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.