Whidbey Trial

I took my camera but it never made it out of the trailer so no pix again. You can always check my archives from a year ago to see pix of Susan Crocker's beautiful farm. ;-)
It was an awesome week as always. I went down early and spent a nice sunny Friday mowing to help out. George & Sue Macdonald arrived early afternoon with the judge so after they set up the course, we all had a nice dinner outside the 'barn'. This year for the first time, they flipped the course; the set out was at the exhaust end of the field. Which proved to be Blair's un-doing. He earned the 'honor' of the lowest score on Sat. - an embarrassing little 40 with us timing out at the pen. It never fails that when they do 'pen then shed', we suck in the outfield. How sad is that. lol Then again on Sunday I retired at the first drive panel leaving the sheep out on the course because Blair would not take an away flank, nor would he bring the sheep back to me. It was very weird and totally unlike him. However a few other dogs seemed to have problems at the same place, but there were also ones who did just fine. Big congrats to Monique and Lucy who showed us how it should be done!
After the rain on Sunday, it changed and was nice for the novice classes on Monday. Jayne continued to work really nicely to prove worth keeping; she was third in Ranch and earned some money. I am very glad that I entered her at that level to have a positive experience. We also got to work dogs on Wed. after the trial where she worked really well at a much bigger distance.
But my biggest thrill was in P/N with young Owen. I was worried that the drive might be over his head but he handled it all with no problems and managed to place 6th. in his very first trial. I used him for my set out shift before his run and I think that may have helped his confidence & reinforced his good listening skills. Man oh man, do I ever love this dog!
Sadly the wheels fell off Dusty's wagon. He has always been a good outrunner but this time he went almost straight up the middle. When the sheep come off the set out, he fell into 'follow' mode and allowed them to head back to the gate. So I called him off and we retired - probably permanently as this was to be one of his last chances to trial. He is just too unpredictable and obviously uncomfortable in new situations.
With the continued success that Jayne is showing both in training and now in a trial, it is unlikely that I will sell her. Which means I will have to give up Kit. I really really like her in every way and she is going to be an awesome trial dog, but I just can't afford to train or trial 5 Border Collies. Especially with 3 all about the same age. She will suit anyone as she is so very nice but I have a possible home for her with a keen novice handler. But I will be open to other inquiries for serious trial homes.