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!