Photos from Sonoma Wine Country Sheepdog Trial 2009

Photos from the 2009 Sonoma Wine Country Sheepdog Trial are posted here:

http://morgen.smugmug.com/

Coal is pictured in photos 44 through 63 of the Pro-Novice/Nursery group.

Thanks to Morgen Magnuson for her great photography!

Rime does not sit still!

At 15 weeks, Rime is in constant motion whenever he is awake, as these blurry photos will show!

He is, however, a sweet and endearing little fellow. Too bad his ears were cut off on the below photo.......where I resorted to putting him on a table to get a still shot!

Awww, sweet boy! Who could resist such a face?

Fred, AKA Mickey Mouse!

Sonoma Wine Country Sheepdog Trial 2009

Friday March 20th Coal ran in the Sonoma Wine Country Sheepdog Trial right here in Santa Rosa. He was entered in Nursery (two runs) and one of those runs also counted toward the Pro-Novice trial. The sheep were from the same flock that was run at Zamora--white faced range ewes--and they were just as challenging (to say the least) here in Santa Rosa as they were last month.

Few dogs got scores, but while we timed out on the drive both times, Coal showed consistency and got a score in both of his runs. He ended up 5th overall in the prizes for the Nursery (combined scores) and 10th in the Pro-Novice. So we were lucky to win a few goodies (bottles of Sonoma County wine, and some dog biscuits) and two lovely rosettes for our efforts. I'm sure the dogs will appreciate the biscuits more than the wine!

Overall I'm very proud of Coal for his efforts: he never let the sheep get away, or split, or otherwise get the best of him. Considering he has never been professionally trained, and that we never get to practice on this type of sheep, and also that we are competing against the best handlers in the country, we did not fare too badly. Also, an added bonus is that Rime is getting tons of socialization from all of the spectators and handlers.

The rest of the weekend we will be helping out with putting on this wonderful and highly-regarded west coast trial.

ETA: Scores have been posted here:

http://www.sonomasheepdogtrial.com/RunningOrder.html

Photos by Amanda Milliken are here:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/ajmilliken/Sonoma09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKL36_vjqYnbfA#

Rime is 14 Weeks

Rime is now 14 weeks old

Rime is fitting into the group well, and is growing so fast. Already, he is 16 pounds. Chief is a great puppy baby sitter and plays endlessly with Rime without being too much for him. Coal has his nose a bit out of joint and while he plays well with the puppy, sometimes he can play a bit too hard.

Bid is now getting acupuncture treatment for his back issue; fingers, toes and paws are all crossed that this will help him to return to activity. The DVM who saw him for this procedure was utterly impressed by his heart and his overall health. Bid will get a few weekly treatments and then we'll assess how to proceed from there. Acupuncture was a great help to Augie, so we're hoping it will do the same or better for Bid.

Otherwise we are on the countdown until next Friday's Nursery trial at the Sonoma Wine Country Sheepdog Trial. There are at least 15 dogs entered in Coal's Nursery classes; he will have two runs on Friday.

Feb 28, 2009 - AHBA in Pescadero

On Saturday we went to Willowside Ranch in Pescadero again, for another fun AHBA trial put on by the Willowside Goose Wranglers. Coal was entered in HTAD sheep III and HRD sheep III. Rime was there on a meet-and-greet mission, akin to being dropped into the deep end of the socialization pool, since he hadn't been out anywhere all week. Luckily the Willowside gang was all too happy to help with his learning process. Another bonus: with all the in-and-out of the truck during the day, he learned on his own to jump up onto the floorboard of the cab. We have puppy progress in many ways.

Our first sheep run was the HTAD arena course, and to my surprise Coal took first place and High In Trial with a 96 score. Woo-hoo! That is his first HTAD leg, his first HTCH point and his first HIT. From there we went downhill with our HRD run which can be written off as a humbling adventure for both of us, however, it has generated a list of training topics for today and the upcoming weeks.

While at the ranch, I was able to get a few outdoor photos of Rime so they are updated here: