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
safely arrived today. Truck pulled RV well. T storms and rain
today. Will work tomorrow.
Guess who is here? Alistair McRae & Hub Holmes. Competition tougher
than Meeker
WILL BE FUN Sent from my iPad
My instructor Terry Parrish (Action K9 Sports) is on her way with 4 dogs, a brand new (to her) 5th wheel trailer to Carbondale, CO via New Mexico where she will compete ahead of the finals.
She is sending reports by email from road and I am going to post them here, she is also planning to do some blogging as well. Those I will excerpt and link out to her blog.
I made it to Winslow AZ today. Truck pulled RV effortlessly as I was
coasting along @ 70 mph thru most of AZ
Found a spot to park near the Flying J so will stay here for the night
Dogs didnt know what to make of the back seat of the truck. Nearly
lost Quinn & Bryce at a fuel stop. Jumped out and didn’t want to get
back in. – Terry
It’s been a LONG, LONG time but I am pleased to announce the opening of another LA Herding Training Facility in Chino. It’s at Peak Performance Dog Sports, 5 minutes off I 60.
The format will be the same as before; 30 minute, private sessions and we train YOU to work your dog. Due to the heat, lessons are Sat evening/Sun morning but as weather cools we will be doing Sundays only. At the present, I will be going up every two – three weeks, not every week.
If you are in the LA area and interested in testing your dog or want lessons from the best (IMHO) you can reach her at terry@actionk9sports.com or blazingbc@aol.com
Hey, not like that! This past weekend I participated in my first trial with cows rather than sheep. I have never had as much fun herding I as I did on this run.
I had 12 minutes to move 4 cows from one holding pen through a couple of gates, sort one off and put the other 3 into a trailer at the end of the course. Plenty of time, right?
I had one practice session the weekend before. Surprisingly enough that was probably plenty of practice. The 2 things I got out the practice was that cows are not drawn to the handler like sheep are and they also have no real interest in hanging together. So I was prepared for those issues. Since I ran somewhere in the middle of group I was also prepared for the fact that the cows didn’t want to leave the hay once they were on it.
Scot was great, he took direction well and knew just what to do to keep the cows moving. He was aggressive when he needed to be and on two occasions one command was enough for him to bring back a stray. I plain got goosebumps when I had penned 3 of the 4 cows and asked him to bring me the fourth. He brought it back and as I stepped away from the pen it went right in with the others.
It was about then the crowd was letting me know I was running out of time. I had wasted too much time getting the cross drive between the gates instead of just going on the original attempt.
The judge shouted time, but I went ahead and finished just so I could say I did. There was only one other competitor that finished at all in the level 1 group so I was happy.
The second place ribbon was just icing. If you have a strong dog you really need to try cattle herding.
