Pictures are Piper waiting her turn and The Trial Field at Suzy's.Not really sure what this should be called but today is my one year anniversary with Piper.
Exactly one year ago today I picked her up at the cargo depot at LAX.
I was told to expect a year to partner up with her and I have to say that 1 year later we are a much better partnership and seem to be continuing to make progress.
To celebrate 1 year together we went to Suzy Applegate's Pro Novice Trial in Plymouth, California yesterday. The trial had a few things going in advance to recommend it - (1) different field that neither Piper nor I had ever been on; (2) relatively long - for PN - outrun of 250 + yards; and (3) range ewes. The setup was for a challenging trial but if we want to move along we need to keep testing ourselves.
Well the trial was a lot of fun. There were 25 Pro Novice dogs with 2 runs each. The weather semi-broke - compared to the biblical storms all week - and we were only cold and wet till about noon.
Suzy reported that the Range Ewes were being cantankerous and she had experienced trouble working them with her open dogs so good luck to we Pro Novice folks. The field was a wide open rectangular grass field with a slight rise at the handlers post. The sheep were set about 250 yards out and slightly left of center but easy to see from the handlers post (which was a large tree), Generally not a complicated outrun - at least so it seemed.
Suzy and Buzz did a non-comp run to lead off to sort of show the way. Suzy sent Buzz to the come bye side (which was slightly more narrow) and Buzz did fine.
I think most of the PN handlers were influenced by Suzy's choice of side (well it is her field and Buzz was the National Nursery Champion so she clearly knows what she is doing on that field - on any field really) and most people sent to the Come Bye side. Several dogs seemed to start out and then hesitate about 30 yards or so from the post like they were having trouble finding the sheep. I think there were a couple slight elevation changes en route. Also the exhaust was way to the right of the field and -- if the sheep wanted to pull at all they pulled to the right.
I was running next to last and watching all of this thought the better outrun was actually to the Away side. So I set Piper up - pointed her straight at the sheep on my right side (someone asked me at Jennifer's trial if I set Piper up for the outrun by angling her out in the direction of the outrun. I said only if I want to retrieve her from the next county. She is usually PLENTY WIDE.). And I sent her. She was off like a shot for easily the widest outrun of the first go round and came up properly on balance. (Several people sent this way on their second run and I think watching Piper's outrun may have contributed to the decision.) The lift was nice and I thought the fetch was generally good although I think I may have been seeing the line a bit wrong and they were likely off line a bit (no fetch panels to judge by). The drive started well but -- as with MANY OTHER DOGS the sheep were very difficult to control on the drive. We managed to miss both panels but broke the plane and headed for the pen.
There were only a handful of successful pens all day and we did not join that club. Her sheep wanted to escape to exhaust but she kept that route blocked and we managed to slowly work the sheep into the mouth of the pen despite their desire to keep trying breakouts. Piper successfully blocked all breakouts but the closest we could get was three ewes partially in the pen when one decided to make a break for freedom. Piper worked well for me at the pen but the sheep just would not go in.
Final score 49 out of 90 but good for 6th best score out of 25. (The sheep were tough on everybody - well with a couple exceptions).
Second run I decided I would follow my practice of sending to the opposite side whenever I have two runs. This is part of my philosophy that - yes we want to win whenever we go to the post - but the more important part of PN is experience and training. Jack Mathieson (nice man) warned me I might regret it since we were in contention for the overall win and already knew Piper could nail the away. But I thought training on a strange field was more important so stuck with my decision.
I set Piper up on my left, sent her come bye, and held my breath as she approached the area where several other dogs had slowed and needed either redirect or encouragement. Not Piper. She ran through the swales like it was her home field and went nice and deep and came up on balance. The lift was nice and the sheep wanted to go right towards the exhaust. A slight come by whistle and Piper got in the pocket and pretty much stayed there. Sheep came straight and to my feet at a nice controlled pace. It is SO nice to have fetch stearing (on both runs actually).
Sara Goodman told me afterwards that the OR/Lift/Fetch on the second run was the best she has ever seen Piper work. Since Sara also trains at Jennifer's she has seen Piper a lot and so this has some meaning. And these were some tough sheep that thought nothing of just running over several other dogs as they wanted to go way right on the fetch.
Anyway we got past the post and I swung Piper around to start the drive. That's when the sheep dropped anchor and simply refused to move. Piper walked in when I asked. Took small flanks as asked and basically did everything except grip to get them to move (we'll work some more on that in the coming weeks). They simply would not move and we timed out right there.
But after basically forfeiting 40 out of 90 possible points (30 drive points and 10 pen points) Piper had a possible score of 50 remaining if the judge thought she was PERFECT on her outwork. Well - she scored 45 out of those 50 points so she was pretty darn good. Her score was good enough for 6th place in the second run - even without getting the drive started. Fifth place overall combined.
BTW - Piper was not the only dog that the sheep dropped anchor on. There were several packets of sheep that dropped anchor and refused to move for (including Carolyn Crocker's Lyn that Suzy ran at the USBCHA Open nationals) so while I was not happy that she was stared down I am not going to get too upset at this point. But we know what we need to work on.
On the drive back I stopped at Harris Ranch to break up the drive and to enjoy a nice steak. I cut the last bit of my ribeye up into small pieces and mixed it with some kibble. Wow did Piper like that doggie bag.
Overall a good 1 year milestone and adoption day.
I was told to expect a year to partner up with her and I have to say that 1 year later we are a much better partnership and seem to be continuing to make progress.
To celebrate 1 year together we went to Suzy Applegate's Pro Novice Trial in Plymouth, California yesterday. The trial had a few things going in advance to recommend it - (1) different field that neither Piper nor I had ever been on; (2) relatively long - for PN - outrun of 250 + yards; and (3) range ewes. The setup was for a challenging trial but if we want to move along we need to keep testing ourselves.
Well the trial was a lot of fun. There were 25 Pro Novice dogs with 2 runs each. The weather semi-broke - compared to the biblical storms all week - and we were only cold and wet till about noon.
Suzy reported that the Range Ewes were being cantankerous and she had experienced trouble working them with her open dogs so good luck to we Pro Novice folks. The field was a wide open rectangular grass field with a slight rise at the handlers post. The sheep were set about 250 yards out and slightly left of center but easy to see from the handlers post (which was a large tree), Generally not a complicated outrun - at least so it seemed.
Suzy and Buzz did a non-comp run to lead off to sort of show the way. Suzy sent Buzz to the come bye side (which was slightly more narrow) and Buzz did fine.
I think most of the PN handlers were influenced by Suzy's choice of side (well it is her field and Buzz was the National Nursery Champion so she clearly knows what she is doing on that field - on any field really) and most people sent to the Come Bye side. Several dogs seemed to start out and then hesitate about 30 yards or so from the post like they were having trouble finding the sheep. I think there were a couple slight elevation changes en route. Also the exhaust was way to the right of the field and -- if the sheep wanted to pull at all they pulled to the right.
I was running next to last and watching all of this thought the better outrun was actually to the Away side. So I set Piper up - pointed her straight at the sheep on my right side (someone asked me at Jennifer's trial if I set Piper up for the outrun by angling her out in the direction of the outrun. I said only if I want to retrieve her from the next county. She is usually PLENTY WIDE.). And I sent her. She was off like a shot for easily the widest outrun of the first go round and came up properly on balance. (Several people sent this way on their second run and I think watching Piper's outrun may have contributed to the decision.) The lift was nice and I thought the fetch was generally good although I think I may have been seeing the line a bit wrong and they were likely off line a bit (no fetch panels to judge by). The drive started well but -- as with MANY OTHER DOGS the sheep were very difficult to control on the drive. We managed to miss both panels but broke the plane and headed for the pen.
There were only a handful of successful pens all day and we did not join that club. Her sheep wanted to escape to exhaust but she kept that route blocked and we managed to slowly work the sheep into the mouth of the pen despite their desire to keep trying breakouts. Piper successfully blocked all breakouts but the closest we could get was three ewes partially in the pen when one decided to make a break for freedom. Piper worked well for me at the pen but the sheep just would not go in.
Final score 49 out of 90 but good for 6th best score out of 25. (The sheep were tough on everybody - well with a couple exceptions).
Second run I decided I would follow my practice of sending to the opposite side whenever I have two runs. This is part of my philosophy that - yes we want to win whenever we go to the post - but the more important part of PN is experience and training. Jack Mathieson (nice man) warned me I might regret it since we were in contention for the overall win and already knew Piper could nail the away. But I thought training on a strange field was more important so stuck with my decision.
I set Piper up on my left, sent her come bye, and held my breath as she approached the area where several other dogs had slowed and needed either redirect or encouragement. Not Piper. She ran through the swales like it was her home field and went nice and deep and came up on balance. The lift was nice and the sheep wanted to go right towards the exhaust. A slight come by whistle and Piper got in the pocket and pretty much stayed there. Sheep came straight and to my feet at a nice controlled pace. It is SO nice to have fetch stearing (on both runs actually).
Sara Goodman told me afterwards that the OR/Lift/Fetch on the second run was the best she has ever seen Piper work. Since Sara also trains at Jennifer's she has seen Piper a lot and so this has some meaning. And these were some tough sheep that thought nothing of just running over several other dogs as they wanted to go way right on the fetch.
Anyway we got past the post and I swung Piper around to start the drive. That's when the sheep dropped anchor and simply refused to move. Piper walked in when I asked. Took small flanks as asked and basically did everything except grip to get them to move (we'll work some more on that in the coming weeks). They simply would not move and we timed out right there.
But after basically forfeiting 40 out of 90 possible points (30 drive points and 10 pen points) Piper had a possible score of 50 remaining if the judge thought she was PERFECT on her outwork. Well - she scored 45 out of those 50 points so she was pretty darn good. Her score was good enough for 6th place in the second run - even without getting the drive started. Fifth place overall combined.
BTW - Piper was not the only dog that the sheep dropped anchor on. There were several packets of sheep that dropped anchor and refused to move for (including Carolyn Crocker's Lyn that Suzy ran at the USBCHA Open nationals) so while I was not happy that she was stared down I am not going to get too upset at this point. But we know what we need to work on.
On the drive back I stopped at Harris Ranch to break up the drive and to enjoy a nice steak. I cut the last bit of my ribeye up into small pieces and mixed it with some kibble. Wow did Piper like that doggie bag.
Overall a good 1 year milestone and adoption day.
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