Marin County Fair, July 6th

Today we ran in the Marin County Fair in a RESDA-sponsored sheepdog trial. It is always a lot of fun, no matter how the trial turns out, to participate in a vanishing slice of small-town America--a county fair with animal exhibitions. The crowds were huge and adoring of the dogs and sheep--as if we were all an endangered species--which I guess we are (especially considering that AB 1634 is alive and oh-so-well).

Bid got a poor lot of sheep, ran 8th of 21 dogs, and we didn’t have a very good run, with only 16 points out of 50. It was definitely not his fault and he worked hard for every point. Of the 3 sheep, one wanted to come to me all the time like a “school” sheep (plus she wanted to stand and fight); another wanted to run the complete opposite direction all the time, and one was “medium” which if I’d had 3 like him/her we would have been fine. We timed out at the pen, not due to Bid’s effort but the sheep were just not cooperating. Oh well -- that’s show biz!

Coal ran last and ended up with 37 points out of 50 (I believe the winner had 46 pts and 2nd place had 43 so we were not that far out of it) and 10th place…getting a big purple ribbon. He did well, had a nice group of sheep (I was worried that Coal would get another uneven lot like Bid, since they would be the last set in the pen but they had brought one extra set of 3, thank goodness). Coal is still a bit headstrong and I’ve got to get better control in order to place better but I was overall quite pleased with him. I think it was another good experience for him in a strange place because he thought twice about running out for them, but did. Coal got a lot of compliments and had some adoring fans in the crowd.

Next weekend it is USBCHA driveaway for Bid only down in Pescadero (cool!) in Pro-Novice.

The following weekend we have one day of driveaway in Dixon (Lambtown USA) where I have both dogs entered and on Sunday an AHBA in Pescadero (both dogs).

I have one dog entered at the next/last fair (Sonoma County which is closest to home) that I will do this year, and I will probably take Coal at this point and leave Bid to the big open-field trials where he does better.