Sheepdog News

BevLive: The End

Dog trialing is over for this trip and so is the blog. I'm at Joni's house now. This morning we went to the wool yard and picked up 18 fresh training sheep and in an incredible act of generosity Joni let me work all the fresh out of them. I think it did all of my dogs a world of good and gave me some good ideas to try when I get home.

I worked on improving everyone's walk forward and keeping Nel in tighter contact on her flanks. I could see improvement in everyone. I wish I had about a month here.

I'm going to miss this wide vista and endless view. When the wind blows all the grass moves in different waves. It's very dramatic. I think I could live here. Which would be a big change for a forest dweller such as myself. It's very attractive. But of course it's summer and 70 degrees with a nice breeze and no humidity.  What's not to like?

North Dakota sunset

I leave tomorrow to go back to Terri Warner's to do a clinic and then home for the summer. All my dogs now need tuning up and more training before the big fall trials. This trip has shown all of our strengths and our many weaknesses. I shall try to address them in the next few weeks. I am no further ahead in deciding which two dogs to keep for my open team. I wonder how that will turn out?

Big Sky country

So long readers. Thanks for your interest in my trip and the ongoing Amanda/Beverly rivalry.

Amanda: The Big One, Day Two

A Prairie FIre plate was awarded to the top overall dog and hand at the Dakota trials.  Prairie Fire is a hip pottery studio in Beach, North Dakota, on its western edge.  The style is inspired by the surroundings.  A very appropriate, unique,  award for the top overall dog.  An abstract glazing cashing in on the colours of the prairie, its fantastic shapes and movements.

On Saturday night at the Kerr ranch dinner, Jim Swift, approached me rubbing his hands together, slightly demonic, and inquired after a couple of my scores with Roz and Clive at the Slash J trial.  His face showed a calculator and he announced that he had a two point edge on me with Roz.  pirouetted, danced a gig, and did his best greedy laugh.  "We are in a horse race, Amanda."   Lotsa jokes ensued.  He and Alison Holmes would sabotage my dogs.  One or the other would be sure to spot my sheep.  It was high sport.  "Ha ha ha."

On Sunday morning, Roz was poor.  She had trouble getting in and out of the car.  At six am, she had the runs.  I gave her imodium.  By nine she was no better.  Still hunked up and sore.  I gave her half a previcox, courtesy of my pal Beverly.  By two or three in the afternoon, she had improved slightly, but was still wrong at the time I had to run her.  I decided to try and see what happened.  She ran half way out the nine hundred yards and stopped.  This turn of events precipitated wild glee in the Jim Swift camp.  He howled with joy and laughed himself silly.  I could see the humour of it from his standpoint.  He could see his home grown tomatoes on the plate.  He could taste food rising from its beauty.  He salivated through his giddiness.  He had seen himself presenting it to his wife, triumphant, in Grand Junction , Colorado.  "Look Darling!"  Prized Prairie Fire.

An hour or so later--his turn.  His preoccupation with the flavours from the plate likely held back the redirect he should have blasted before his dog nearly crossed.  Blinded by glory.  Zac fumbled at the top and his lift was chaotic.  Sheep darted all over the fetch except through the fetch gates.  I gave up watching, wondering what else could possibly go wrong.  As I sauntered to the spectators area, he was at the pen.  I heard a wild, desperate, slow mo  plea, from him,  to look back.  "Loooooooook baaaaaaack!!!!"  One of the sheep had the run on Zac to the exhaust.  Zac  had the second sheep by the cheek, at a high speed.  He didn't hang on for long, because he dropped the sheep altogether and ran for the water, letting the three canter easily back to the exhaust.  Too hot to handle.  Only fourteen seconds left.  No score.

I  can think of a couple of runs I have found nearly as funny, but the moment of this one, I did not want to end.  I am still laughing about it.  And at the time, I could not stop laughing when I crawled up off the ground.

Roz was likley ill from eating the fat at the concession trailer.  She is OK now, but too late for her run.  Clive couldn't catch Alison Holmes and Trip, who won the plate.  I went to Beach, North Dakota (no white sand beaches, named for a man "Beach").  There were eccentric people there with little touches of love which is always good in a small town on the edge.  It was a quiet place but one assumes it roars when a train goes through.  The guys in the feed store were attentive and curious.  I bought a plate, cause I will never win one, and I am looking forward to serving home grown tomatoes to Jim Swift, when we meet again at Meeker, or Virginia.

BevLIve: End of The Big One

Another lovely day of dog trialing. Perfect weather, less wind then yesterday. Sheep were better but still difficult especially at the fetch panel and pen, at least for me.

Both my dogs ran really well, pleasing me but failing to pen and not getting much score. Nel took too long to lift but then handled the sheep well. We missed the fetch and had a mediocre drive so I quit at the pen. Mirk had a good gather missing the fetch. A good drive and no pen. This hasn't been my most successful trial but it sure is a good one.

Herbert won the first go around with Juno and is in the lead again with an 87. We still have 13 dogs to run in the morning to finish the second trial before we run the nursery. Bud and Joni tied for second with Bud winning it.

 

Not much else to report. We ran dogs from 6:00 this morning until 8:00 tonight. I was assisting with the setout for the last few hours and our two riders, Mindy and Tom, are still cheerfully setting sheep for the fifth day. They are the ones that deserve a prize.

 

Amanda and Roz didn't get on well as Roz seems to be feeling unwell so Amanda retired. She runs Clive in the morning.

 

BevLive: The Big One, Day One

Long day makes a short blog. We were scheduled to start at 6:00 this morning but it took two riders, two people afoot and two on four wheelers almost two hours to move the sheep up the field and into the pen. Scary start to the trial.

Amanda and Clive started the trial with a nearly completed run and it went downhill from there until Herbert and Juno got a 83 for a great run. Their score still stands in spite of assaults from Joni and Bud who both got 73s with no pen or shed.

The sheep were frequently crazed as with the three poor Nel valiantly fought for 12 minutes, finally timing out at the pen. At least half the runners have lost the fight at the end of the fetch when the sheep would break back toward their home ground and could not be stopped. There has been some great work today rewarded with no score.

Mirk did a great job but his sheep just couldn't be charmed and we timed out at the pen. Amanda and Roz had more luck finishing with a 64 currently in 4th place.

Because of our late start we stopped with dog 54 and will finish in the morning. Gloria and Harry Kerr, our wonderful hosts, had us all up to their home for dinner tonight. So we stopped running at 8:00 to give us a chance to enjoy their hospitality.

 

Handler dinner at Gloria and Harry Kerr's

Nel and I spent about three hours assisting with the setout. That hill got very tall. I sure admire Mindy and Tom, our two riders, who spent the whole day in the wind spotting sheep for us.

 

Amanda: The Big One, Day One

The day started hard.  Everyone assembled for a six o'clock start but it took two more hours to get the trial sheep into the holding pen.  I regretted not having a camera.  The sheep were on top of the gigantic bute a couple of times with several people climbing up on foot with dogs, atv's left at the bottom--too steep for motor vehicles.  They poured around making quite a spectacle disappearing and reappearing in the distance.  A long wait for me, the first dog up. Clive nearly crossed.  I hope he cuts that out as the season progresses.  He makes it the second day, but what good is that?  The rest of the run was hairy.  the sheep charged all over the place.

I have a theory about the range ewes and panels.  When they see trial panels, they assume them to be the edges of a cattle guard, and refuse to go through.  I missed them all.  Then by some miracle, I had a pretty good pen, with no time to shed.

Clive and I set out on horse back for a couple of tough hours.  There were so many places to run and only only place that was right to be put out.  Cowgirl.


Jim Swift had the beginning of civilized runs of the day.  He and Zac are locking horns with Roz and I for a plate awarded to the combined high point dog.  Swiftie is planning to sabotage my dogs tomorrow.  We better not let him do any set out. Herbert Holmes had the high score of the day, leading the trial with 83.

The running continued until eight, when Gloria and Harry Kerr, who host the trial, had a dinner for all the hands at their ranch house to finish off the evening.  Very kind hearted North Dakota hospitality.

Ten dogs remain to run tomorrow.

Amanda: Judging the Slash J Nursery

There was a slightly anticlimactic Ranch/Nursery today.  It was partly my fault.  I judged it and set the course.  The outrun was  too big for very consistent success so many runs did not get off the ground.  A few pens were completed but most ran out of time and there could have been an extra thirty seconds.  It seemed OK, and then it was disappointing.  The retrospectroscope is twenty twenty.  There were about forty dogs running.  Dennis Edwards carried the trial with a young dog he does not plan to take to the National Finals.  Shoot.  I see so many of those in California and here in the west.  They can't tell me anything about the trouble it takes to get to the Finals every year.

 

The nursery course

We went to tomorrow's trial field today to deliver some set out pen acoutrements and a few other appointments.  Everyone boasted about how wonderful the was.  It's all true.  It is a big one. Harry, whose place it is, has it all spruced up, lawns mowed, yard right.  The last of his 800 ewes are now lambing and a couple of hundred open ones are ladies in waiting for the big trial. Maybe I'm too dumb to be scared but I am thrilled to be first up with Clive, in whom I have a lot of confidence and I hope it is not misplaced.   The spotting will be done with horses so it really helps dogs locate sheep for the big outruns, seven hundred yards up the side of a grassy bute.  I have not done such a big outrun.  Maybe Bev will send you a picture.

 

BevLive: Slash J, Nursery Day

A most amazing day. Gorgeous, perfect weather, sunny slight breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Today we ran the Nursery and ranch. Nel and I spent about three hours spotting sheep at the beginning of the trial. Great experience for us both. Sure got Nel over her horse concerns. By the time we finished she was all but walking under Tom's very good-natured gelding.

I ran Meg in the Nursery. The course was basically the same as the open with a little modification to the drive and the outrun brought in to about 400 yards. We ran on four sheep and whether because of the extra sheep or the extra day of running they were little darlings. Perfect for the youngsters. Amanda judged.

This turned out to be too big a course for all but a very small number of the youngsters. Many never got out to the sheep at all and a good number of the ones that did lost control of themselves on the fetch. Dennis Edwards and Boone made it look very doable winning the class.

Meg made it look very hard. She again didn't finish her outrun stopping at 9:00. I don't know if this is the people or the horse or some horrible regression in our training. Since she doesn't really know her sides we never recovered from her off line lift. But she listened, stopping every time I told her to. She never lost her head and brought me the sheep like a good girl. We had a pretty good drive going but just as we got to the second drive she made a critical wrong guess on a flank command and we had a big miss. The pen was very ragged but we got them in the end. This was the first time she ever put sheep in a pen. I wonder if she learned anything. All of the effort garnered us a 43 and as it turned out 4th place and our first qualifying leg for the Nursery Finals since there were over 20 Nursery dogs running. Way to go Meg.

We finished running at about 1:00 and all packed up and drove the 20 miles to the Kerr Ranch for our next competition. This is easily one if the best trial fields I have ever seen. It's  beautiful and really challenging. Because of the large entry this year the post has been moved up some reducing the outrun from last year's 900 yards to about 800 yards.

"The Big One". Setout is between the biggest hill and the little one just down from the horizon line.

I just got back from walking the dogs up one of the surrounding buttes. Great view of most of North Dakota. It's very scary walking dogs here. There are sheep turned out in the same thousand acre field as the campers. I'm scared to death one of my youngsters will get into the sheep and get us all thrown out of this dog trialer's paradise.

Rene Labrie in the blue explaining the course.

Handlers meeting at 6:00. We will be running late as there are almost 70 dogs and it's a 12 minute course. I suspect we will be running to a standard before the day is out.

Amanda: Slash J SDT, Day Two

The running was considerably smoother today with many more sheep taken around the course than the first day.  Tom Cook made improvements at the set out that eased up on the whole job and, therefore, the sheep.

Tom Cook and Booze


 Bev laid one down second run up in the morning with Mirk, Her score held up all day.  Dennis Gellings took a run at her with Jake, But it was little Roz who was the ruin of her good score.  Roz wins, Bev Lambert and Mirk second.

Clive and Amanda at setout

I started the day spotting sheep from cowboy horseback.  It was marvelous.  The view.  But late in the day I really played cowgirl.  A single sheep had escaped through two fences Tom took a go at getting it with horse and lassos with no luck.  I took his horse and Clive and we brought back the single from the creek bottoms and ravines.  I loved the work.  I loved Clive.  He was performing at his concentrated best.


Amanda and Roz

Neighbour Amanda Njos cooked up homegrown steaks, rare, delicious, so after the range riding we had the best meal I ever ate.  I love North Dakota.


The course from setout

BevLive: second verse, not the same as the first

Second day of open. Exactly the same course. Wasn't a problem, not like any of us had aced it the first day. Mirk ran second and redeemed himself with a nice run and an 80 which stood until late afternoon when Amanda and Roz beat it by a point for the win. Dennis Gellings and Jake had a real nice mid-afternoon run earning 73 with no pen. At the end of the trial Terry Folsom got a 79, I think. At any rate she came third.

The sheep developed a propensity for running into the audience at the turn and shed. This ended several very promising runs as one sheep would take off and refuse to return. For the most part, however, the sheep were much better today. They stayed together on the top and demonstrated more willingness to come down the fetch. The setout also went much smoother with an improved pen design speeding the trial and allowing us to finish in time for the great handlers dinner.

The weather remained clear and while the wind picked up in the afternoon, it never blew too hard and didn't affect the hearing on the course. I think the dogs could hear a bit better at the second drive gate and many more groups went through it. Yesterday out of about 65 runs we had 37 dogs with no scores. Most of those with scores were in the 40-60 range with 60 being a good score. Today I'm sure no more then a third of the dogs failed to score. It was still a really hard trial. Just got a little easier fir those who could keep the sheep from panicking on the fetch.

Nel and Fly both ran much better. Fly had a really good run up to the shed where we had a miscommunication, possibly caused by her being too hot. Nel ran bigger on her outrun than I like but managed the sheep well on the lift and fetch. She had some trouble on the drive and I opted to miss the first drive rather then have her bite a sheep to force it through the panel. Both girls shed and timed out at the pen.

Amanda and Clive had a good outrun followed by trouble on the fetch resulting in a missed gate. A good drive was ruined by a difficult sheep at the shed costing shed points and ultimately causing them to time out at the pen.

Alison's Rhys had a great gather, dead straight and a nice run, just a bit too slow timing out at the shed.

Tomorrow we run the young dogs. This is hopelessly beyond my young dog's pay grade but maybe she will learn something from the event.

Amanda: joining the blogging fun!

I had an early day yesterday, leaving home at four am to catch a seven o'clock flight out of Ottawa and on to Regina.  There I accidentally got upgraded to a fancy Toyota forerunner.  What  a great little car.  The drive south from Regina was emotive and fat.  Lots of rain blessing the prairie--everything green luxuriant  with one vista outdoing another for many fabulous miles.  I always experience a heartfelt home coming when I travel there.  No one deserves so much beauty.  The border guards took my fresh apricots.  I know they came from the United States.  They took them anyway.

My drive from Regina was about seven glorious hours, down a road I have never taken.  I got to Bowman (timing is everything ) at supper time.  Bev missed me terribly.  All my western friends were looking like veterans of the two weeks of trials they had just undergone.  Me!!  I was fresh as a flower.  Just freed from weeks of home slavery.

Joni's place and everywhere else on the prairie has enjoyed some much rain that I have never seen it so bounteous and triumphant.  If I never come back, this is how I will recall it.

The field was very big and dish shaped.  One always suspects that a dogger acquires property with  running a perfect outrun in mind.  Joni must have seen this such a triumph in her new place, because just such a picturesque field presents itself.  The very accomplished and experienced Lyle Boyer was the judge.  The sheep were yearling range ewes.  We ran on three.

I had a wonderful time setting out.  It was demanding with sheep bolting back to the set out pen with very little provocation. The weather was perfectly cool with a couple of dry rains

Roz had  a rough go around the course, making it all right but not getting into the ring in time to shed.  The running was plenty difficult with many sheep besting the canines at the top and running back.  Or runs just petering out, with dogs running out of ideas about how to get them going.  I don't know what the ratio of scores to zeros was but it wasn't good.
 

Bev has been storing up her Nell bitch, holding her back in Ranch for some mad reason and she looked happening today.  Chris Jobe was the first penner of the day and she ran thirty somethingth.  There were a couple of additional pens, but not so many.  Dennis Edwards and good old Clive (very satisfying because in doing so we got a ten dollar bet for both me and Don Whittington from Stormy Winters.  Yay!!).  Clive had a poor redirected outrun  but he was good enough around the course to win.