Edgeworth

You know it's Fall when it's time for Tommy and Florence Wilson's famed Edgeworth Open trial.  This year the traditional trial field was recently seeded, so Tommy devised an equally tricky course on another portion of his beautiful central VA farm.  The outrun, though short at only 350yds, was very tricky with it's rolling terrain, and as a result, a very high percentage of dogs crossed over or ran out poorly on the first go.

Gabe was my first to run, and as he crested the first hill I gave him a security redirect to keep him out.  He took it perfectly and continued on to have a lovely outrun.  The middle part of the fetch was in a big dip, so it was blind to the handler at the post.  Gabe went in online and to my surprise emerged online!  We made the fetch panels and continued on with a nice pace.  His first leg of the drive was fine, it was that darn cross-drive where he boogered up a flank.  It took some effort to get things back together, but he was working well til he took a wrong flank at the cross-drive panel and we just missed them.  Decent return leg and onto the pen, where many teams failed to get the wily sheep in.  He was controlled and working very well for me and we managed a nice pen.  Plenty of time in the shed ring and we got a shed that I was quite happy with.  It was a respectable run score-wise and more importantly, I was really happy with his work.

 

Gabe on the first leg, Sue's cell phone pic

 

When I sent Spain, I'd already decided to give her a security redirect as well, and apparently that really blew her mind.  She took it well, but after that she was wound as tightly as could be, overflanking, running through my stops, taking wrong flanks...pretty much just plain ugliness.  I know we missed the fetch panels and I don't remember about the rest of the way around the course other than we were fighting.  She and I got our act together enough for a good pen and a poor, but accepted shed.  I can only remember one other time when she worked like that and coincidentally or not, it was when I'd given her a redirect on her outrun.  Hmm.

The second go included a dog-leg fetch followed by an interesting drive, a maltese cross (must get them all through) and pen.  Gabe ran out beautifully without the need for any security or other redirects, so I was really happy to see that.  He had trouble on the dog-leg (homework for us), and we didn't get them online til the fetch panels.  He had a good driveaway going, and yet AGAIN, messed up a flank about halfway across the cross-drive.  We got things straightened out and made the next panel and had a good flow coming to the cross.  We got them in the first chute but I'm not sure what happened and next thing I knew they'd turned and were headed down one of the cross alleys.  I had him pick them up again and we put them back through correctly this time.  He brought them nicely to the second mouth of the cross and we sent them through without much fuss.  I sent him to gather as I went to the pen, and he brought them nicely and in they went.  Woohoo!  I was SO proud of him, his at hand work was especially nice and workmanlike, we really only goofed on the dog-leg and the cross-drive.  I was quite happy with our run and again our score was probably about mid-pack.

 

Not me, just a course picture; sheep set to left, fetch gates in the middle of the picture,

drive away on the left, cross-drive out of sight to the right. Much of the fetch is actually out of sight of this pic, the terrain dips just beyond the fetch panels

 

Still not me, third drive leg to the cross, pen on the right

 

Spain ran near the end of the round at a time when the winds were coming up, which had me worried.  I sent her and kept my mouth shut as she ran out, trusting that she'd learned her lesson on the first outrun.  She did, and was nice and pliable at the top for the dog-leg.  She had her listening ears on, for sure, and did a lovely fetch straight to the fetch panels, turned, then straight to my feet.  Her sheep were a little heavy but she worked hard to push them around the course with precision.  I really didn't know where the cross-drive line was, I'd had no markers picked out since I missed the walk-through, so we just went for it and marched across the field.  Made the panels, good line to the cross.  We worked calmly and patiently to get them through, she had a nice tight turn to bring them back to the second entrance and through again.  I could feel the momentum of a good run, so I left her in a down to hold the sheep as I walked over to the pen.  She gathered them and we went on to have a slow and careful pen.  What a feeling closing that pen gate, I knew we'd had a smoking run and I was so proud of her!  Turned out that we tied for 3rd with Beverly on a 91, and though I didn't see the breakdown, we ended up 4th after the tie was broken.  What a thrilling experience!!

 

Edgeworth 2012

Virginia State Fair

Since I was unable to get off of work to go to the VBCA's major public outreach-type trial, at the last minute I decided to go up to the State Fair and run the dogs in their fun trial.  I'd never been to an arena trial and they were looking for entries, so why not?!  It was super fun!  Spain and Gabe got 2 runs in Open and Livy got 1 PN run and 2 Ranch runs.  This was a judged arena trial, not a time/points one, so that added an interesting twist to the course.  Spain ran very well for me, and I was very happy with Gabe even though our lines weren't great.  There's not much room to make adjustments after a wrong (and big, fast) flank, but he made the obstacles and was trying very hard.  He had a couple opportunities to lose his temper, and in the past he would've been quick to use his teeth, but he kept a cool head and I was very happy.  Liv came out like she was shot from a cannon, but she got better with each run.  Though she was fast, she listened great except for a couple wrong flanks and she was trying so hard to be my teammate.  Being in an arena, it was hard to get a good flow and just let her settle in, but there were a couple moments where she was able to fall in behind and relax. 

So the arena trial was very fun, and it was a good opportunity to work my dogs in a new place.  I was really happy to see Livy improve with each run, and her last run was a smoker.  Reinforced my belief that she just needs to burn off some excitement.  I saw some areas that need improvement on all of my dogs, so it was nice to come away feeling like we did well, but also found some homework.

 

Livy was watching the sheep in the arena

Spring Creek SDT

Last weekend we went to a new-to-me trial in Lebanon, TN at Spring Creek Farm.  The weather was wonderful and the field was great.  The course was very flat and the dorpers were set at about 450 yards.  Some groups were rather opinionated runners, though overall very consistent, and in general, they rewarded the strong-eyed dogs with smaller flanks and a slower pace (ie not Gabe!). 

 

Trial field

 

Gabe ran first for me and I was very pleased with him.  The lift was nice but shortly thereafter they bolted toward the right in the direction of the exhaust.  Instead of letting him cover, I downed him, because I'm so used to over-handling him at the top in order to keep him reigned in.  My mistake.  Shortly after the fetch panels we were finally able to bring them back online and get them settled, and he had a nice, controlled drive around the course except for a couple mixed up flanks.  Since these sheep were so touchy, a wrong flank was very costly for Gabe since he covers a lot of ground quickly, so our lines were not pretty, but he made his panels.  Over the weekend the sheep showed no problems penning, so after a quick pen we went out into the shedding ring with plenty of time.  These sheep were notoriously tricky to shed, so the judge allowed any single to be taken.  We worked for probably 1:30 trying to get a hole amongst sheep that wanted to alternate between putting their heads down and glom together and bolting.  But Gabe really helped to make the hole and I got him in cleanly!

 

Spain had a nice go during a spell when the sheep were feeling a little cranky.  She stopped short on her outrun, which I've not encountered before, and I whistled her on and gave up the points instead of waiting to see what she'd do.  She was a little speedy and the fetch had a couple minor wobbles, but her drive was quite nice and she was feeling them very well.  Into the pen and then to the ring.  I wasn't out there very long when a fortunate opening appeared, and wasn't sure whether to take it or re-gather and do it correctly, but since the judge had said "any sheep, anyway", I figured I'd better go for it, and Spain said OK.  Spain and I had lots of fans because this area was part of her old stomping grounds.  Her owner was even there to see us (well, and run his other dogs).  We got an 87 for our efforts, but the competition was outstanding, and we only landed in 16th place.

I ran Livy for her first time ever in the Pro-Novice.  Her work is above that level, but she is very excited at home, and even more excited away from home, so we may need to hang out in PN a little.  The PN outrun was 200 yards and the fetch was parallel to the exhaust.  That pressure didn't help her I'm-so-excited-I-want-to-run-tight outrun, so I had to stop and redirect her, and she got out there fine but I still would've liked to see her wider.  The sheep bolted and she covered well, but everyone was running.  I tried to get everyone settled at the post turn, but these sheep were determined to run.  Every time I flanked her to cut off their escape, they did a 180 and sprinted in the other direction.  She flanked to stop them, they ran away.  We just couldn't get a flow going.  There was a moment where I thought we'd gotten everyone settled and she was able to walk straight onto them, but that was quickly lost as the leader made a break for it.  I retired, but not too disappointed in her efforts.  She was excited but was listening and trying hard to do what I asked.  It was a situation we'd not been in before, so both of us were in over our heads.

Sunday they changed the course just a little to add to degree of difficulty.  The sheep were set at the same distance, but made a left-hand dog-leg fetch to a barrel, then through the fetch panels, then turn at a bucket in front of the post.  This greatly changed the line to the driveaway panel and made it tough to pick out.  Gabe was the second dog to the post; the first run didn't go well.  It was very hard to see the top end due to the sun and haze, but he stopped right where I asked him to and nailed the dog-leg...actually, a little too well, as one of them slipped to the wrong side of the barrel.  I had trouble seeing and I knew we didn't have great precision anyway, so I wasn't disappointed in the least.  He fell in nicely on the left side of the sheep and had them coming very straight, but we were slightly offline.  I was afraid to flank him away to bump them back online for fear of them running down the right side of the field, since that was where we were beat Saturday.  So we skimmed the outside of the left fetch panel and continued to the post on about the same path.  I was being cautious, but happy with the flow, so just kept on.  He had another good drive and made both panels, but we had a spell of him taking a wrong whistle, me correcting him with a wrong verbal, and him taking the desired flank on the wrong verbal.  Groan.  Another easy pen, but I had some brain farts going from the pen to the ring and they scooted out of the ring before I got them settled.  We were in there for nearly another 2 minutes, and it was starting to look a little worrisome, but he continued to help me out and we got a great shed!  I was so happy with him, that was the hardest course we've ever been on and he did so well for me!

Spain started off on a bad note as she fought me for the dog-leg.  She'd pulled-up short Saturday and got whistled on, so this time when I stopped her short and downed her, she decided to continue on to balance.  I kept moving her back to the correct spot, and she kept righting herself.  So we lost a number of points there, but eventually did make the barrel.  The rest of the run was very nice, a little faster pace than most runs but the lines were nice, until my panel panic right before the cross-drive gates.  I could see that she wanted to turn them low, but I just couldn't think of what her away whistle was!  Ahh!  So I blanked out and sort of gave-up, letting her turn them just inside the panel.  Good pen, and this time she got her well-earned shed.  I could've kicked myself when I saw that we ended up 3 points out of the placings...way to throw away that panel.  But that's ok, I was happy with our work.  I didn't really think we'd had a chance since our lift was so poor, but lesson learned for me.

I actually didn't stay to run Liv in her second PN run.  I wanted to give her another chance, but the sheep were getting crankier and I was quite tired.  The trial was a time-zone behind me, so the 6-hour drive home became a 7-hour drive, and since I didn't have my usual Monday off of work, I decided to leave after running Spain.

This was a good trial for me.  I do not have enough experience on flat fields, and this was the biggest trial course that Gabe has encountered.  Spain got to run in front of her friends and she really worked well for me.  Liv got a taste of the action and showed some good stuff.