I am starting to understand the AKC herding game . At least enough to not look totally foolish out there !
Saturday , Peak is all wound up for her Advanced a course duck run and can't get out to get her ducks. Not sure why ? Bigger hoop , different set out person, ? I suspect just crazy Peak. I finally convince her to get her ducks but of course have lost way too many points on this section to qualify. But I persevere and the rest of the run is in typical Peak fashion with some running insanely about , although I don't think any screaming from her so that is progress. Anything Peak does is a miricle to me ; < )
Diane Menard runs Fios for me since he usually is in better control with her and her timing is better. They get a 4 th in Intermediate sheep with a decent run and qualify in Intermediate ducks. Everyone loves to watch the big boy outrun and catch those sheep ! He is a stunning looking dog if I do say so myself : < ) They can run but not as far with him as with allot of the other dogs. However he runs tight as well and in the small arena this freaks out the stock. Who knew I needed to teach my dog to slow down. I wonder if I put some agility equipment on the field...LOL he is slow and thoughtful in agility...so backwards..sigh I wonder what could have been if I had started out right with him . I did so have a wonderful time that first year or so watching him catch sheep and run them back to me and past me and back to me and past me..you get the picture. Ah ignorance was bliss !
I run Ava in Intermediate ducks and she is on edge and naughty so no Q . Hmmm I can't run my own dogs and qualify but Diane can .
Sunday goes much better for me. Peak has a much better run and qualifies for her 2 nd Advanced duck leg. While I am running her I hear Diane yelling at Fios in the sheep field..uh oh . He makes her head explode by not taking flanks...after all he knows best and it is more fun to run to and fro . So needless to say I get to run Fios in Intermediate ducks ; < ) By Sunday the ducks are about done playing and many runs are lost with ducks running to the exhaust pen and refusing to come off the fence. Fios outruns in his usual fast style and spilts up the ducks. It takes a bunch of attempts but we fianlly get things under control. The rest of the run is pretty decent and while Fios doesn't exactly STOP he does slow up so we get the panels even the cross drive . I can't wait until I can finesse my handling and make it pretty. Really fun to start to get the timing of all this. At least I know what skills are seriously needed and well I am a dog trainer so will get er done. It was in some doubt for the past several years though . Thankfully Diane believed in my dogs and was willing to stick it out with me. Ha ha she says my dogs and I are going to be good...in what year , Diane ? I do feel like I have made a quantum leap this year though ! I think we have failed on teh lift but to my surprise not only do we qualify we get 3 rd ! Apparently all the futzing around on the lift was like the off course rule in AKC agility..you have points off for the original split but not constant points off until you get them back together . So Fios finished his Intermediate duck title and I got 2 of the 3 legs with him myself . Gulp..I now have two dogs in Advanced !
Ava got excused for running into the exhaust once when I opened the gate for the repen and once when she put the ducks back in....Oops BIG THANK YOU : < ( Thankfully I did not have to buy a duck. So now Ms. Ava will take a break from the excitement of arena trials and just be my USBCHA dog for a few years. Only fair since I made the decision to only do arena trials with Fios for the time being. Again , Diane says I will get both dogs under control and the future is ours : < )
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Starting To See The Light
Starting to see the light now. Wow over 4 years of feeling pretty much useless and clueless : < (
I'll start by recounting the USBCHA trial at Wooly Winds :
I was worried about the sheep as I have had a few lessons with Barb Armata and found her Scottish Black face some times hard to handle . Well they were super . At least on the first Novice runs. The second ones got tricky when the sheep figuered out that some of the dogs couldn't prevent them from going off into the woods. Of course these dogs had pretty much pushed them to that point !
The course was set up length wise so more narrow than what I had worked on there. The fetch and drive for ranch was a killer ...long, narrow , up hill, over a stream or break .
Ava came in much tighter and faster than normal so sent the sheep offline right away but she recovered and got them on a reasonable line ( lost lots of points though ) and we got them to the post ok I think I went around the wrong way both times. How silly, I can't get around a post right !
Our first wear to panels and back was fine.
I can't pen ! I often forget to hold the rope but this time wouldn't let it go...lassoing many sheep, requiring unwinding of horns and round and round we go . Ava got tighter and faster with each pass . I wanted to let the sheep settle but was afraid if I kept Ava off they would split for the woods. Don't know why I thought that since the sheep were really into hanging on the side of the pen playing jump rope with me ! We run out of time but do post a score of 53 for a point and 8 the place . I think there were around 18 novice novice dogs . Certainly not one of our finer runs.
Fios came in fast and tight as he does and the sheep split for the former exhaust area in the woods break so I ran up the field to get things under control. I asked the judge if it was ok and he said if I thought I could do it. I know Fios will hang onto his sheep just in a zippy , circular fashion . So I get him under control, the sheep stopped on the wear and notice the judge and everyone is leaving so call Fios off. Silly me, I should have seen how long they would have let me play out there !
Pro novice dogs do slighty better than the nov nov dogs but no cake walk. And the Ranch class..yikes..what a long fetch and drive ..so hard not much luck for anyone.
Ava's second run and she decides to stop for a quick snack at the lift...So I can now wear my old obedience shirt that says " My dog never did that before ! " I guess she didn't like breakfast at 3 AM and was ready for lunch. I think our fetch was straighter since Ava wasn't pushing the sheep..bad bad dog !! I probably went around the post wrong again...judge was not amused at handler errors so lost lots of fetch points again. We ahve a nice wear going and at the panels , a sheep that had split into the woods from some one else's run decides to run up the field. No problem she is headed our way, I see her, Ava sees her and goes and gets her tucking her in with our others and we march back towards the pen. The crowd went wild...laughing like crazy . Had them all lined up nice for the pen and rotten Ava bolts forward scattering them. The judge decides since I can't get 3 in the pen , 4 will never happen and tells me to stop our run and come back later just to try the pen. I am still being stupid at the pen so no luck and we end up with 6 th place but not a high enough score for points. At least we didn't lose sheep !
I decide to just use Fios next run for training and go up the field as he is doing his outrun. We get some control but yup I can't pen so the judge ends that game. You were allowed to run non compete and help your dog so that was really nice . Fios and I will take a break from USBCHA now and concentrate on AKC . Smaller area so I can get in his head quicker and he can't get too wound up with no big fun outrun .
Weather was perfect and fellow competitors and workers were great ! A real fun and entertaining weekend : < )
I'll start by recounting the USBCHA trial at Wooly Winds :
I was worried about the sheep as I have had a few lessons with Barb Armata and found her Scottish Black face some times hard to handle . Well they were super . At least on the first Novice runs. The second ones got tricky when the sheep figuered out that some of the dogs couldn't prevent them from going off into the woods. Of course these dogs had pretty much pushed them to that point !
The course was set up length wise so more narrow than what I had worked on there. The fetch and drive for ranch was a killer ...long, narrow , up hill, over a stream or break .
Ava came in much tighter and faster than normal so sent the sheep offline right away but she recovered and got them on a reasonable line ( lost lots of points though ) and we got them to the post ok I think I went around the wrong way both times. How silly, I can't get around a post right !
Our first wear to panels and back was fine.
I can't pen ! I often forget to hold the rope but this time wouldn't let it go...lassoing many sheep, requiring unwinding of horns and round and round we go . Ava got tighter and faster with each pass . I wanted to let the sheep settle but was afraid if I kept Ava off they would split for the woods. Don't know why I thought that since the sheep were really into hanging on the side of the pen playing jump rope with me ! We run out of time but do post a score of 53 for a point and 8 the place . I think there were around 18 novice novice dogs . Certainly not one of our finer runs.
Fios came in fast and tight as he does and the sheep split for the former exhaust area in the woods break so I ran up the field to get things under control. I asked the judge if it was ok and he said if I thought I could do it. I know Fios will hang onto his sheep just in a zippy , circular fashion . So I get him under control, the sheep stopped on the wear and notice the judge and everyone is leaving so call Fios off. Silly me, I should have seen how long they would have let me play out there !
Pro novice dogs do slighty better than the nov nov dogs but no cake walk. And the Ranch class..yikes..what a long fetch and drive ..so hard not much luck for anyone.
Ava's second run and she decides to stop for a quick snack at the lift...So I can now wear my old obedience shirt that says " My dog never did that before ! " I guess she didn't like breakfast at 3 AM and was ready for lunch. I think our fetch was straighter since Ava wasn't pushing the sheep..bad bad dog !! I probably went around the post wrong again...judge was not amused at handler errors so lost lots of fetch points again. We ahve a nice wear going and at the panels , a sheep that had split into the woods from some one else's run decides to run up the field. No problem she is headed our way, I see her, Ava sees her and goes and gets her tucking her in with our others and we march back towards the pen. The crowd went wild...laughing like crazy . Had them all lined up nice for the pen and rotten Ava bolts forward scattering them. The judge decides since I can't get 3 in the pen , 4 will never happen and tells me to stop our run and come back later just to try the pen. I am still being stupid at the pen so no luck and we end up with 6 th place but not a high enough score for points. At least we didn't lose sheep !
I decide to just use Fios next run for training and go up the field as he is doing his outrun. We get some control but yup I can't pen so the judge ends that game. You were allowed to run non compete and help your dog so that was really nice . Fios and I will take a break from USBCHA now and concentrate on AKC . Smaller area so I can get in his head quicker and he can't get too wound up with no big fun outrun .
Weather was perfect and fellow competitors and workers were great ! A real fun and entertaining weekend : < )
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