NC State/Dr. Ben's

Though Rae and I have had good success at Dr. Ben's in the past, I decided not to enter her this year.  The trial is always SO hot and humid, the field is steep, and the course includes two sheds...so all in all, a little too physically demanding for Rae these days.  So I stayed home and took call during the weekend and just drove down Monday to run in Ranch.  My goal with Gabe was just to find sheep.  If he took a down at the top, GREAT!  If not, we'd retire.  Though he really wanted to go right, I was afraid to send him up the terraced side of the field thinking that he'd be drawn in early.  I did convince him to go left and he left my feet on a nice, wide trajectory.  The fenceline for the PN setout pushed him a little tighter than I'd wanted him, so I blew him down and what do you know..he took it!  After a hint of confusion, he took a very nice redirect toward the now-blind-to-the-dog setout.  He came in nice and deep at the top and dropped the moment I blew him down behind his sheep.  YAAAAY!  The rest of our run was a bit of a blur to me...I remember that it wasn't necessarily too pretty as far as lines and panels go, but he listened to me the entire way around the course!  He didn't miss any downs and took maybe 2 or 3 wrong whistles, but was correct when I followed with voice.  And both of us were able to keep our cool and work together.  We finished with an easy pen where the sheep were happy to oblige.  I was SO THRILLED with our effort out there, his first time running the big course there.  So happy!

Gabe turns the post at Keepstone Farm, photo by L. Roberts.

I'm not sure what happened for Spain's run.  She wanted to go right and I let her.  Then I thought she was getting a little tight on the way out, so I downed her and gave a redirect.  This truthfully may have been the only time she's gotten a redirect in a trial, and I had doubts whether or not I could stop her on her way out.  She is a good outrunner so has always been left to her own.  I did practice a redirect once this week on a very short outrun just in case we'd need it on those terraces...and we did.  But after that, she didn't listen to anything coming out of my mouth or whistle.  It was very unlike her and I don't know what got her so rattled.  One of her strengths is her biddability, so I didn't know what to do as she blew me off the whole way around the course.  I'd finally had enough on the crossdrive and called it quits, running out to make her lie down.  She was even fighting me at the exhaust!  Don't know what had her so off her game, but I'm interested to see how she works for me this week.  Her owner and her breeder were both there to see us crash and burn, oh well!  Guess that's how dog trialing goes.