RESDA Pt Pleasant Sheepdog Trial, June 5 2010

Yesterday was the RESDA trial at the Spencers' place, Pt Pleasant Ranch. We had a large number (31) of Open dogs (for RESDA) plus a set of Pro-Novice and Novice dogs, but because of excellent organization, the day moved along smoothly. The weather was warm with a nice breeze part of the day. We ran on three St Croix ewes from the home flock. The Open course was a modified RESDA layout with outrun, lift and fetch, using the pen as the "post". The handler stood in front of the pen to send his or her dog. The two panels were driven rather than fetched in the traditional RESDA style. Once the sheep had broken the plane of the second panel, the handler moved to the chute and pen which were done in the traditional RESDA style (that is, no handler assistance at either obstacle). In RESDA style there are points deducted if a handler uses arms or body movement to help the dog at the chute or pen. Total points possible are 60.

There were lots of good runs with several scores in the low 50s. The field is absolutely flat which often throws off some of the dogs who are not accustomed to working there. Coal and I ran about the middle of the class. His outrun was not the greatest. We missed the second panel in sort of a bobble. So our score was middle of the pack, too. One of our sheep did not want to hang with the other two, so it was a matter of coaxing her around with the two, without splitting them up or allowing them to run back to their holding pen. We got the chute with only one point off, as I recall (that single ewe tried to do a run-by) and the pen with zero off, so we ended well. I am always happy with him though. I think Coal's score was 43 but all the official scores and results will be posted soon on http://www.resda.com/.

It was nice to talk with friends and the BBQ potluck lunch was as always second to none. The RESDA folks know how to eat well! Also, a fan of my blog introduced herself to me at the lunch break. I had no idea that people read this blog who do not know me. Anyway that was fun and quite unexpected! Next on the RESDA schedule come all of the fun county fair trials.