Zamora !!!

Tricia Guidry on Sunday in Open. Look at the top in the picture to the right and you ca barely see the biplane.

Well that was a lot of fun !!

We just got back from our first trip to Zamora where Piper ran in Pro Novice.

The Zamora Hills course is somewhat legendary in California and now that we have been there I understand why.

This is the view from the post for the open. Send across the small ditch along the ridge line some 600- yards or so to the saddle between the two hills where the sheep are set out. Then the fetch is down the valley between the hills on either side with various blind spots along the way. To make it more fun use range ewes who are difficult to steer. THIS IS WHAT A SHEEPDOG TRIAL IS SUPPOSED TO BE !

For the Pro - Novice the sheep were brought down into the valley between the two hills but still 250 - 300 yards out. The particular spot where they were set was kind of tucked in so it would be very easy to run wide behind a hill and get lost on the outrun.

We were up 2nd in Pro Novice and followed nursery (about 10 dogs). Because the Open dogs had difficulties with the drive away panel all weekend the course was changed to a "push bye - then pull through" on the drive away. Push the sheep by the panels to the left and then pull back through. Everything else was normal.

I decided to send Piper "come bye". Suicide in the open it was a viable option for PN because the sheep were set lower. She took off beautifully and was making her way up the hill on the left when she started to kick in and slow down. She was obviously wondering where the sheep were and coming in to investigate. I was a fraction of a second from blowing a redirect whistle when I noticed Piper seemed to catch sigh of the sheep, turned her head "bye" and redirected herself out and well behind the sheep. Outrun loss of 1 point.

Piper came up on the sheep well but in my view a little hard and lifted straight. Zero points deducted.

The fetch seemed a trouble spot for many of the dogs we had watched but - except for being a little hard headed and fast for the top quarter or so - Piper handled it well. The sheep wanted to pull to my right and a little come bye flank and lie down got them back on direction before they got too far. We must have stayed pretty well om line because we only lost 5 points for the fetch. Most that I saw were losing many more on the fetch. Anyway this was very encouraging because this is the second trial in a row where Piper has been very good on her outwork (5 points lost at Hoof and Paw and 6 points lost at Zamora).

On to the drive. It has been our bugaboo and it was again but for different reasons. Our tendency has been to over flank and cause a serpentine drunk driving pattern with Piper acting like a windshield wiper going from side to side behind the sheep. Here the sheep wanted to lean to the left and so I had Piper come bye and stop. Then a little walk up and the sheep would push back to the right. Stop and let them come a bit left and another come bye. Here is the good thing. Piper was taking the flanks and the stops and we were progressing in a more or less stacked banana motion toward the panel. Mostly straight but always tending in the right direction. But we were not doing the windshield wiper serpentine approach. The other good thing is that Piper was taking my "lie down" commands where they were given and not moving off pressure then lying down as she did last week in practice.

When we got to the drive away panel I had trouble telling when we had passed the plane to the left and walked Piper in too much. The sheep made an escape high because I waited to flank too long. Anyway they were up on a plateau where I had no sight of my dog and could barely see the tops of the sheep heads. This is where I think we lost most of our points but I also think it is somewhat course and run specific.

We finally got the sheep turned back and by this time I abandoned trying to get the pull through. Piper brought the sheep down to the cross drive line - probably a bit low but it looked good to me at the time. Then from there the cross drive was actually pretty good. The sheep wanted to go low beneath the panel so I flanked Piper to cover and they tipped back towards the panel opening. Unfortunately I released the pressure a little early and they tipped back low again and almost broke the plane. Another flank away and we covered that before they broke the plane. A short walk up and the sheep were nicely positioned in the middle of the panel opening but with their sides to the opening facing uphill. A quick come bye and stop aligned with the middle of the opening and the sheep went through.

On to the pen. Almost nobody was getting the pen and we were no different. Piper did work calmly and we managed to get the sheep almost into the mouth. One ewe tried to stamp Piper down but she held her ground and was calm about the whole thing.

Final score 53 with a high degree of difficulty. Overall I was very happy with Piper.

EDIT TO ADD. Piper's score held up for 8th place out of 32 actual runs. So top 25%. And she beat some dogs that have been regularly beating us. So improvement is showing.

Spectators on the Hill across the road.