Trailing the Sheep
This was the last of our three sheep dog weekends in a row. For this trial I had to travel to the east side of Idaho, to Hailey. Hailey is north of Twin Falls, so I had to go down and hit I84, then back north. My internal compass is still way off! When I'd check the direction to the Yukon's, I was often off! Better not get lost!
I left after school on Thursday and got to the trial site around 10:30 that night. It was 16 degrees when we pulled in! Yikes! I quickly got the hot water heater lit, generator going and the trailer plugged in. My generator is large enough to an electric space heater, lights and the trailer heater. With both heaters going it warmed up fairly quickly and the dogs and I went to bed.
Forgot my pop on the hood overnight on Saturday.
Rooster and I were run number 43 or something near that. At 10 minutes a run, that would be late afternoon. So, it was a leisurely morning and I got a chance to walk through some of the vendors. I sat, watched and visited the rest of the morning and early afternoon bundled up in two coats, snow pants and Bogs.
We had name badges even!
They ran five ewes for every dog and had 500 to choose from, so no sheep had to work more than once a day. The winning run's score was a 61 out of a 100. These sheep had never been worked by a Border Collie, so they weren't to sure about them and would turn and stare at the dog. While watching, the fine wool range ewes were wanting to lock up and not move to well and the scores showed it. I had fun scribing for the judge and always learn a bunch!
Trial field
My goal for this run was for Rooster to find his sheep and get them to my feet. I sent him to the left because there was a little hill that allowed the dog to easily see the sheep. He ran out well and came in well behind his sheep. He did stop at about 11:00 and started coming in. He got close, then just laid down. Un oh! I whistled him up and got him moving. I decided to leave him alone and he was wanting to sneak up into their eye. Not terribly, but he was determined to keep a hold of them. They wanted to break right and he got around them quickly, but not with his usual speed. He was also taking his flanks slowly. It's hard to see 400 yards out, but it appeared that he was wanting to hold the eye of one or more of them. We slowly worked them down the field, but the ladies were periodically turning and facing him. Then we got to the post and it all came to a screeching halt. They turned and refused to budge. Rooster wouldn't either and when asked to flank back and forth, just crept around slowly. We timed out with a score of 27.
Keeping the exhaust sheep in line
After our run we went to exhaust and then stayed to help keep the sheep that had run that day from wandering to far down field. They weren't kept in a pen, but just loose and dogs and people helped keep them where they were supposed to be. This ended up being a valuable experience. Rooster was still wanting to eye up on random sheep that weren't even in front of him. Weird! By the time we were done, he had relaxed, stopped doing that and was freely flanking.
The next day we ran in the 30's. Again I scribed before our run. The sheep were moving much more freely and the scores were creeping up. I had hope that we might actually make my goal of making it to the first drive away panel. I was also a bit worried that since we had spent all that time in the exhaust, he might just want to go find sheep over there. I walked him to the post and as we were setting up the sheep shot off to the right. It took a few minutes for the set out to get them back where they were supposed to be. I sent him and he ran out well, whew! He came in at 11 again and slowed way down. I was afraid he was going to catch an eye again, so I flanked him go bye. Looking back now, that flank caused the sheep to shoot off to the left when he lifted them. Sorry Rooster! He usually does a good job of reading his sheep at the top. Rooster had to shoot off like a rocket to get ahead of them and get them stopped. I flanked him around and started slowly pushing them back online. I had Rooster get them moving, then downed him, or in his case, meerkat sat and let them drift and kept that up until they were back online. This strategy worked well and the girls settled down. We got them lined up at the fetch panels and they kinda stalled out, I gave Rooster a couple little flanks back and forth and they popped right through. I did a little jump for joy and the crowd cheered. As Rooster was bringing them to the post, two tried to split off, but before they got two feet away he neatly tucked them back in.
More exhaust work.
A bit wobbly around the post, but got them headed to the drive panels. I was keeping Rooster well back and just gently bumping them, trying to keep them online. They were headed for the hole, but all of a sudden turned right and missed them. I sent him on the away flank and got them headed across to the drive panels. I knew the line was high, but I just wanted to keep flow, so kept Rooster high, but still back. We did get them to come down, but then missed the panels just a little low! Darn! Rooster brought them in the straightest line of the whole drive into the shed ring. They weren't very far into the ring, but decided to try to shed anyway. They were clumped up, Rooster was holding his side and somehow they broke into a group of three and two. Perfect! I called Rooster through and with no hesitation he came in and took control of the two. We lost two points and I'm thinking it's because we were supposed to take them off the back on the head and we had some turned in the wrong direction. That's something to work on. I was just thrilled we got it. There were several runs that I watched where there was a perfect hole to bring the dog through and the dog just wouldn't come. Thankful for Rooster's love of shedding!
I told him to look back to get the other three and he took off to go get them and I headed to the chute and marveled at the fact that I was getting to touch the rope. Not many handlers had gotten that far and there had been only one who got the sheep through the chute out of 75+ runs. Rooster worked the sheep up and they were close to the mouth when we timed out. I must admit I was a bit misty and in awe of my Rooster! Wow! What a good boy! He took all his commands and, for once, I didn't mix up the go bye and away.
Good boy Rooster!
We ended up 11th out of 50+ runs, which I'm very proud of. It was our second time trial in Open, we got our first shed in competition and our first time on true range sheep. We were only one placing from getting points for nationals. We wouldn't go anyway, because it's in Virginia, but pretty darn cool. I have a new handler that I'm wanting to watch. Sonia Craig's dogs are very consistent. Very rarely does she retire or get DQ'd and she's usually in at least the top half of the runs. She was second one day and won a day too. She's one of the most consistent in our area at least.
Beep, Poppet and Noodle stayed home with my grand daughter Maddy. It's so nice to know that they are well taken care of! I took Beckit with me. She did well camping and was able to be loose in the trailer. I only lost a pair of dollar store reading glasses, a plastic cup and now have a small hole in a pair of wool socks. She was friendly with people and dogs, she peed and pooped and ate like she has done this all her life.
All in all a very good weekend!