Dry Lake 2015, Day Three

On day three, the course was changed to a slight dog-leg fetch, still a right hand drive, but then a pen and a single. Pens had been hard to come by in the first two days but the sheep were getting a little bit easier to handle, so pens started to happen with more regularity on day three.

Coal was up number 23 and I sent him to the right. I wanted to try sending him the opposite way of the first run. The outrun was not as good, he ran tight, and I had to stop and redirect him several times. It was more of a keyhole outrun than a pear. Oh well. At least it was not a crossover, and more importantly, he took my direction. We were working together, unlike yesterday. At the lift I started asking for a lie down, which I kept trying to get, but did not get until after the fetch panels. But Coal was under control and listening. We had a much better post turn, got the drive started but I had to use verbal lie downs as he would not take my stop whistles. Yikes! I had to keep stopping him so he would not get up into the eye of the sheep, which is a huge no-no on range ewes, especially for a strong eyed dog like Coal. They do not like that, not at all! We completed the drive (yay!) and went to the pen. We tried to pen but ran out of time. I was happy with the team effort. Coal listened because I made it happen. Yay for us. I felt much better about this run. We had one good run out of the two although I wish we could have finished. Still, Coal brought me the sheep down the field on both runs. And none of our sheep went over the cliff! (a bonus)... I was happy.

For poor Ryme who had to ride along and spend most of the trip in the daytime in his crate in the car, this was not a great trip. I felt badly for him. He doesn't get along with anybody though, so it's not like I could have him out to socialize. Another handler was not feeling well, and she asked me to exhaust the sheep when it was her turn, so Ryme got to do that. He was a bit happier getting out of the car to work even if it was just to exhaust one set. I didn't have any dinner plans but Geri invited me to join the dinner with most of the crew at her house, which was very nice. There was BBQ tri-tip and lots of other good stuff. Everyone seemed worn out but they were still smiling. One day to go. :)