AHBA Ranch Trial at Moon Creek, 11-1-2020

Sunday's AHBA trial at Moon Creek was a challenging HRD (Herding Ranch Dog) course that we had dreamed up a few months back. Someone noted that it contained the favorite exercises of everyone involved on the informal trial committee, so it turned out to be a long and epic course! The course ended up being much more flowing and fun to run than I was able to imagine, at first. 

The first exercise was to go into the empty take pen with your dog, and move a set of ten sheep down into the take pen. And then move the next set down, and so forth, for three sets. The fourth set was waiting in the eventual exhaust pen, and these were to be moved through the back of the setout pens, to the fourth setout pen.  This was very practical pen work that went very well. It made for a self-setting course, so that none of us had to work in the pens, either!  After exiting the back pen area, the dog and handler performed a take pen. Following this was a gather in the larger arena, with sheep set on a grain pan, a drive through a corner obstacle, and then moving sheep safely through the gate into the adjoining smaller arena. In the smaller arena, we had to take a prescribed figure-8 path around two panels, drive another corner panel, and then take the sheep back out to the larger arena, and then out to the larger field. In the larger field we did a lane drive along the fence line in a marked corridor, then back into the large arena to work through the last set of exercises. Next was a free-standing pen, a gate sort of five sheep from the ten, move the five remaining sheep back out to the initial grain pan used for the gather, and then back to repen. Safety first was the name of the game on all of the gates; the dogs were required to hold sheep off the gates for us at every entrance and exit.

For the first run (which was Cap and me) we started with 20 minutes allowed, but when Cap finished in just under 20 minutes, the course time was extended to 25, for the Level III dogs. Cap performed beautifully throughout the whole run, until the very last bit, when he ran into the exhaust pen with the sheep. Yikes! But other than that he was very smooth and flowy, and such a pleasure to work with. It was truly a fun run. Cap got 89 points out of 100 for second place.

Spot put in another very consistent run. He was not quite as smooth as Cap, but still very nice, and fun to run. Spot's score was 88 points out of 100, for third place, with the tie broken on time. Spot made me really happy with all three runs over the weekend, plus spotting sheep. He just did not put a foot wrong, and he seems to be feeling really good!

The long course was a bit of a struggle for Ryme, and for me. But, he tried super hard and qualified with 80 points out of 100 for his score. At almost 12 years old, Ryme is not so willing to stop and when he does it is not precise, nor is it lying down! His flanks are not so good either and keeping a flowing run going was more of a challenge for me. After his beautiful HTAD run the day before, perhaps he was just a bit tired. He seemed a bit like he was afraid he would lose the sheep which he never did. Anyway he did us all proud and turned in a very nice run. 

Cap on the fetch bringing the ten sheep to me at the post.

Cap driving ten sheep through the corner obstacle.

Ryme working with me on the figure-8 exercise.

No, I am not asleep but I admit three runs is a lot of walking! Coal enjoys the Vitamin D!

Beautiful Moon Creek, and social distancing observed by all.

I'm super grateful to have this chance to run the dogs in a trial and to have fun in a positive atmosphere. And so nice to forget about "things" at least for a few days. I'm pretty sure that both Cap and Spot completed HRD III and HTAD III titles with these classes. I'm not focused on titles, but it is nice to know. I counted up all their saved scoresheets after we got home, and realized that Ryme has nine HTCH points in AHBA; the HTCH was never a goal for Ryme but it is too bad he probably won't get the tenth point, but he doesn't know or care about it. I know he did a super job as did the other boys. I'm hopeful that we can collaborate on some more nice AHBA trials at Moon Creek, in 2021.

AHBA Trial at Moon Creek, 10-31-2020

On Saturday, we returned to Moon Creek, for an AHBA trial. The first class was the HTD class, in which Spot and I were spotting sheep for folks in that trial. HTD is like a small Pro-Novice course, and there was a ribbon pull (instead of a shed) for Level III. Spot did a nice consistent job of setting, and enjoyed himself immensely! There were only ten dogs in the class so it was a nice amount of work for him. View from the top: 

Following the HTD class, we all ran in the HTAD (arena course #4) class. It was so fun for me, to run all three of my dogs. Ryme had a great run, and it felt floaty and connected the whole way around. He was tied for first place and lost the tie due to a slower time, so he ended up with second place. Ryme will be 12 years old in a month, so this was extra special for him to accomplish! Spot had another consistent go for fourth place. Cap was a little bit too wheee! but we managed to qualify anyway. Tons of fun...nice constructive and supportive atmosphere, in a beautiful location. Photos to follow are all by Lynn J. 

We really appreciate the chance to run in some trials and all of the work involved to make them happen! Moon Creek is a beautiful venue in the northeast corner of Washington. 

Fun Trial at Moon Creek, 10-30-2020

The boys and I had a ton of fun at a points and time trial at Moon Creek, on October 30th. Costumes were optional for dogs and people...I had costumes* for each dog but not for me, sadly! :-)

Coal was a very cute old bumble bee. He had a lot of fun playing with the tiger toy that was in our handler's goodie (trick or treat) bag.

Ryme was Superman. The purchased Superman costume was not very sturdy so I stitched it to a red dog blanket. This did not work as well as I had hoped. But still he looked very regal.

 Spot was a "Candy Inspector" and looked very buff in his black hoodie. 

Cap had a nice Halloween sweater to wear, that had ghosts and pumpkins and things on it. The sweater did not seem to bother him at all when he was working! 

We had a blast running the jackpot obstacle course. At times I had trouble staying on course because of the giggling! The arena was all decorated with Halloween decorations. The wind picked up and it was not unusual to drive or fetch the sheep over a green plastic skeleton, or to have a witches' hat blow past!

It was a lot of fun to be out running the dogs in a fun and challenging venue. Cap was second, Spot was third and we all had a blast.

*Except for Coal in his bee outfit, which is a photo that I took, all of the other photos are courtesy of Lynn Johnson who graciously took photos all weekend with her good camera.

Great Britain Travel Blog 14 - Goodbye to Raise Lodge

May 19, 2019

This was our last full day in the UK for the trip. It was cloudy and colder; but no rain. After breakfast and packing up our things, we went outside to observe Derek and Ludi training dogs for one last session. Gloria also worked Foss again.

Derek wanted to show us something with Lynn to take home in our minds: a short flank, walk in, "there" so the dog can be really flexible and walk in at any point that you tell it to. This helps in making little adjustments on the drive, and otherwise. It's not (quote) "natural", but it looks natural and is very smooth.

We had lunch, said our goodbyes, and Gloria drove us in the rental car back to Manchester to the airport. We turned in the car, and got the shuttle back to the hotel. There was lots of reflecting on what all we had seen and done. Over the course of the trip we saw so many good dogs and met countless wonderful folks. The next day we began our long airline journey back to SFO. We had lots of time to think and talk through what we had experienced. It was a wonderful trip and everything I had dreamed of and more.

Great Britain Travel Blog 13 - To Northumberland to a Sheepdog Trial!

May 18, 2019

We were all up early at Raise Lodge, on this rainy day. We were off to a sheepdog trial up in Northumberland! It was great fun to watch, even though it rained. Derek ran Lynn and Jett, and Ludi ran her Meg.

The course had a complicated outrun. If you sent left, your dog had to cross a farm road and navigate a fence corner that stuck out into and interfered with the dog's path, which was uphill. To go left the dog needed to neatly bend out around the fence corner. If you sent right, there were other trees, some farm buildings that some dogs were confused with, more uphill, and also crossing the farm road but at a higher point. The draw back to the pens and buildings was very strong if sending to the right. A few dogs got lost up in the farm buildings up the hill when sent right. My photos of the course taken only with my phone did not turn out very well, especially in the rain on a dark-ish day.

 Once the dog picked up the sheep, the course became a bit more standard (the outrun was tricky enough!). The drive crossed the farm road again, and the at-hand work consisted this day, at least of split and then pen. Few were able to pen. The sheep were tricky Texel crosses with a breed name I didn't quite get. But the sheep were consistent, healthy and challenging.  The sheep were from the farm where the trial was held. And the sheep's owner/ farmer did the setout up top.

Trial sheep in the exhaust pen

Besides Derek's and Ludi's dogs, our favorite was Paul Turnbull's Mirk pictured above. A lovely rough coated dark dog under such good command. Wow. A nice team! There were also lots of big heavily coated dogs (Northumberland style border collies) who were neat to see but we talked about how they would never make it in our area back home with so much coat.
Derek had a nice go with Lynn, but did not have time to pen. Ludi also had a nice go, but time was up at her shed. Jett had more trouble (he is young) on the outrun, but Derek worked him through some issues. Very nice dogs running, overall. Beautiful country, near lots of Roman historical sites (Hadrian's Wall), horse country and tons of sheep everywhere.

The Northumberland group puts on a series of trials and had a full schedule set up for the year. It left Gloria and I wishing for so many trial opportunities so close to us as this, despite the low-budget no frills event (no porta potties).
We stopped on the way home for tea, which was nice. Soup helped me (still nursing that darn head cold) to feel better! Then we went out to dinner with everyone. So much fun. :-)