I really have no good answer for this question other than ‘right here.’ But I have been totally uninterested in updating this blog or my other one over at bike-guy.com. There has been stuff going on, but I’ve been too lazy to write about it. Until now . . .
BCCGLA Trial, Jan 30, 2010
Because my herding instructor has yet to find a place anywhere near LA I have not being working Scot anywhere near the amount of time I should, yet I have been lucky enough in the last 2 trials, both AKC, I have participated in to finish no lower than 2nd place in each run (total of 4 runs).
I entered the AKC trial up in Leona Valley held by the Border Collie Club of Greater Los Angeles up at Task Farms. Because of the distance I only entered the Saturday events. Since Scot had very little work in the last couple of months, I took a half-day off and went down to Terry’s to work him a couple of hours.
Since both runs were Course A I worked in the pen and only Course A obstacles. Terry made me work very ‘light’ sheep. With all the recent rain the pen was very muddy in places and the sheep really didn’t want to go through the mud making driving all that much more difficult.
In my first AKC trial a couple of months ago I ran Started and finished 2nd & 1st so I had one more Started run if I scored qualifying points so I practiced as if I were running Intermediate which limits where the handler can move, meaning there was more driving and less fetching.
During this practice I learned something new working with Scot. In driving if the sheep are facing the direction awayfrom Scot I use ‘walk up.’ If they are facing Scot then command is ‘watch ‘em’ or if I need to be a bit more emphatic then it’s ‘get ‘em.’ The other nugget I picked in this lesson was using ‘here’ and ‘there.’ They are similar to come and stop but less so and hopefully meaning Scot won’t come off the sheep as using come will do.
I probably made 10-15 attempts at running the course and only really made it through completely and correctly once. I was really frustrated and I know Scot was as well. But on Saturday, it’s clear Terry knows what she is doing. Not that I doubted this, but it’s always fun when it shows up in my performance at a trial.
The Trial – first run
The was the first trial of any kind that I had entered that was run by Terry, so I was on new territory. Fortunately there were a couple of her students entered and that helped me tremendously. It gave me a anchor, someone to talk to, a base from where I could be comfortable in a new location. (Thanks Cheryl!).
The weather was beautiful, but when the wind blew it was freakin’ COLD!. Scot and I were the last run in the last group, Started. But since I am still insecure when comes to these things I was there plenty early. I found a spot to park and went to look around and get a sense of the place and where I needed to go, etc. Then I let Beag and Scot out, on leash, to get them to stretch out from the hour plus drive to the high desert.
As the morning drug on I knew I had to let Scot (and Beag) run loose and ‘take care of business’ before hitting the ring or I’m certain Scot would squat and take a shit right in the middle of the run. Not fun, rather embarrassing and a penalty in scoring. Fortunately I had been introduced to the owner of the facility earlier so I ran him down and asked where I could safely run the dogs prior to our turn. It certainly helped both of them.
Since I was last I left Scot at the car for the handler’s meeting and then went and got him a couple runs before mine. This run was Started, so if I qualified I would be moving up to intermediate in the afternoon run. I wasn’t very nervous, but still made 2 stupid mistakes that almost certainly cost me first place. When I started him on his initial outrun I wasn’t far enough to his right and when I asked for a ‘go bye’ he started an ‘awee.’ I corrected him, but the damage was done, points gone. The other mistake I made on this run was letting Scot and sheep get too far ahead of me moving to position 4 ahead of the cross drive meaning I was out of position for a sweet transition to the cross drive. I am certain those 2 things were enough to drop me to second and felt them acutely as we left the ring. Scot did as I told him either through voice or body and the fault was all mine. I even had co-operative sheep, this set was neither too flighty or too heavy. They were perfectly content to stay with me on the fetch which made it easy.
Actually I was surprised with 2nd, but very happy of course. I felt I had done well enough to qualify, but second surprised me. So now I was set to move up to intermediate and was very glad Terry had me practicing driving instead of fetching.
The Trial – second run
So the second run was a much shorter wait even though I was still last in my group since intermediate runs before started. This time the sheep were much lighter and took off from the hay when Scot got close at all. We had no control until they got all the way to the top post. So I gathered them up and and drove them around the cone in the correct direction. From the cone all the way to the hold at the exhaust gate it went, what I thought was quite well. I had pretty much figured I was toast for a top 3 finish after a lousy fetch so I was pretty relaxed for most of the run. The only issue at all came at that last hold when Scot charged the sheep during the hold, but even that was minor. I was happy but not expectant, so when I got a second again I was really surprised. As it turns out I won that place by a measly half-point, but hey, I’ll take it.
Overall a great experience, but damn my expectations are going be pretty damn high if I manage to keep this pace up.
Dave and Rev
trial and 3rd trial in all orgs. We had a run each day in Course A Started, basically the beginning level in course work. We had GREAT results! The photo is most of the ‘bling’ we earned. The only item missing is a cool leash for Reserve High in Trial.
