Tuckahoe SDT

The VBCA had its Winter trial at a new location this year, the lovely Tuckahoe Plantation which was the childhood home of Thomas Jefferson.  The sheep were fresh-fresh-fresh cheviots trailered on-site and were absolutely awesome to work!  They were good to dogs who treated them right and made it very clear when they didn't care for a dog.  These girls had not been worked in small groups, had never been through the sort system, hadn't been penned or seen panels.  A nice treat for us!

Livy was my first to run and she had a decent PN run.  Her outrun was tighter than I like and I stopped her twice, but she didn't give me very good redirects.  The trip around the course wasn't great as far as lines go, but I REALLY liked how she handled her sheep.  Penning these sheep proved to be very hard all weekend with only a handful of successful pens, but the experience was great for Liv who doesn't yet understand how to pen (other than sheep that practically pen themselves).  We'd get them all pushed into the mouth but then when I moved myself to put pressure on them from behind, she'd scoot around behind the pen to balance them to me, so they'd run back out.  She was really thinking and even though she was excited and pushing hard, her flanks were appropriately square when needed.  We got 3/4 into the pen with the last one lagging in the mouth when she couldn't help herself and rushed at the lagger, which bumped all of them back out.  Oh well, it was a good try.  She ended up 4th.

Spain got to work the exhaust for the lower classes and it was actually quite a task.  She had to take sheep off the field, through the parking area, and put them into a barn.  Many times they'd split on the field, through the cars, or around the barn and she'd have to figure things out on her own since I couldn't see to help her.  It was good work for her.  She then went on to work pretty well for her run, but I misjudged the driveaway panel and caused her to miss those.  The rest of the run was very nice, she had a good shed but we couldn't get them in the pen.  I didn't think it was a great run by any means, but it turned out good enough for 3rd.

Gabe was on the disabled list and didn't get to participate.  I really missed running him.

Later that evening we had our annual awards dinner in a really cool historical building on the farm.  Rae received her Open Champion belt buckle and it reminded me how much fun I had running her.  She was such a perfect dog for me to start with and I'm forever grateful to her and to Renee for letting me have her!

 

Rae's belt buckle

 

 

Sunday morning the sheep started out winning.  Livy ran out a little better but I still fussed at her to stay out.  She had a really nice fetch going, and although it was very fast she was moreso trying to keep up with them rather than pushing on them.  The turn at the post proved to be the downfall for most of the NN and PN runs as the sheep bolted for the exhaust and many dogs lost their sheep.  Well, Livy was not about to lose her sheep, but she did lose her temper and grabbed ahold of one who tried to beat her.  That was a little too exciting for her, but I'd much rather have my dog do that than not care about sheep running away.

I decided to move her up to Open Ranch and so she got another turn at these tricky sheep.  As an experiment, I let her do what she wanted to for her outrun.  It was very nice until about 10:00, then she sliced the top and came in very shallow.  Grr.  The sheep were moving quickly but she managed to flank well on the fetch and had a good turn.  She was working very well for me even though we missed the fetch and driveaway panels and had a major banana to make the cross-drives.  She had a good return leg and this time I let her do everything herself at the pen, since anytime I moved she moved in response to me.  She really had to work, but in the end she got them penned and I was super happy with her!  She actually ended up 3rd, though later on I was informed that VBCA rules do not let you run a dog competitively in two classes on the same day, so technically her run was a N/C.  Doesn't matter to me, aside from her outrun I was thrilled with how she handled those sheep.

Spain was laying down a really good one for her run until we got to the shedding ring.  Due to the setbacks I'd seen at recent trials, I was very cautious about calling her in on risky attempts.  The sheep glommed on top of each other and we just couldn't get a hole, so I never did call her in.  It wasn't worth it to me to risk a failed attempt, so we eventually timed out with no shed or pen.  The rest of the run was good enough to put us in 5th place, and surprisingly to me she ended up Reserve Open Champion.

 

Robin and Zac

 

 

Open champs Barbara Ray and Stella, judge Tom Lacy, me and Spain

 

 

VBCA handling system with Jesse and Jim working hard

 

It was a fun weekend with a casual trial in a new location.  Everybody pitched in as needed and I enjoyed working the top of the field with some new friends.  And the dinner was excellent.  A nice little club trial.

Rural Hill SDT

Another Rural Hill is in the books.  Pretty much the same story as previous years: Dr. Ben's hair sheep set on horseback, good size course, questionable hearing for the dogs, and lots of spectators and their pet dogs running amok.  I couldn't get off work to run Livy on Thursday, and I was a little concerned about her picking up of a horse without ever meeting one before, so I wasn't overly bummed to miss a chance at running her.  As it turned out, the novice classes were pretty brutal and it was probably good I didn't run her.

 

Lots of extracurricular activities: dock diving

 

 

Flyball and frisbee

(So tempting not to take Ella over for a turn at flyball, she used to be super fast!)

 

I'd gotten up at 4am to arrive on time for the handler's meeting Friday.  Gabe was up pretty early so I had to be there, anyway.  It didn't look promising from the time I got him out of the car.  Livy's been in heat and he was absolutely beside himself.  Gabe has always been wound up at trials, but holy cow I've never seen him so stupid-excited.  He ran out nicely to the right and stopped when I told him, but it went downhill from there.  He lifted hard and missed some downs, then proceeded to take wrong flanks on the fetch.  I'd been working on getting him to flank into the pressure, and not only did he flank hard into the pressure, he kept going and pushed them a good way across the field.  When I tried to get him back on balance he continued to flank off balance and nearly headed them.  The second part of the fetch wasn't bad and I hit him with several hard downs at the post, trying to get him listening.  His drive started OK but then he hit one of the deadzones, I couldn't get a good flow going and he couldn't hear me, so we quit.  I wasn't too pleased with that performance.

Spain had a fair go.  She had a little bit of a wonky lift, and I'm wondering if she was concerned about the horses.  Spain came from a home where she saw lots of horses, but was discouraged from interacting with them (understandably).  We're not sure if she's picked up off of them prior to this run or not!  She was slow to lift, but otherwise she was fine around the course.  Had trouble hearing at the cross-drive panel and just missed it at the last second.  I can't remember much about the run, except she had trouble hearing at many times, one was right at the cross-drive panels which we just missed, but I think it was so-so and we ended up not good enough for a placement.

 

Flag presentation

 

I was at home working and taking call on Saturday since I didn't have any runs til Sunday.  Gabe was my first dog on Sunday and I arrived *just* in time for his turn.  I saw one completed run before his, and that run wasn't a good demonstration of where the cross-drive line was.  Since the second round of Open started Saturday, I'd missed the handlers' meeting and so missed picking out any markers.  A little flustered, I sent Gabe and he did a great outrun and lifted softly.  He was working with a great attitude and listened very well, and we ended up with a steady and very straight fetch.  Good turn and a nice first leg, through the panels and he was still listening really well all the way across the field.  Since I wasn't quite sure where the line was, we ended up a shade low at the panels, and this was one of the trouble spots on the field with regard to hearing.  We tried, but he just couldn't hear me to save that panel.  Back to the ring for a clean split, put them in the pen with no trouble, and then returned to the ring for a great single.  I couldn't believe it, that was one of our best runs EVER!  I wanted to turn around to the crowd and say "Oh my gosh, is anyone seeing this??!"  I was so unbelievably proud of our run!  He ended up just 5 points out of placing in a very big trial with lots of top competition.  There was lots of really nice work that he did during that run, and he really got stroking it on his drive.  It was the first run that really felt smooth the whole way around.  Too bad I boogered up the cross-drive line!  Still, I was immensely happy with him.

Spain was the last run of the trial.  She ran out fine but her sheep left before she got there.  She hesitated a step before covering them, so I think the horses did have her a little unsure.  We got them under control and she had a good fetch and good first leg, but she had trouble hearing at the first panel.  We saved it and made the panels at the last possible second.  By now I'd watched many runs and knew where the line was, and we hit it well.  To the ring, good split and pen, and back to the shedding ring for the single.  One walked off the front of the group and I thought twice about taking it.  I knew the judge had said to take *any* sheep, but I just had it in my mind that I needed to do it "right," and since I had plenty of time, I put her back.  We shifted them around a little and I went to call her in and the rascal didn't come in!  Oooh was I mad.  We tried to get it set up again and when one walked off the front, this time I took it.  Spain wasn't enthusiastic about it and I had to jazz her up to fully take charge of it.  Later, I realized I may have never taught her to take the first one on the butt.  So our run ended in a bummer.  We were 1 point out of placing, so that missed attempt really hurt us (plus the 2 and 2 off at the top of the field, though Spain maintains her innocence!). 

I need to revisit Spain's shedding, but was very happy with Gabe's turn-around after acting like a goof the first go.