Pt Pleasant Report

To paraphrase Charles Dickens - It was the worst of runs, it was the best of runs. And that was all in one run - our second.

Just back from the Pt. Pleasant Sheepdog Trials hosted by Tom and LisAnn Spencer in Pt. Pleasant - about 20 miles South of Sacramento. The trial was open and Nursery on Saturday, Open and Open Double Lift on Sunday, and Pro-Novice (2 runs) and Nursery on Monday. We only made it for the Monday Pro Novice and Nursery so that is all I can report on - other than that Suzy Applegate and Lyn won the Open Double Lift on Sunday.

I am told the weather was beautiful Saturday and Sunday. Not so on Monday. When I walked Piper at 7 a.m. at the Holiday Inn (nice place BTW) the weather was lovely. After enjoying the included breakfast buffet it was starting to rain as we left for the trial field shortly after 8. It was rain off and on for the rest of the day only clearing up as the trial was finishing. Then rain - sometimes heavy - made the drive home extra fun.

In the Nursery Tierney Graham and her dog (Briscoe I think) had a very nice run and managed to take home first place in something of an upset over Suzy Applegate and her dog Dot who was 6th in the recent Nursery Nationals (I think I heard Dot won the first day of nursery). Good job Tierney !

The Pro-Novice had 17 dogs in the first run and 10 in the second. The field is very flat and a lot of the dogs seemed to have trouble locating the sheep. There were a lot of redirects - an unusually high number of crossovers - and a few outruns straight up the middle through the fetch panels. Some of the dogs never found the sheep at all and some found them after they had basically lost most or all of their outrun points.

The sheep were range ewes and I think they were probably a little difficult for some of the younger dogs but they were actually very fair and worked very nicely - as long as the dog was right. A great big thank you to Tom and LisAnn for bringing in range ewes and then letting we mere Pro-Novice handlers work them. Range ewes are hard to find at pro-novice trials so it was a real treat to get to work on them. It is especially good if you view Pro-Novice as training period trying to make it to Open.

I did not write down the results so this is a bit from memory but I think Carolyn Crocker won the first PN run with Lyn - the same dog that Suzy ran in open, Suzy Applegate also placed with one of her young dogs although I can't remember which one. The second go round of PN had Patti Sowells in first and third and Carolyn with Lyn in 2nd. Piper retired in the first go round and we were 4th out of 10 in the second go round.

Anyway - back to Dickens. Our first run was the worst of times. The lift was off line and Piper did not seem to wish to acknowledge my presence in the same state. The fetch was wild and at least 30 yards off line. We did manage to get around the post and get started on the driveaway when a train came by blowing its whistle about 200 yards from where I was standing -- one of only two trains all day. By that time it really did not matter. The sheep came around the post and wanted to make a run for it in the general direction of back toward set out. Piper managed to get them turned but a couple of overflanks later they were coming back to my feet and Piper was still not really listening to me. I left the post to retire and naturally she immediately decided to listen to my requests as we exhausted. In Dickensian terms it was the worst of runs.

The second run was showing signs of being a repeat of the first as the sheep lifted off line and the fetch was going for Mr. Toad's wild ride on another 30 yard off line fetch. She did start to take my come bye flank and when she got wide enough and in position to turn their heads she miraculously took a "lie down".

After that she was a completely different dog. She calmly walked up - took my "time" commands and we got the sheep around the post. As with the first run they wanted to run toward the set out. She took the proper away and we turned them back toward the panel - a bit too far at first - but a proper come bye got them lined up and trotting toward the panels. Three of the four trotted nicely through the panels and the other slid by on the left - all the while Piper was taking my commands - taking time and lying down when asked.

As they broke through the panel they wanted to keep going so I sent Piper "come bye" and she turned them about 10 yards past the panel and again took the "there" and started walking up taking "time". We got them back even with the drive away panels and with minimal flanking and much "time now" she WALKED in on them taking time and keeping her proper distance on the bubble. Once or twice she started to pick up the pace but took the "time now" commands and slowed down nicely. I thought we were a bit low but as the sheep approached the panels they were lined up perfectly and walked right through. "Come Bye" and again she stopped in the proper position to bring them to the pen. They slid by the pen high with only about 30 seconds left and by the time we got them back to the mouth we only had ten seconds so we did not get the pen. Only 8 points off the drive.

Back to Dickens - It was the worst of runs - then it was the best of runs.

Practice - Party - Practice More

What a great way to get in some last minute pre-trial work for Piper before going to Pt. Pleasant.

I have a colleague with an office in Mission Valley and we have been looking at a potential case for months so we finally decided to just get together and consider whether to bring the case on Friday morning. Well he knows me and the dogs so he invited me to bring one to his office and we combined an a.m. business meeting with an afternoon trip to Campo for a rare Friday afternoon session on the field.

By the time we made it to Jennifer's Friday afternoon the dog training was mostly over for the day but we put Piper out in the lower field for a couple short working sessions. Her pace from the week before was still there and she had me feeling very good about her reteention of the prior week lesson. A little backsliding Saturday or I just have a bad case of panelhypophobia but overall a major improvement from just a few weeks ago.

Friday evening was fun barbecue with Jennifer and Ron and their friends Mike and Diane (forgot the last name - Sorry !) from Arizona. Dinner was great and the company and conversation were fabulous. I think at least four bottles of Riesling were fuly draained before we all crawled off to sleep.

Saturday Jennifer was expecting a crowd so it was going to be tigght working. Piper and I were up and out early so at about 7:30 Jennifer said to go get some sheep and we got almost 1 1/2 hours work in trading off with Jennifer and Sly before any other studentts arrived. Piper's pace in the lower field was very good and we started working on shedding lessons. The shedding lessons are more for me than Piper. If we needed inspiration we watched Jennifer and Sly repeatedly winnow a small group down to a small group. Sly was like a hot knife coming through butter. Just beautiful.

Then Jennifer and I traded a couple outruns with Sly and Piper. Piper was being her normal outrunning fool self until she was sent away and did not go as deep as normal because as she started to hit the lower field there was a white SUV driving across her path - another student arriving and not realizing we were doing an oiutrun in the same field. Well I guess I can forgive Piper for yielding a bit to the pressure of an oncoming SUV. Her outrun was still good though- just not as deep as usual. She did give me a very rare circle to the head on one fetch though - not sure what happened but we need to watch for it.

Piper's driving was not up to her earlier standards during the group session. I think it was a bit of the sheep being heavy and I was a bit slow with my "time" and doing too much steering.

At the end we did a drill I had only heard about before. Penning with another dog tethered on the inside of the pen to discourage sheep from wanting to enter the pen. I was expecting a lot of problems but Piper managed to get the sheep almost all the way in before we called her off and let the sheep out. She took all of my directions - covered on her own - stayed calm - and would not take any bullsh** from the ewes who tried to run her over getting away from the other dog (now that was a righteous grip). She was so excited by the drill that I had to chain her up to keep her from going out to "help" Tricia and Tipper.

I really think that once she understands the job and the objective Piper is pretty good about doing what is necessary.

Well on to Pt. Pleasant. Let's see what holds up in a trial setting.

Breakthrough - or Mirage

Only time will tell if Piper had a true breakthrough this weekend or we just got a tease.

Taking advantage of a fairly rare two days in a row to work with Jennifer and not many other people around we got in two very good days at K9z&Ewe this past weekend. If I had checked Facebook before leaving to drive down to Campo I might have had an idea of what was coming. Apparently Jennifer posted on her Facebook page that "today patrick and piper are going to learn PACE". And learn PACE we did.

It required a religious revival meeting on Saturday where Piper was reintroduced to her lord and master in the form of me, but start to listen carefully she did. Saturday in the lower field her pace and lines were better than they have been and she was starting to take the "Time" command. I tried to be zealous in imposing "Time" whenever she either got up too fast or started to speed up and what a difference it made. When we moved to the upper field and ran a simulated course she was better on the drive away than she had been but still not great and the cross drive was still a mess as she wanted to go high to hold against the pressure and routinely got too far to the head on the sheep. Still it seemed progress was being made and I would have already been happy with the work on Saturday (which also included our beginning formal instruction on shedding).

Jennifer and Ron were off to a wedding Saturday so I had dinner at the Campo Diner with Leon (the new ranch hand and nice guy). Talking with Leon about what had happened with Piper at dinner helped crystallize some thoughts - she had actually slowed down a bit - not enough - and I was too late with my timing to keep her from going high to the head on the cross drive.

Sunday morning started with more lower field work on driving. And the Saturday lessons were still present in Piper's mind. We got the slowest walk up I think Piper has ever given. She even started showing a bit of Border Collie crouch. Such a fine sight to see (apologies to the Eagles). And as things were slow the sheep - who were light runners brought out specifically to make her exhibit pace - continued to slowly move and largely in a straight line. The distance was kept more and she stayed more "on the bubble" than usual. Plus as it progressed the harsh shouted "TIME" gave way to a more gentle "time now" with the desired result. The slower pace and greater distance off of the sheep also made the flanks nicer and steering easier.

Then as we switched sheep and moved to the top field to do some longer outwork and driving the first time or two it was a bit of relapse although still not as bad as before on the drive. Realizing from the discussions that it was largely my timing and perhaps not being as insistent on immediate compliance as at hand we tried again. The last tow outruns we picked up nicely, fetched nicely and then when we did the drive away everything was at a nice easy walking pace. Piper was so much easier to move into position at this pace and have her walk on than the faster pace. And there were no last minute wild 90 degree turns needed to make the panel. The sheep just lined up and she pushed them through at a nice walking pace. Then - bless her - swung around and was driving them away at the same pace and without going to the head. Our last drive she was even lining out and self regulating her pace.

So now we know she can do it. Hopefully it was a breakthrough and we won't have too much backsliding. If learning past tasks with her is any indication there may be slight slippage but once she gets the idea she pretty much gets it and may need refining but rarely goes all the way back to prior bad habits.

So breakthrough or mirage. Only time will tell but I'm betting breakthrough (and if not yet then soon).

That's a shed

It somewhat happened by accident and it may not happen again for a while but . . .

Piper and I were working on at hand work and calm sheep movement last Saturday at K9z&Ewe when our group of sheep very kindly spread out in a nice line. Thinking it was the perfect opportunity to try something for the first time I flanked Piper so she was on the opposite side of the sheep from me and lied her down. Relatively soon a gap appeared between two groups of sheep so I asked Piper "in here" and then "these". Even though we had never tried this before and had not intended to work on it Piper came right in and turned on the right group of sheep. We did not drive them off but she did have control of the gap.

That's a shed.

Now hopefully we can do it again.

The other nice thing she did last week was during the same bit of work when a renegade ewe decided she wanted to leave her sorority sisters and make a break for it. Instead of chasing she took the away flank (amazingly I actually gave her the right flank) and covered the escaping ewe without any chasing involved.

Now that driving thing still seems to be on an S course with too many reversals of direction. I realized that I was having trouble judging her position relative to the sheep so I walked out to be a bit closer and was able to see when she was getting to far to the head. This helped somewhat and I was able to get more progress on straight lines when I was able to time the "down" better.

She also did a pretty good job keeping the lighter sheep straight with a bump and drift technique.

The problem seems to be when she gets close to the sheep to move them and I have trouble judging when she is too far to the head.