A couple posts ago I show a video of Scot and I practicing for this run. This is from the trial. The earlier post describes the course. We did ok, We got a score of 86 out of a 100 and qualified so this was the first of three legs in getting his title in HRD 3. I have hit something of a wall in that I don’t have the time or resources to work Scot as much as I would like and more importantly, needed to win against people who do. This is not a complaint. If those are the only folks that beat me, I’m happy. We can certainly improve, and will, but I was happy.
Judges comments: “Good job – a few glitches, but overall some work!”
I felt that I didn’t keep the sheep calm enough in a couple of places. My biggest down check was losing 6 points on my drive, most lost when I missed a cone. Otherwise it was a good run.
Shedding is when you and your dog ‘break’ a group of livestock into smaller groups. It is against the instinct of the herd and the dog to do this. Instinct is for the herd to stay together and even if they split, they will rejoin if not stopped. The dog’s instinct, particularly border collies, is to also keep the sheep all together as well. Here is Bill, the human, and Russell, the border collie doing a shed in an AHBA trial at Action K9 Sports. The is the last part of HTD 3 run.
So my instructor told me I should enter an upcoming AHBA trial in advanced in both HTD and HTAD. Now keep in mind I have done one run in HTAD II and have had one run in HTD II plus two 2 runs in AKC’s B Course, which is basically the same as HTD III. So I figured I better get some practice runs in ahead of time.
A: so I would HAVE CLUE in what I would need to do and
B: I could find things to practice on locally ahead of going to compete.
I was able to make 2 runs on Saturday and you can see the first of the two below.
In HTAD III the run starts with a outrun, lift and fetch of 10 sheep from an open field at about 100-150 yards to a pen. From this pen I will need to sort out 5 of the sheep (black or white, yeah, I know how that sounds) into the next pen. Once this is done I need to drive these 5 sheep through the Y-chute and into the sort chute at the top of the pen. Particular to this style of trial the dog needs to follow the sheep into the sort chute which, in AKC we try to teach them to stay out of the obstacles. This makes getting Scot into the chute a bit of an extra challenge.
Once that is done I release the sheep and exhaust them at the end of the arena and head back to the other end of this arena to fetch the other 5 to the hold pen where I need to ‘touch’ each one and then fetch them all the way across the arena and through the pen where they were sorted and back out to the field. Once in the field I need to drive across through a gate and back around where they are loaded onto a trailer. See frustration above.
My buddy Scot has this thing about not stopping exactly when I ask him to, which on long drives leads to him working his way around far enough to fetching the sheep back rather than driving in the direction I wanted to. You’ll see this in the video above. FRUSTRATING! Hence the frustrated swing of the crook at the end.
Our second run was better, since Scot was totally cooked (it was hot) and fried (his brain, 2 runs close together will do that) he had less energy to fight me and so he stopped sooner keeping him in better position to drive in the right direction. So there is hope if I exhaust him enough to have him stop when I want. . .
“Balance is a term used by sheep dog handlers, but I find myself thinking of its value in so many other contexts related to dogs.
“In sheep herding, “balance” refers to a dog’s ability to place itself exactly where he or she needs to be to take control of the sheep without frightening them. It refers to two things really. One is the distance between the dog and the sheep. Too far away? — no control, no pressure. Too close? — forces the sheep to run away in a panic, or to turn and fight. Just right? Exactly at the point at which the sheep will turn and move away from the dog without panicking. . . [READ MORE]
Not only does it ring true with herding it fits what I believe we should look for our urban dogs that have no interest in herding. Check it out.
I had intended to hike the Lower Sam Merrill trail up to the Old Echo Mountain Hotel site, but there were so many people there I swung over to the Millard Campground hoping to hike up towards Millard Falls, but apparently it’s closed. I am pretty sure it was opened since the fire, so I figure it must have been the wind storm. In any case that meant walking the other direction toward the Dawn Mine area.
Amazingly clear day, as you can see in the video (assuming you do) the ocean, Pales Verdes and Catalina behind it are all visible. The waterfall was beautiful and, again, the dogs loved the water.
I was sore for the next couple of days. Cycling I can handle, but hiking seems to work very different muscles. Good exercise though.
Now to be fair to Scot we have had very little practice in the last few months due to several things including me looking for and starting a new job. That on top of lack of light in the evenings, plus to be fair, a certain amount of slackness on my part and we have done very little work so prep was on the low-side.
I have done one AHBA trial before this and it was only HRD II. The video below is from my first ever HTD II run, but it is basically the same course as AKC’s B course.
You’ll note the van behind the post. The rain had started a little earlier and instead of throwing up a canopy or other choices she decided to drive over and sit in the car to judge. Fine by me, but a bit entertaining . . .
Scot did an OK outrun and fair fetch. Things were fine as the sheep rounded the post. The draw is back to screen-right where the sheep are penned so I need to watch that. As I fetched the sheep toward the first set of panels you can see I was trusting Scot to do as I commanded so my eye was on the stock. All was well at first then you can hear me give an ‘awee,’ but Scot decides he would rather ‘go bye.’ As you can see I didn’t notice until the sheep didn’t react as I would have expected them to . . .
So as soon as I realized I stopped him and tried to get him around. About the time he finally took the correct command you can hear Bill who was recording for me utter the title of the this post.
All in all it wasn’t an awful run and we did place 3rd. We also placed third in HRD II which would have been WAY better had a practiced placement some before hand. I made a couple of dumb mistakes, but Scot was much better.
Not a bad effort all considered.
Russell and Otis wait their turn. Click to see more photos . . .
I really meant taking the dogs on a hike, but it certainly could refer to how often I have been adding posts to this blog. For some reason I can’t seem to stay on top of it.
Sunday afternoon I took the dogs on a shortish hike on the Gabrielino Trail near JPL in Pasadena. Just a couple of miles from the house. Scot has developed a limp I can’t quite figure out so I wanted to not do frisbee or ball chasing to see if that would help.
As you can see from the video below they clearly had a good time. Especially once they found the water. Beag, in particular seemed energized by it.
As anyone local knows we had a tremendous wind storm here last week and the effect in the canyon was staggering. Almost all the trees were ‘topped.’ Literally had the tops snapped off.
trees damaged by wind
Nature can be beyond astounding. I am humbled by the damage done here and am more than a little curious about what it was like in this canyon when it was happening.
YIKES, THIS IS TOUGH! Sheep are winning! The end of NM trials, Bryce
1st, Zula 3 Rd. Moved pups to Open n/c. Duke took 4 th.
Here at Colo, duke gripped off. Good grip and don’t think he should
have DQ. Retired Quinn, just too tough for her now. Zula runs
tomorrow. Rain most all day. No cell at field so in town shopping
and service.
Hope you are all well. Sent from my iPad
WOW! This has been a rough few days. This is the BEST place to train
dogs! HUGE fields and nice ewe range lambs. The dogs are getting
tons of work. I trained for four hours on Wed a.m. Went out again in
the afternoon. hardly anyone entered in the trial so no points to
speak of. However, we get to go out and train in the afternoon to fix
our problems. Placed 2 & 3 w/ Zu & Bryce. Pups struggling w/ sheep
but getting better but the course is smaller than I like so moving
them to Open non comp. I am staying here today and leaving for Colo
tomorrow.
I have walked 5 miles at least over rough fields these last days and
getting tired! Sent from my iPad
