Last Weekend of the Year

Ready or not, new year here we come. Time to reflect and reorganize, clear out for the new year. The weather has been so uncooperative for working dogs on the sheep, for what seems like weeks and weeks.  We have had a ton of rain. Compared to last year when at this time they were talking drought, it feels like we need to build an Ark! Actually it has been a combination of the weather, the short days, and the holidays that has kept us from working with the dogs and sheep. Soon I hope we are going to be back working more often.

The days will only be getting longer, from here on out for a few months anyway.
Saturday brought some drying out, finally...and a chance to work dogs. The dogs were happy; the sheep maybe not so much so...but they survived. 

Ryme has been a bit lame again, not severely, but enough for him to have a layoff. He got to work and he listened well. But he does listen well close at hand. It's when we get at a distance or at an unfamiliar place, where Ryme has problems.

In 2013 I will be looking for ways for Ryme to fit in and do the work he loves, accepting him for what he is.

Coal is now at that mature age of six where we know each other pretty well. And what I know about Coal is that if he is not tuned up on a regular basis, he will get very sloppy. He will not take his proper flanks, he won't stop, and he won't come through on his sheds. We will be tuning this all back up in the coming weeks, because he and I have not done anything with a purpose since the Dunnigan trial.

 

Setting up the shed with Coal

And Coal takes the split two sheep away.

 

Ryme cools off.

Isn't this a sad face? Please can't we work again? I promise I will stop this time... 

 

I had a great dinner and get-together with old friends this weekend. Many laughs where shared. It's so good to get together. The Christmas decorations are going to get put away and the spaces cleared for the new year. A new journal notebook for 2013 needs to be purchased today or tomorrow!

 

 The weather forecast even looks clear for a few days; that means some cold nights but some chances to dry out a little bit and regroup. We can get back out with the dogs without worrying so much about slipping in the mud. Maybe some more regular blog posts will even re-appear!

 

Happy New Year to All!





Happy Boxing Day!

Coal looks thru the gate

A very Merry Christmas, Happy Boxing Day, and looking forward to a very Happy New Year for everyone!

Some Photos of the Boys..

My visiting friend was nice enough to take some lovely new photos of the boys...

 

Chiefie holding court in front of the (gas) fireplace...staying warm on an early December night!

 

Were I more talented with the computer I would Photoshop a chess set inbetween these two!

 

Chiefie has claimed the stick and dares anyone else to take it!

 

Chiefie smiles...

 

 

Coal waits at the gate....not necessarily patiently! If you think about it, dogs do a lot of waiting...we could learn some patience from them. :-)

 

Guess which side of the fence the sheep are on?

 

Coal going around the sheep to the left.

 

Coal cooling off in the water tub...amazing how he enters from the right yet always ends up inside the paddock!

 

Neve has to sample the hay before he allows the sheep to eat it. Just being a good guardian dog and all!

 

Coal: "LOL! I can't figure out how I got in with the sheep! O.M.G. I guess I might have to go round them up since I'm already in here..."

Ryme brings them smartly across the pasture.

 



Ryme has them under control taking them to the gate.

 



Flanking Ryme around on the come bye...

 



 

Sheep and a beautiful sky!



 

Ryme waits...

Ryme looks through the wooden gate...again waiting patiently.

December 23, 2012

Things got a little crazy for me just before Thanksgiving. Some really good times and some down times. My roof leaked during the time I was gone to the Dunnigan trial and ruined a ceiling in my house. Oh my. Out of town guests were on their way and the rooms had to be rearranged so that everyone had a dry place to sleep. I spent Thanksgiving cleaning and sorting and making beds. Whew!  We made it! A few trips were made back and forth to OAK but it was all worth it.

We went shopping in Sonoma and looked at pretty store windows like this one above on the historic Sonoma town square.

We went to Armstrong Woods and walked in the rain and greatly enjoyed the peaceful redwoods and the music of running water through the creeks. Tamales were eaten. Wine was tasted. Lots of fun!

When you have guests from out of town you do a lot of driving...and you look at your normal surroundings with a fresh pair of eyes.

We prepared for Santa Claus' annual visit!

Above is some beautiful holly that was in a planter in front of a shop on Sonoma's square.

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas! I am feeling really blessed despite the ups and downs. My friend took a whole bunch of photos of the boys while she was visiting. I will post new pictures next.

Merry Christmas to all!

Dunnigan Hills 2012 - Open

Saturday

After fairly nice weather on Friday for the Pro-Novice, the Saturday first day of Open at Dunnigan Hills was horrendous. The rain and wind and blew in near-hurricane fashion. At times it felt like you could barely stand up if you were up on the crest of the hill to see the trial field. For the handlers it was fortunate that the wind was at our backs. For the setout crew, however, the biting rain and wind was straight into their faces. It was hard to believe that the diehards on both ends of the field stayed out there and persisted, but they did.

Coal was up midway through the order. By the time it was our turn, I think the wind and rain had laid just a little, although not much. I sent Coal away (to the right) but he was focused on the setout helpers up on the horizon rather than on the sheep far to their left which blended in with the grasses.  Ouch. It took three whistles to get him out where he needed to be and after that he put in a beautiful top to the outrun, and lift. It was not a poor outrun, he was just understandably focused on the wrong, darker, more prominent thing...which several other dogs did as well.

Good news; we made all the gates and our fetches are improving. Whew! I was quite happy with the run. There were a few squiggles here and there but overall it was a nice run considering everything.
Coal came out of it with an 82 out of 90 points which held up for fifth place in the trial and a handful of USBCHA points. Yeah! Judy Loflin and Cam were the winners with first place. By mid afternoon the rain and wind had quit and it actually got pretty nice out for the last ten or so runs of the day. We were finished early and all went back to their quarters to dry out and warm up to get ready for Sunday's runs.

Sunday

On Sunday the weather was much nicer although the access into the pasture was very muddy and each trip in and out was a bit more precarious. Coal ran #41 - late in the day. The sheep were re-used, and tired. On Sunday they didn't want to move. Changing their line at any given time required some doing, and some big flanks. Despite the improved weather, the running was much  more difficult on Sunday than it had been on Saturday.

When our turn came, I sent right again. Several dogs sent left - come bye - had gotten drawn back to the holding/setout pens. The first part of Coal's outrun was not good...there were no setout helpers for him to get drawn into this time but for some reason he was not where he needed to be. With a verbal correction from me he shot off like he should to the right and the rest of his outrun was gorgeous. The top of the fetch was difficult; the sheep were leaning on him and we missed the fetch gates. The rest of the fetch and the post turn was all good, except - I realized when the sheep got close to me that I had drawn up Penny - the ewe who normally can't be penned - who was not supposed to be used in the trial.

Thinking really fast with sheep and dog on the run (or trot) I tried to aim for a perfect drive even though I knew we probably couldn't pen. The path to the first panel was good but the sheep - especially Penny - were leaning really hard on Coal and we missed the first panel. In trying to recover I blew too many whistles, and Coal crossed the course. So much for mental management when things go awry! Knowing that we had already missed two gates and had a poor top half to the fetch, as well as corrections on the outrun, I decided to retire. It was just not happening that day and there was no point in pushing the tired sheep through the rest of the course when I knew we would likely get a poor score. Being objective about it, I am really happy with the weekend's gos. The outruns I continue to work on but at each trial the outrun truly is in Coal's hands (or paws!) and so I do my best and send him and see what happens. The element where I have more influence on the trial field that I had identified that really needed work - the fetch - is showing improvement so I feel good about that. There is a lot of time to think it over and train for our next trials which will not be until March 2013.

Coal on the fetch at Dunnigan Hills (photo by Barb McPherson)
 

At the post - Dunnigan Hills - photo by Barb McPherson

Happy Thanksgiving - Takoda is Found!

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Takoda was found today, about a mile and a half from the accident site. He has worn pads and a sore foot but otherwise is no worse for the wear being out lost for six nights in the rough desert.

 

I am so thankful that he was found and so happy for his mom and dad Leslie and Michael.



Dunngan Hills 2012 - Pro Novice Day

The Dunnigan Hills Fall trial was this past weekend; the pro-novice day was Friday. I had entered Ryme earlier, and decided to go ahead and run him (despite his poor performance at Hopland) since Dunnigan is familiar ground with home flock sheep that he knows. I had also planned to stay the weekend and help out with the trial in whatever ways I could...knowing that it would likely involve the setout pens again especially on Friday. Some help had been procured for Saturday and Sunday in the pens, but not Friday.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The Dunnigan trial this fall was held to benefit a very worthy cause. A young man just 16 years old lost part of his leg in a  high school football game accident. All profits from the Dunnigan trial this year will go towards a prosthesis for Koni Dole. You can find more information on Facebook about the benefit and fund raising efforts to support Koni here:

Koni Dole Benefit Page.

A beautiful handmade quilt was donated to the trial for a silent auction item, as was a handsome man's shepherd's crook. The empathy and outpouring of support for Koni and his family was obvious at the trial. Koni is a very inspiring and motivated young man. They are selling wrist bands for his cause that say it all: Too Strong For Fear.

Friday's weather was good. We had a few sprinkles but not much; the forecast had been for rain but we lucked out. I ran Ryme late in the order. He did all right. We had one precarious moment after turning the post, but most of his run was OK. He got 64 points out of 90. We were out of the placings of course but in our world just finishing a course with a respectable score is a huge milestone. I was proud of how Ryme handled most of the run. He needed a whistle or two to get where he was supposed to be on the outrun, but he stopped and lifted the sheep nicely. Our fetch was good. The post turn was good. On the driveaway to the first panel, however, I let him get too close (the driveaway is down a hill and the sheep pick up speed which may have excited him) and he blew through the sheep. Oy. But we got everything back together, did the whole drive (with a pull-thru on the second panel which was fun for a change) and then penned, all calmly and under control.

The rest of the day, however, was really the highlight for me. We went up top early in the day and both Coal and Ryme helped me in the pens with pulling out the required number of sheep for each run and then bumping  them up the hill towards Mike who was doing the actual sheep spotting. Once we got into our flow, the whole thing moved like clockwork for the most part. Ryme is the most useful of my two dogs for this purpose, believe it or not. He remembered the job from last April and fell right back into the routine.  We don't want the sheep getting out to the trial course too soon, nor do we want them running back towards home. 

When the spotter was ready for the next set, we sent the sheep up towards him and I called Ryme off and we started the whole process again. With six minute runs, we had only a little bit of down time between each run. Any sheep that looked unfit, we sidelined into a pen where they would not be used. I was very careful not to send out one infamous ewe, Penny, (the ewe who cannot be penned) to the pro novice folks.

Since this is a farm flock trial, the sheep have to be reused. I think most of them ran maybe twice a day although some of them probably only ran once a day...when they had been sent to the exhaust they spread out over the hills grazing. At one point about halfway through, the spotter told me we'd need to go find the ewes who had been used once and reload the pens. He handled what I had been doing and Coal and I set off to find the exhaust sheep. The trial is held on a field that is 180 hilly acres and the trial only uses a portion of that land. The rest of the area is where the sheep were grazing; Coal and I walked to the top of the next hill and saw the sheep way in the back area of the pasture. I told Coal to "look"and sent him off to gather the sheep. I could not use my whistle for fear of interfering with the ongoing trial. It made my day to stand there and watch the little guy disappear out of sight behind the hills and then come back to me with the sheep in basically a silent gather. Later I was told that this gather is close to a thousand yards. Whoa. Who needs trial scores when you have moments like this?

The day wound up with a delicious Mexican dinner at Maria's in Woodland. Yum. There was a designated driver so I had a Mango Margarita. Awesome.

Open Day two and three will be next.