Hope Brigade Days

Sunshine and 30c degree weather had sheep and everyone seeking shade both days. The tents were for the sheep. There were nice trees spaced around the outside of the ball field allowing us to park our vehicles(dogs) in the shade.
Downriver Farm provided sheep for the 2nd Annual BCSDA arena trial during Brigade Days in Hope, BC. $2400 in prize money up for grabs attracted handlers from 100 Mile House & Lumby, BC, Deming WA as well as local competitors. We got two runs on Sat. with prize money to 3rd place on the combined top score/fastest time. Diana Gauthier, Lumby was 1st and 3rd. Dirk Vansant, Deming was 2nd. About 2 dozen dogs were entered with the top 12 handlers qualifying for the final 2 runs on Sunday. Dirk ended up the overall winner with Cap to earn $600.00 while Diana won $500 for 2nd on Sunday with her good old dog, Teag. They are 2008 champions of the famous Calgary Stampede SDTrial and Reserve champions this year.
Blair and I began Sun. with a very clean fast run - getting to the shedding ring in under a minute. However things went completely down hill as I could not get any where near the marked ewe for the ribbon pull. So we timed out leaving 8 points on the field. Our second run was much better - completed the whole course with 28 points with another smooth and timely run. Several others also timed out in the shedding ring which allowed us to finish in 8th place and a nice $80 prize.

Friday nite

2009 Langley 'Cruise-In'
Antique car parade left downtown Langley around 6pm. winding their way through the country past numerous annual tail-gate parties.
Road construction caused a change in parade route taking them right past McLeod's farm.
I was headed to McLeods' but ran into some other friends at the corner.
They had a perfect viewing spot and lots of parking at Bonetti Meats so I stopped there.
We had snacks and brew while watching the cars go by.
The parade lasted about 45 mins. Only complaint is that they went by our spot a little too fast. The 'muscle' cars gunned their engines and booted it past our corner. The parade ends at the Twilight drive-in theatre in Aldergrove where they watched the classic "Grease".

"The Langley Good Times Cruise-In started in 1997 with a small group of merchants and business folks from the City of Langley. The event has grown from 430 vehicles registered in 1997 to 1,532 registered vehicles in 2002. The “Cruise – In” has become one of the largest mixed car shows in Canada and one of the Top 10 in North America. This event is super fun to attend – Fraser Highway in downtown Langley is shut down to vehicle traffic, and thousands of people roam around enjoying the sparkly cars & good times. All net funds collected from this event are donated to local charities, another great reason to attend.

The 2009 Langley Good Times Cruise-In will take place on September 12th. It will include a bike show ‘n shine as well as custom, antique and vintage cars, trucks and military vehicles."

This was a busy busy weekend in the Fraser Valley; as well as the Cruise-In, there was the big "BBQ on the Bypass" contest on Sunday. More than 4000 spectators, 26 teams, a ton of really amazing sponsors and volunteers made the day truly phenomenal. Tons of free samples, entertainment and prizes. Here are the results;

Grand Champion - Sugar’s BBQ from Portland, Oregon

Reserve Champion - Left Hand Smoke Seattle, Washington

Chefs Challenge JD Farms Turkey - Lynn Valley Butts, North Vancouver

Team Spirit Award - Land Shark BBQ Surrey, BC

David Veljacic Memorial BC Cup - BBQ Bob & The Eh Team Whistler, BC

This week

I worked my dogs at McLeods' today and caught up on all the news. I did some exercises with Blair using a lot of short quick commands which hopefully will prepare him for the arena trial this weekend at Hope Brigade Days. I worked Owen as usual but stretched his driving out quite a bit; good boy took some flanks at 'distance'. I brought Jayne out at the end; asked her to walk up & push sheep out of the corner, gave her a couple flanks and more walk ups to drive them down the center of the field....within about 45 seconds, she flew in and bust through. So I put her up. I don't know what to do about this. The past week+, she has been SO much better....different sheep/different fields and she was ok. Today, back in familiar territory...she loses control. I will be farm sitting for Martha McHardy over the Klamath finals and able to work on her sheep & fields so will see if that makes a difference. Then a clinic with Lee Lumb near the end of Oct. Hopefully will get more insight then.
Lots happening in Langley this weekend: annual 'Cruise In' of antique cars with a parade which will take them right by Rose & Bruce's farm tomo. nite. So I will be heading over there just before 6pm for a 'tail gate' party to watch the cars go by. Will have to take some beer and appy's to pass the time. lol Also in Langley on Sunday is a big BBQ contest on the bypass....will take that in if I don't get into the final trial out in Hope. ;~} Perhaps some pix to come later.

More Labor Day weekend pix

Dusty watches Jeff and Carmen working in the big Trillium Field at Fido Farm.
lunch break; Jeff made us tomato soup in thermos along with the chicken wings I bought at Safeway. We expected cold and rain but were lucky to get sun/cloud instead.
Dusty still watching.
Dee and Q coming off the field. A second before I took this shot, all the lambs were staring at the them....after walking up the alley to get a drink.
Jeff working the flock of lambs.
Dorman dogs having a run in the bottom field at the Marroni farm.
Art is the Farm Boss at Marroni's. In the background is the smoke from Jeff's gourmet BBQing on Sunday.
Dee and young Q. (or Dharma?)
Blair working in the top field at Maronni's.
Blair cools off on Tues.
the Dorman pack watches Dee working Cap in the bottom field on Tues.
Cap picks up his group.
Look VERY closely...what is Jeff looking at? Check out the little dot between him and sheep.........
What are Dee and Cap looking at?
"Away to me BarnKitty!" lol
Marroni barn/kennel after the storm/big rain on Sunday.
Dee & I spending time at least once or twice a day.....and yes, Jeff joined us shortly after taking this shot and posting it on FB with comment about how hard he was working on the smoker/BBQ.........lol
My goodness! What a weekend in paradise: gourmet meals, hot tubbing to relax after long days working dogs and great weather! Huge thanks to Jeff & Dee for inviting me to stay with them. Their hospitality is beyond description!

Labor Day weekend in Olympia

Here are just a few pictures of the weekend working dogs at Fido's Farm. Photos by Marroni Photography.
Young Owen doing remarkably well of a huge flock of lambs. Awesome experience for a young dog.
Dusty also perplexed and having to work his butt off to move the hungry flock of lambs.
That wee white dot near the treeline is where Dee was setting sheep for us.

Kathy Knox clinic

Here is my lovely little campsite in the shade for the dogs tied out all day.
Beautiful spot with a nice forest to walk the dogs in right behind my rig.
Looking up the driveway towards Vivian's house and gorgeous flower gardens.
Looking through the round pen to wards the field. You can just make out one of the LGDs under a tree in the center of the photo.
Kathy and Lora discussing Bella's round pen session. Nice shade tree in the background for the handlers to watch from. There was a cool morning mist that burned off to mid-70s in the afternoon.
Kathy working a round pen pup.
Discussing Bruce's session.
Dave and Cap in the big field. Cap is littermate to Jayne(and Peter Gonnet's Taff).
Cheryl doing some outrun & fetching with Flint.
Lorri working Quill.
Wyatt enjoys an apple at the end of the day.
Sunday evening after everyone else had left, my dogs got to hang out around the trailer. It was a great clinic with lots of young dogs from 14mos. to almost 3 yrs.old for the most part. I worked Jayne Sat. morning and tried to set her up to show how she blows up and busts through....but she worked really nicely. I worked Owen in the afternoon and stretched him out past his comfort zone. He didn't cover and allowed the sheep to escape to some shade trees(and LGD) but I just waited him out. It took a little while but he figured it out and was able to bring them to me. Sunday I just worked Jayne; in the morning session my timing was off and that may have contributed to her busting in twice. So I got Kathy to work her in the afternoon and she was awesome! Kathy said it wasn't anything that I was doing wrong which is a relief, just that it may be a stage Jayne is going through. I could see that Kathy was holding her off the sheep at a bigger distance when driving than what I allow. Plus she would stop her and settle her for a brief time which seemed to keep Jayne's mind relaxed. As well, Lorri's sheep worked really well; dogs can get a good feel and 'push' on them. I could tell that working in a big space on these kind of sheep will really help Jayne.
While we were at the clinic, Peter Gonnet was winning Reserve CH at the Canadians in Alberta with Jill(on the left) and Western Canadian Nursery CH with Taff(on the right). Congrats to Dennis Gellings and Jan; 2009 Canadian CH

Thurs. Working Dogs

Wow back to summer heat today! I worked Dusty and Blair; both did well. I wish Dusty could work like this in trials. ;-)
Then we got FB results via Kristi from the Canadians in AB: Jayne's littermate, Taff won the Western Canadian Nursery Final under the fine handling of Peter Gonnet. Yay Taff! Wish I could send Jayne to Peter for some real work this winter...... Scott and Don were Reserve, Thad & Nic were 3rd, Lee and Rex were 4th. Don't know who won the Canadian Nursery but would guess it was someone from the east - Amanda, Bev or Kate? So just waiting for the promised daily results posted by Louanne. They had around 90 runs to go through today so are probably still going til dark.
Well we'll see how she does this weekend. I am packing up tomorrow to head to Arlington,WA for a Kathy Knox clinic. It will be interesting to see what she suggests.

Update: they ran the Westerns separate. So the Canadian Nursery Ch. is Scott & Don. Bev & Esther were Reserve. Peter & Taff tied for 6/7.
There were only 8 pens out of 54 runs in Nursery.