Running with the Big Dogs in Dunnigan Hills

This weekend Piper and I travelled north (again) to run at Bill Berhow’s Dunnigan Hills Sheep Dog Trial. Somewhat unusually the trial accepted Open “Non – Comp” runs to run after the competitive Open runs on Saturday and again on Sunday. We stayed Monday for competitive Pro-Novice Runs. Bill Orr from Oregon was the judge.

THE OPEN FIELD AND RUNS

There were 50 – 51 competitive Open Runs each day and 12 non-comp runs each day for a total of about 60 dogs each day.

The Dunnigan Hills field is literally just down the road from the Zamora trial field and is a fabulous rolling hills trial field. The distance from handler’s post to set out was 385 yards (Bill measured it by Radar). The Handler’s post was at the top of a hill and there were hills to either side on the outrun. Sheep were set at the top of a rise but with plenty of space behind them. Whichever outrun direction chosen was likely to result in a wide running dog going blind behind a ridge for a while. To the left the dog could have stayed below the ridge and visible but this tended to kick the dogs in and resulted in some flat top ends and off line lifts.

The draw on the fetch was to the handler’s right. If the sheep were lifted reasonably straight they were not terribly hard to keep on line but if the lift was off line – especially pushing sheep to the right – there were plenty of trouble spots. Some groups decided to go over the ridge to the right and disappeared resulting in a number of retires. At the post the sheep wanted to turn in front of the post and you had to wait until they had crossed the plane of the post before sending the dog around. Either they wanted to run you over at the turn or they wanted to escape way down the field to the exhaust pasture (not a pen just an extra pasture – in fact one dog that lost its sheep on the fetch ended up bringing the prior group back from the exhaust pasture.)
The drive away was almost 200 yards down into a valley and slightly back up on the end. For the most part the sheep were cooperative on the drive away although they had a tendency to speed up as they went through the panels leading to some wide turns.

The cross drive was another 250 yards and the line was more difficult on the side of the hill and then down through a swale. The sheep wanted to start out high and then when they got to the swale the tendency was to drop low off line. As they approached the panels they wanted to escape over the ridge and go graze so there were a few escapes and a lot of wide turns.
The last leg of the drive was down into the valley so you needed to stay by the handlers post to see what was going on. The sheep were very pennable with many (including my first set) just walking straight in.

I had several good friends running at the trial and before I get to Piper I promised to mention some. Unfortunately self focus being what it is I only remember some of their scores. Plus I slept in Sunday so I missed several of their runs. But based on reports and some eyewitness here goes.

Mike Burks and Sport had a very nice run on Sunday and ended up with a 73 good for seventh place. The turns were a bit wide and some very minor bobbles but in all a very nice run. Sport followed up with another nice run on Sunday with a little bit of trouble on the fetch (a stall and missed panels). I thought his Saturday run was better but the Judge liked the Sunday run better and Sport ended up 6th on Sunday with a 77.

Sally Douglas ran two dogs – Babe compete and Merle non-compete and I think she had a good experience. She was very happy with getting numbers with Babe in only her second open trial. Merle actually scored higher than Babe both days – including a very good 70 on Sunday (good for 2d among the non-compete dogs). Merle was very nice on his drive and seemed to deal better with the presence of a set out person than he sometimes does. I think Sally probably came away with a good feeling about, and more confidence in, both her dogs. Plus she got a chance to run them both on a big field under competitive conditions.

Jean Singer and Tug also ran both days and got around the course nicely on Saturday after a bit of adventure starting the outrun. I did not see their run Sunday but heard it was nice.
Erin Swanson had a good weekend with Lark (although she lost her drive pts Saturday due to time on what was going to be a nice run). She also took delivery of a new dog – 20 month old Cooper. Also she had a nice sampling of some crook handles for crooks her husband Brian is now making – and selling at a very reasonable price.

Piper’s Saturday run was our first time ever running with the big dogs. She did not disappoint and did better than I had expected and even than I had hoped.

I sent her come bye and she disappeared behind the ridge line for what seemed an eternity. Actually it was only 31 seconds before I panicked and whistled her on. Another 15 seconds and I whistled again. Immediately I then spotted her and she was in proper position and coming toward the sheep. Four points off the outrun due to my panic.

Lift was good and the fetch started on the muscle but straight. She started to slow the pace about 1/3 of the way down and we made the fetch panels cleanly. The remainder of the fetch was clean and we only lost 3 points on the long fetch.

Around the post and a very clean driveaway. At the turn she went through the panels on the flank for a reasonable turn where she has been going wide of the panels and losing sheep for a wide turn.

We struggled a bit with the line on the cross drive but were approaching the panel only a little high. This is where I blew the run, I should have just let the sheep slide by and take my deduction but I thought I could save it so sent her come bye --- TOO FAR. The sheep tipped sharply back down and Piper did not take my away flank to tuck them through the panel. It was a mess and we never got them back up to the panel. Finally as I decided to just bring the sheep down she crossed the course and got behind for the last leg. We lost 17 on the drive and most of it was right here.

At the pen I opened the gate and the sheep just walked in. For the rest of the trial Patti Sowell teased me whenever other sheep did the same calling them “Piper Sheep.”

Final score Saturday = 63 out of 90 (no shed). Good to win the non-compete side betting pool of $13 and would have placed 17th out of 52 (63 including non competes) if I ran her compete.

Sunday the question was whether I could repeat the performance or maybe even correct some of the flaws caught on tape Saturday. There were some good runs ahead of us among the non-compete including Tierney Graham and Brisco and Sally Douglas and Babe.

Well Piper gave me the run of our life so far. Not perfect by any means but the most complete run we have ever put together as a team.

Following my training philosophy I sent her the opposite direction (away) on her outrun. I thought she sighted her sheep before dropping over the ridge and out of sight. But I learned my lesson from the day before and kept hearing Jennifer’s voice tell me “She’s a good outrunner – don’t panic”. So I swallowed the whistle and watched a minute tick off the watch with no Piper in sight. Just as panic was about to take over and blow a flank whistle I saw sheep start to run straight at me with a small black and white blur in pursuit. Zero off the outrun and only 1 on the lift.

The fetch started on the muscle but calmed down and it was straight. Only slightly off for just a moment. Four points off the fetch.

The drive was an exercise in small movements. Slight positional adjustments and we avoided overflanking. Controlling the pace and walking up. No real serpentining but slight adjustments.

Made the first panels and a nice turn. Little bit on and offline on the cross drive but generally pretty good line. Slightly low at the swale and slightly over adjusted as they approached the panel. My adjustment was better timed and with more finesse. Then drive toward the pen holding the line well. Only 7 points off the drive – a big improvement for us.

Then the pen and a near disaster. I lifted the latch locking the pen shut and went to open the gate ahead of the sheep arriving. Everything seemed fine until the gate partially opened and the rope got caught in the pen preventing the gate from opening all the way and blocking the sheep from entering. As Tierney commented – my sheep patiently waited for me to get the rope unentangeled and then walked politely into the pen. We lost 2 points on the pen.

Final score = 76 making us the winners of the noncompetition competition. A that’s a “good dog” from the judge and you “had a competitive run” as we walked off. Overall we would have placed 7th if we had been running competitively – top 14%.

Pretty darn good for our first time “running with the big dogs”.

PRO NOVICE RUNS

The Pro Novice and Nursery runs were held Monday. Nursery was combined score or you could choose to have your score count for Nursery only with a young dog (Bill Berhow chose this option and it worked to my benefit).

The Course was about half the size of the Open Course and angled to a different part of the field. This actually created some issues for a couple dogs who had run non compete Open and were surprised to learn the sheep were not where they had been on previous days. It also brought the small pond at the bottom of the valley into play as the straight fetch would actually have been right through the middle of the pond. The line for the last leg of the drive was about five feet to the right of the pond.

Tierney Graham was up second with her dog Brisco. Tierney got her first qualifying leg back in October at Tom and LisAnn Spencer’s trial and has been tantalizingly close to the second leg several times since. Well she laid down possibly the best run I have seen from her so far with Brisco with a lovely outrun lift and fetch. But the real beauty was on her drive where I think she only lost 5 points. Total score was 11 points off for a 79. As I filmed for her I was thinking “that’s going to be hard to beat”. And it was, the score held up for first in both Nursery and Pro Novice so Tierney is qualified for the finals and off to Belle Grove.

Piper was up 10th and there were a couple quick retires right before us so I almost was surprised when it was our turn to run. On her first run I sent her bye and she was wider than most of the Pro Novice dogs – I think she was remembering the outrun from open – but she came up right, lifted well and exhibited more consistent control through the fetch than she had in Open. Outrun – 1, Lift - 2, and Fetch – 3. We completed a remarkable for Piper 3d good drive in row although we missed the cross drive panel just low. This time I realized we were going to miss the panel too late but unlike Open run 1 I accepted the point hit and let them slide by without making it worse. 9 points off the drive. The pen was lrgely uneventful although I did have to do a little jump move to prevent the sheep from going wide to the gate side before Piper calmly walked them in.

Total Score = 75. Three way tie with Bill Berhow and Karen Kollgard. We would have lost the tiebreaker with Bill (no shame in that !) but since he was running Nursery only we took second place – good for a Starbucks gift card.

Our second Pro Novice Run showed the dangers of hubris. It was a little too much to ask for four good runs in a row. Plus we had a group of wild sheep that broke for the exhaust while they were being set. So it was a tough combo.

I sent Piper away and she went way away. Judge Bill Orr standing behind me said “I think Piper says that’s where the sheep were for Open” and he was right. In this limited instance I think prior local knowledge was a disadvantage. But she went behind the ridge and kept going eventually coming up in proper position but WAY deep. Zero off the outrun and she walked up nicely for a reasonable lift – 2 points. From there the sheep wanted to escape home and Piper went too wide on her flanks. The sheep soon reached escaped velocity and we retired.

A good weekend and a wonderful trial.

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Hold That Line !!!!

We had a week in between trials to get some training in. If the early training runs were an indication we sure needed it.

After a relatively decent bit of training in the lower field on heavier sheep, Jennifer brought out the runners to test us. At first we failed miserably. I could not get Piper within twenty feet without the sheep taking off to escape. We almost had to buy Subway for class a couple times.

It seems Piper was getting up from her lie down straight into a flank instead of walking up. With these sheep as soon as she would catch their eye they were GONE. So we needed to get her to stay behind and in the pocket. She was doing this fine on the fetch but the drive was a mess.

So we tried driving toward the lower field and the fence which created a natural end to the runaway sheep. Also if she got up so much as a half step to the side instead of straight on I downed her immediately. If the sheep escaped well so be it but she was not going to turn it into a flank and retrieve game. It took some micro-managing and being on full alert but it actually worked. As long as I made her walk straight in and controlled the pace she actually managed to hold a line and looked pretty good doing it. So we know she CAN do it. I just need to stay on her and not let her get away with either flank or fast get ups.

Next week Bill Berhow's trial at Dunnigan Hills.

Deer Creek

Piper Rounds The Post @ Deer Creek

We are back from Deer Creek which is the San Joaquin Valley Border Collie Spring Trial and one of the longest continuous annual sheep dog trials in California. Deer Creek has a reputation as one of the more difficult trials in California with cranky and difficult range ewes. Scores are historically low. This was our first time at Deer Creek and it was definitely mixed bag.

The Bad:

Piper came up a bit short on the first outrun and the lift was off line leading to . . .

The sheep pushed over Piper on the fetch on her first run and she would not come bye and walk into the pressure;

The first drive was still a serpentine route;

On the second fetch Piper ringed the sheep about halfway down;

She also crossed the course once on the drive;

We managed to basically throw away a decent drive on the 2d run at the cross drive panel missing high and then turning right back through the panel the wrong way.

The Bizarre:

Turning the drive away panel on our first run one sheep decided to lay down and play possum resulting in a re-run starting at the mid point of the cross drive.

The Good:

Piper's second outrun was wide and proper leading to a good lift;

The second fetch Piper held the pressure better although we missed the panels and she crossed the course once so the score was not good;

Our turn at the post was much improved on the second run;

Piper worked very well at the pen with a group of ewes that simply did NOT WANT TO GO INTO THE PEN including running down a breakaway ewe that wanted to escape on its own at least three times;

After our first run was called and we started to exhaust the sheep turned to face her down and Piper took the "hit it" command to get them moving again;

Piper refused to take any crap from some very difficult ewes when working exhaust.

Results:

9th out of 22 in Round 1.

4th out of 17 in Round 2 for a Ribbon and check.