The past three weekends it seems like all we have done is run up and down Highway 80 to the Sacramento area and surrounding places for dog events but they have all been fun and productive outings.
The Berhow shedding clinic last weekend was awesome and I learned a lot. If nothing else, I will be a much better spectator at Open trials. It's much easier to watch and critique shedding (just like anything else) than it is to actually do it first hand, but now I have some tools to work on it.
A couple of days have been spent doing private lessons and those are really helpful too. We just started really working on an outrun for Coal so I feel like a new chapter is opening there. The only problem is that summer is upon us, bringing with it the heat, foxtails and other stickers, and hard dry, cracked ground.
Yesterday we went to a USBCHA trial in Elk Grove. I didn't run Bid in the Pro-Novice because he had a torn foot pad. But I did run Coal in Novice-Novice, just for a practice, and he did very well, taking first place! I was quite pleased with him because he listens even in a strange place and on different sheep. Mid-course I realized I'd never penned with Coal but we managed to wing it. He's such a good boy and he got many compliments. Many thanks to the Spencers for putting on such nice events.
