My First Finals

Belle Grove 2013: My first Finals experience as a participant.

Spain was easily qualified with 42 points on the year.  Gabe started his first Open season a little rough but we were figuring things out by late fall.  Too bad the big chunk of time over winter and early spring where he was injured really squashed all trialling momentum we were gaining and set us back.  He didn't get in even though he has become my top Open dog, so that was a little disappointing.  

To prepare Spain, I mostly worked on confidence building and fitness.  She is a pretty sharp listener and knows what to do out there, so I didn't really feel like I had much I wanted to work on with her.  However, the week before the Finals Spain started acting very strangely while working.  She had no stamina and seemed to have lost her heart.  She would walk on her outrun, take wrong flanks, and refuse to come in on her shed.  Aside from working, she seemed 100% normal.  Tick Snap test was negative, but I started her on doxycycline just in case it was RMSF.  After 3 days on doxy (now it's just a few days before I have to leave for Belle Grove), still no improvement.  It then occurred to me to check her thyroid and it turned out to be low.  I finally had something to go on!  Took her off the doxy and started her on thyroxine.  After a few doses I took her out one more time before leaving to see how she worked...no change.  This is Sunday before the Finals and I was strongly considering scratching her.  But I really wanted to go to my first Finals, especially since it was so close to home!!!

Well, I ended up going.  I decided to have fun and just go experience the Finals, and if Spain felt like working, that would be a bonus.
 

The Minnie Winnie Compound

 

For months I had envisioned how the week would go.  And then, it pretty much didn't go anything like that!  Belle Grove 2013 will forever be known as the mud fest.  Aside from a brief period of sunshine during the handlers' meeting, it rained all.the.time.  Lots of mud, lots of wet dogs, lots of rain gear.

 

At the Handlers' Meeting; the weather seemed so promising!

 

I didn't run til the last dog on Thursday, so I had plenty of time to just hang out.  I did some exhausting with Gabe and that was really enjoyable.  Ella got to go shopping with me at the vendors, the other dogs got to take in the trial from the handlers tent (Ella can't keep her mouth shut when watching).  It was a great experience for Lena to learn about the business.

By the time I was set to run, I was thoroughly and ridiculously nervous.  It was raining hard.  I didn't even know if my dog would run out.  But she sure surprised me!  She spotted her sheep and ran out beautifully and enthusiastically.  Good lift (ie not too slow and careful like she can be), but then they pulled hard toward the exhaust on the first half of the fetch.  She was flanking but was not aggressive enough to fix the line.  And to my horror, she had a difficult ewe who wanted to fight her from the get-go.  It is no secret that Spain is not blessed with tons of power or confidence, so I have to be extra smart in handling her and keeping her out of bad situations.  But she hung in there and stood up to the ewe multiple times, and we had the line fixed by the second half of the fetch.  Right at the post I goofed and gave her a wrong flank and we nearly turned the post the wrong way.  There was a substantial standoff with that ewe and for possibly the first time in her life, she hit it on the nose!!!  I was so proud of her!!  I had her release the pressure then and we were able to continue on and made the drive away panels.  Just when I thought maybe we'd broken the sheep, we got to one of the troublesome spots on the field that I'd been afraid of: the turn to start the cross-drive.  The pressure was strong and she was directly behind the panel, so I couldn't see what was going on to be of much help to her.  We tried and tried but she eventually gave in to the pressure and circled the sheep.  I knew she was done then.  She took some wrong flanks and I retired feeling defeated.

 

 

Photo thanks to D. Mickey

 

After some time to myself, I was able to more clearly evaluate my run, and I've come away feeling very proud of what Spain and I accomplished.  Months ago she wouldn't have been able to fight that ewe for so long.  She was right in her face for much of the run and even cleanly gripped her.  I have put in so much work to ease her tension and to build her confidence, and I do think it showed during that run.  Her strength is light sheep and these were far from Spain-friendly sheep, but she still tried her best.  That is all I can ask of her and I'm proud we even got to the Finals in the first place. Not to mention the fact that she was feeling poorly and not even wanting to work sheep just a few days before her Finals run!  Good girl, Spain.  Thanks for the experience!

Movin' On Up

Ready or not, I moved Liv up to Open last weekend.  She was scheduled to debut a few weeks ago, but suffered an injury while working that required extensive dental surgery to remove two teeth and do a root canal on an upper canine.  After two weeks of rest, I was pretty sure we were not ready.  Livy is the kind of dog who needs regular work, and then some.  I could only attend one day of the GSDA trial at Patterson's Farm, so was feeling disappointed that I wouldn't even get a second chance to run her.  But I drove down to run her, Spain, and Gabe on a small but very challenging course that featured difficult terrain, pressure, and sheep. 

Spain was my first dog and we were incredibly rusty.  As in, there were times I couldn't remember my whistles rusty.  After a frustrating run, she gripped off in the shedding ring, something I knew she was very capable of, but I hadn't seen it in a long, long time.

There were almost 30 dogs in between her run and Livy's run, which provided me with plenty of time to get super duper nervous!  I was worried enough about running her when she was unprepared, plus I was scared she would grip and damage her recently-healed mouth.

Liv doesn't fully understand the concept of looking for sheep.  It's really hard with her because when we go to the post she stares at me just waiting permission to go.  We have really been working on it, and I think it will come with more experience, but for now she is still really excited to be at the post.  I had told her where the sheep were, but in her defense, it was difficult to see due to the harsh sun at the time.  She was starting to come in early when in a blind spot, so I had to give her a couple redirects to get her in a proper position, but when she found her sheep she cast thoughtfully and stopped for a nice, controlled lift.  She was listening really well for the first part of the fetch, made the panels, and then for the second part she was able to bring the sheep on her own without any input from me.  The pace was much slower than what SHE would have liked.  Dogs were really struggling to move sheep who were hot and tired, but she kept on and to my surprise, kept her head about her.  Nice turn and decent first leg until we missed the panel.  Cross-drive was offline but she was still working really well for me, missed the cross-drive panels, but a nice return leg.  As I went to the pen, I couldn't believe she hadn't yet gripped in frustration of the slow pace.  We had a nice pen and then I took my sweet time going to the shedding ring in hopes of keeping her calm.  I had planned to be very cautious in calling her in because that had recently been a common gripping trigger, and because I'd never singled with her!  She behaved herself and came in to the gap but turned on the wrong sheep!  I quickly got her on the single and she held it very nicely!  OMG!  We finished our first Open run!  The score wasn't pretty but she did end up finishing about middle of the pack of 40 some dogs, and most importantly, she was working very well for me.  I was handling her very cautiously because frankly, I was scared of her!  So I have plenty to improve upon on my end.

 

 

Turning the post.

 

 

 

 

Pen.

 

 

 

 

Liv's first single.

 

Gabe ran at the very end of the trial and laid down a very nice run...only problem was that he surprised the heck out of me and crossed on his outrun!  What?!  He was a handful and I really had to sit on him around the course, but he worked really well and handled the sheep well, too.  He would've placed without the cross-over :(  Even though my throat hurt after running him, I was very happy with him.  He hasn't had a ton of work lately due to the weather's effect on the hay season.  The other dogs have things to work on at-hand on my small farm, but for the most part, he needs course work.