A few weekends ago we went to Robin's for her annual trial to benefit Duke Cancer Center. Gee, it had been a looong time since we'd trialed. Rae had been off the whole winter and Gabe had been used to pushing ewes and lambs around, but it was good to get an early trial under our belts.
Rae drew up first run of the trial and did everything I asked of her. Good lines, made our panels, just nice and smooth. She seemed a little winded when we got to the shedding ring and we had to really work to get the shed. We were running 2 ewes and a lamb out of a hodge-podge of a farm flock, and though it wouldn't have been my strategy going into the run, I ended up calling her in on the lamb. After regathering we were to put them into a pen that had an opening wide enough for one sheep to fit through at a time. Once you chose your side to stand on, you were committed...and I hated to go first because I didn't really know which side was the best to choose. We never did convince our group to go in and Rae was still catching her breath, so we timed out after a respectable run. I did notice that the other handlers chose the same side as me, and there weren't many pens that day...hmm, did I set everyone up for failure?! Teehee. I was very surprised to find RaeRae ended up placing 4th!
Rae on the fetch (photos by M. Dobbs)
Bringing them to the ring
Setting up the shed
I ran Gabe in PN and totally let *myself* down. My game plan was to walk away the second he didn't use his brain or his listening ears, and when he ran out with a bad attitude (too much yeehaw) and ignored my down halfway out to remind him "hey buddy, get it together," I thought twice about retiring instead of actually doing it. He was tighter on the top than I wanted him, though looking back it may have been that the place where the sheep were set didn't allow for too much depth behind. Anyway, he also didn't take my stop at the top, so I was getting aggravated. He sorta listened on the fetch, our turn was not very pretty, but we finally did get a good rhythm going on the (very short) drive. I switched to voice while driving him because I thought he'd be more comfortable with that. He had them going well, made the panel, and then I gave him the wrong flank and he actually took what I told him vs. what the situation called for. So, good boy, bad handler. We brought them right back through the panel and then putzed around at the pen a minute before I retired. I wasn't so much mad at him, but at myself. I handled poorly and then got too emotional with him for faults that were mine.
Sunday, Rae and I ran near the end of the class. Again, she ran really nicely for me and was just *right*. We had a very good shed this time (no points off, possibly a first for me?), but still couldn't get them penned. Luck would have it that our run was good enough for 2nd!
I moved Gabe up to Ranch even though we certainly didn't set the PN field on fire the day before. The outrun was a little tricky and a ridge partway out was good at sucking dogs in early, even a few of the Open dogs. Gabe stopped, took a nice redirect, and found his sheep with no trouble. Part of the fetch was in a bowl that was blind to the handler, and I was worried since the last time we faced this in a trial he had a bad-dog moment where he was hanging on to a ewe (though neither I nor the judge could see). This time he was a very smart boy and the sheep emerged perfectly online and *walking* with dog *walking* behind them! Right through the fetch panels until they wanted to pull toward the exhaust during the last part of the fetch. I fussed at him for missing a down instead of sending him immediately to cover, so we got a tad offline during that training moment. Around the post and on to the first leg, he had a good flow going and was *still walking*!!! Made the panel but there was some difficult field pressure at the turn and he ended up crossing his course. I didn't get worked up but let him keep going on since his attitude was right. After a little bobble getting him back on track, he lined them out well on the cross-drive and the line was straight as can be, just drifted a bit low as he'd gotten too high after the turn. There was a very difficult flank that he needed to take in order to get lined up for the panel, and after trying a couple times I ended up retiring to help him. But I was SO HAPPY with our effort! He really wanted to be a good boy and was trying so hard for me...and duh, when I stay calm my dog does, too!
So it turned out to be a very successful weekend for us all. Rae did look a step slower to me, but she was completely out of shape, so it's hard to say if it was all age-related or at least partially her lack of fitness. Because of this, I decided to scratch her from a few of the Open trials this Spring where the sheep would be very light and prone to running. I'm going to get her into better shape and see how she does in some small-field trials, but I won't push her just to be able to run her. She has given me so much that she deserves a dignified retirement when the time comes. I will not let her be demoralized out there on the trial field by sheep that can outrun or out-maneuver her. She is very smart and efficient, so hopefully she has a couple more runs in her :)
Here is the slideshow that Michelle made for the trial. There are some really nice pictures of Rae and Gabe in there from our Saturday runs. I'm waiting for Michelle to post the rest of the pictures online or else I'd have added them here.
Shoofly Farm SDT from
Michelle Dobbs on
Vimeo.
Thanks to Robin for hosting and judging. The trial was fantastic; the weather and sheep were lovely, the company was great, and it was all for a worthy cause.
