Smacked Down at the Throwdown

Jennifer's Wednesday training class issued a throwdown challenge to the Saturday class for a dog trial. High combined score wins. Winners get bragging rights. Losers buy lunch.

The trial was run as an Open trial on a tricky layout at Canines-N-Ewe, with a combination setting of two ewes and two lambs. The stock trailer substituted for the pen and the lambs especially were reluctant to go in. It was difficult but doable.

Oh and we brought in the same judge who will be judging the Soldier Hollow and the USBCHA Nationals all the way from her house on the edge of the trial field.

In a close competition - the Wednesday's - after adding an extra dog to make their total number of dogs 9 to Saturday's 6, managed to eke out a combined 6 point win So congrats and we Saturday people will have to eat crow and serve lunch.

It was a great deal of fun even though our runs were somewhat disappointing. Both the one that counted and the afternoon extra runs.

On Piper's morning run I sent her right and she took the wide road which I was trying to get her to take the week before. Problem was that for the fun trial this road dumped her off a hill right at the set out pens which were conveniently filled with very distracting sheep. As our judge reminded me I should have blown her in as soon as I saw where she was heading but she has spoiled me on her outruns and I fell victim to overconfidence. Lost nearly 4 minutes before blowing a recall to get her off the set out pens and bringing her part way back. Then sent her off on her way and she found the right sheep. Fetch was off line at least for the top half as the lambs wanted to pull the group to the handler's right. We had a pretty nice driveaway and some back and forth on the cross-drive. Overall we were set to lose 14 points on the drive except we timed out about five feet from the shedding ring due to time wasted at the set out pen. These points were critical as Saturday could have won if we had just made it into the ring. Despite the low score and outrun adventure I was actually fairly pleased that Piper did call off the set out pens and then listened to me fairly well afterwards. The drive - while not great - was actually an improvement given the difficult ewe/lamb combination.

After a wonderful pot-luck lunch some of us (mostly the defeated Saturday crew plus Lasoya) headed back out to do it again. This time I sent left but Piper came up a bit short at about 11 o'clock and we had a bit of an off line lift. Problems at the top end of the fetch again but got it together at the bottom. Our drive was slightly worse than the morning drive but I made a point of looking at my watch as time was running down and just encouraged Piper to "walk up. walk up" to make sure we got into the shedding ring and saved our drive points. We had less than 30 seconds left for the shed and with these sheep that simply was not happening.

Then we did a third run where we reversed the course since so few had managed to actually get to the finish work. The third run was Shed - Trailer - Single - Drive - Push sheep back to set out cone - recall dog most of the way - turn back - and fetch. Only one dog managed to do the course and that was Jennifer with Soot who got her fetch back into the shedding ring with about 1 second to spare. Sharon Roman and Nick went second and after working hard Sharon managed to get a shed with some very good body positioning, got her trailer and single, and got started on the first leg of the drive before timing out.

Piper was the only other dog to get out of the single ring and started on the drive. We managed to get a gap for the shed fairly early and Piper came in through the gap and turned the right direction. I did not think she really took control but Jennifer called it a shed and we gratefully moved on to the trailer. We got three in fairly easily (at least for sheep that did not want to go in) and the fourth tried to escape. Piper was having none of that and retrieved our escapee and we got the trailer fairly quickly. Then to send Piper into a small crowded trailer - something I have never asked her to do. But she went in with just a little encouragement took a quick nose bite and convinced those sheep to just explode out of the trailer. We worked hard on the single and I managed to get a gap three or four times but could not get Piper to come through. Finally I got another gap with her in good position and she came through and took control of the single. We did not have much time left so we tried to hustle through the drive and timed out on a poor effort at the cross drive. For practice, Jennifer let me do the partial recall and look back since we needed the sheep back in the ring. She took it like a champ even though we had never practiced this.

Overall - a really fun day.

A debt that cannot be repaid

I have three border collies. In order of when I got them, Ramsay, Maggie and Piper. Not coincidentally that is also in ascending order of their herding skills. That is why this blog - which is devoted to our herding adventures - is mostly about my training and trialing with Piper.

But I owe a debt to all three dogs - and especially Ramsay and Maggie that can never be repaid. I purchased Ramsay out of an ad in the Orange County Register just before my birthday 6 years ago. At the time I knew almost nothing about Border Collies except I had seen them on TV in agility trials and they looked to be a fun breed. Little did I know at the time how that would change my life. By sheer coincidence Ramsay came into my life about 3 - 4 months before the beginning of some difficult times. Sometimes I wonder if I would have made it through emotionally without Ramsay. He may never have amounted to much as a herder but he got me into it, got me through some tough times, and is a total sweetheart around the house. But I can never repay Ramsay for the help getting through some very tough times.

Maggie joined us a little less than a year later. She had a very rough start to life being sold out of a pet shop and going through four or five homes in her first thirteen months. We were probably her last chance. Although she can still embody the definition of bitch she has come a long way and is now a sweet little girl. She got me further in herding and is probably the reason I am now addicted. But she never seemed to be able to master the concept of driving sheep away. She is mostly retired from herding now and while she enjoys an occasional outing she is perfectly happy being Princess Margaret. But, as with Ramsay, she got me through some tough times emotionally.

I can never fully repay either of them but I can give them a loving and caring home.

Back in the Saddle

Well two weeks off and back to work.

The two weeks does not seem to have radically impacted our herding ability or willingness to listen to commands - either adversely or positively. Pretty much picked up where we left off.

There were some good moments and there were some bad moments. There were moments when I felt the need to simply leave and ignore the sheep and re-introduce Piper to that old time religion. She did not like those but she did pay more attention afterwards.

There were some moments when she did me proud. Like when the sheep were first brought onto the field and I sent Piper on a completely blind (both to me and her) outrun sweep of the field in search of sheep. She never saw them the first time but kept casting in the given direction as I walked forward trying to find them myself. By the time I learned where they were and Piper appeared she had WAY overrun. But she took the reverse direction, came around and found them, and pretty soon I had sheep at my feet.

Then at the end of the day we were practicing shedding (I think Jennifer is trying to get me ready to move up despite our inconsistent and often DUI like driving). I was having trouble getting the sheep to make any hole. On the first of our three sheds I got a decent size hole and brought Piper in but she turned briefly on the wrong group and the shed group tried to rejoin. Piper turned on them and took them off but Jennifer told me she would not have called the shed. The second one took a while to set up but when Piper came through she took the proper group off. Finally on our third shed I was getting very frustrated because while I could get a single I was having big trouble getting a gap to take the rear two off at the head. Finally while everything was still in motion, sheep, Piper and me I saw a small gap and called Piper in. She came in and took the rear two on the head beautifully in the smallest gap I have ever asked her to come in on. It was too small for my confidence level but I realized it was all I was going to get when I asked her in. Piper handled it much better than I did.

Driving - now that is another story. Our drive aways seem to be much better and fairly consistent but we are still slaughtering the cross drives. Not sure if it is because of her feeling pressure she needs to guard against on the field or what because she actually seems to do better away from her home field. But anyway it remains our biggest bugaboo and we are working hard on it. I started walking out to be closer to her so I could instill discipline as needed and she got a little better.

The Sweep - Jesse puppies were about 8 days old and MY GOD ARE THEY CUTE !

Suffering Withdrawal Symptoms

I don't know how I got this addicted but due to a combination of circumstances I have not been able to get Piper out on livestock for two weeks. I am really looking forward to getting back to work with her on Saturday at Jennifer's. Amazing how much we miss it.

But the circumstances keeping us away were well worth it. First, I missed two Saturdays ago (July 31) due to my son's wedding. Although it was ane evening wedding and I theoretically could have done morning training I think my wife would have castrated me if I tried. Anyway it was well worth it and everyone had a lovely time. See Picture. (Now if I Diana sees the pics of Sweep - Jesse pups she may start pushing the new daughter in law for some human pups. Over/Under on the mothers wanting grandbaby probably at about 12 months.) BTW - we both absolutely love our new Daughter- In - Law (or "Dilly" as Diana now calls her.)

The following week there was no training because Jennifer was judging at Amanda Milliken's Kingston trial. This is really Jennifer's year to judge at some big trials (Kingston, Soldier Hollow, and USBCHA Nationals) and it is going to seriously mess with our training schedule in August and September. But- well worth it and well deserved. I'm sure she will do a great job.