit the fence she followed it to the top to find her sheep!

We had lost so much time that I tried to just hustle the sheep around the course.  I don't remember much about that trip around, made at least some panels, but only had about 2 minutes as we started the drive, so we just shoved them around and back to the pen where we timed out.

Second go, I gave her the desired right-hand outrun, she needed a get back about 2/3 of the way out as the terrain started to suck her in, and this time she took it perfectly.  A surprise to me since I hardly ever practice outruns with her, she is so natural.  Another suprise, she overflanked at the top, even being sent into the pressure of the set-out, so we had a poor start to the fetch.  Got things settled for a 25 point drive and on to the pen.  The sheep were difficult to pen all weekend and I got myself too excited when the first two went in and prematurely stepped in to put pressure on them...aaaand spooked the third on her way in.  We never did get the pen (or shed).

 "Don't you go wide around that post!"

(M. Dobbs photo)

So a bit of a disappointing weekend, especially since there is a good chance this was Rae's last fall Edgeworth.  Next year she'll be 11.5 and it may be just too big of a course for her.

So Gabe practiced spotting sheep from the sidelines for next year.

Taking it all in

(M. Dobbs)