Zamora - Nursery Report

The Final Day at Zamora was for Nursery followed by Pro-Novice. Rylee ran Nursery and we stayed through the first seven Pro-Novice dogs to watch a few friends before hitting the road back to So Cal.

The course was very similar to the Second Open Course except that the sheep were set further down in the hill. Estimates on the distance ranged upwards of 400 yards but the most reliable estimate seemed to be 350 yards. The set out was definitely further up the hill than it was last year for Pro-Novice. Whatever the actual distance it was a long way for the young and less experienced dogs and there was still danger that the hills would kick them down and either narrow or crossing over. The drives were both shortened and we had 8 minutes.

Before getting to Rylee a word of congratulations to Dr. Bob Schooley, DVM, and his dog Spike. They ran Pro-Novice and made it all the way around the course timing out at the pen. They have been working extremely hard and it is paying off. I think it was probably the farthest Bob has ever sent Spike on an outrun and I am pretty sure it is their first time completing the PN course (only the 2d or 3d try I believe). The outrun was beautiful, the run controlled and I am pretty sure Bob's heart rate may be back to normal by Sonoma.

Rylee ran eight of twelve Nursery Dogs. My plan was to attempt the drive this time - as opposed to our first trial where we did a planned retire. Based on the current state of our partnership I did not really expect her to do particularly well on the drive but I wanted to give it a try as long as I did not think I was putting to much pressure or stress on her. If I saw signs of stress I intended to retire. But I thought it would be good to get her some experience with me on a different field with different sheep.

I sent her "come bye" and her first few steps were pretty straight up the middle so I gave a more stern "COME BYE". That seemed to do the trick as she bent out and up the face of the hill to the left. As she went up the face she bent out further - which was good since the tendency and fear was that the hill would kick the dog back toward the center. When she got deep enough so she was fairly well behind the set out she kind of turned and came in on sort of a flat trajectory and stopped and lied down on her own at about 10:30 on the clock face. A big difference from Piper.

It took some encouraging to get Rylee up and walking in on the sheep. To those who have not seen her it undoubtedly looked like she was being stared down by the sheep and losing the stare down. Knowing her careful approach and that I could see her slowly inching forward I was not really worried that she would be unable to lift. Sure enough she eventually lifted them - much more calmly than a Piper explosion lift.

The sheep leaned on her to my right all the way down the fetch line. Rylee did take my come bye flanks and we had a bit of steering on the fetch but we certainly need to work on getting more, As seems to be common for me we had a bit of a problem at the post getting the sheep lined up to go around the proper side. After coming down the right side most of the way down the fetch line I over corrected and put the sheep on the wrong side of the post. We had to unwind them to get around and start the drive.

On the drive the sheep were a little to the right and then a little to the left. Rylee took my flanks without being too harsh on the sheep. (That's my memory - I have to check the tape.) We narrowly missed the drive away panels to the left (memory again) and made the turn for the drive away. The sheep were coming down low back toward me and I knew we were running short on time (I was late starting my watch) so I just tried to get them headed in the right direction and make as much progress as I could.

Then I heard a beep from the judges area. About ten seconds later my own timer went off but the Judge still had not called "time". When I saw the exhaust dog coming for my sheep a few seconds later I asked the Judge "That's time, right ?" He confirmed time was indeed up.

I was very pleased with Rylee because I thought she was listening to me and trying hard to do as I asked. The partnership seems to get just a little more well founded every time we go out. Give us time and I think we will make a good team.