Hot Hay Field

I didn't take any more pix today but when Rose finally(hint hint) uploads the pix she took last week, I will add them. But it is still just more of the same....beautiful great big hay field with Mt.Baker overlooking us in the SE.
It was pretty damn hot today for our dogs, however the sheep seemed to fair a little better. Except they were being total bitches about running off to the holding pens under the Hydro tower. Lynda's young Lark had a tough day; I have no idea what was up with her other than being stretched out further than her comfort zone so hesitating when she needed to take charge. So she lost her sheep several times to the pen. I had Owen out so sent him to pick them up which was a big stressful job for him; sheep would ring-around-the-rosie at the pen until Pam drew them off. It was still hard work for him to fetch them off her & back to me. So he only did one nice outrun picking sheep up off Lynda, then 2 or 3 pickups off Pam and he was done for it in the heat today. No water tub to cool off in so I just sat with him in the shade of my truck til he cooled off. I was very pleased with his work such as it was. Even Rose's Jana had a tough time gathering the sheep off the pens. Then Lynda worked Try and I took Jayne out. Jayne did a fence run of the entire field on her first go.....I need to somehow teach her a 'come in' whistle. But she held the line beautifully on her fetch when she finally did pick up her sheep. The second run, I sent her come by and asked for a walk up to start her off, plus stopped her when she started to go too wide and asked for another walk up. I don't know if that was the right thing to do, but she had a much better gather. Lynda's Try had a super tough time on each of his gathers; he actually went wide and deep(for a change) on his outruns but as soon as he lifted, the sheep bolted sideways on him, trying to get to the pens. Try did some awesome work doing his best to head them off and was able to get them faced off before they got all the way to the pen. What a good dog he was! At age 6, he is finally starting to come into his own and work well for Lynda....tough little headstrong dog that he is. I didn't work Blair as it was just too hot and it is not the best field for anything that he needs. Dusty also was left in the truck...at least til we were all done, then all four got to have a run with Pam's dogs and then come back to hang out in the shade of my truck. 30c on my deck this morning and about 27c out in the field. I parked up on a little knoll so was able to catch a breeze now & again. I can't imagine a better way to spend the day. Tomorrow the lawn mower calls my name.

Lovely summer

This has been so lovely & nice so far this summer. I love our temperate westcoast climate & don't think anywhere can beat it for mild; not too hot in summer except for the odd short heat wave & same in winter. Right now it is weather to savor & enjoy; blue sky, not too hot to work dogs even mid-day, cooling down at night so one can sleep......don't think there is a better place to live.
Since last post, it has been same old/same old so not a lot new to blog. As usual working Jayne & Owen every Tue/Thurs. at McLeods'. Trying to think up new exercises to work on and things to keep the sheep fresh. It is a hard task for my poor `weekend warriors` to grow into good working sheepdogs given the life they lead. But they try and don`t seem to know the difference so.....are happy just to be loved & fed well. Thank God.
Our good pal, Pam has been hauling sheep to the big field fairly often which is a big bonus. We are going out again this Sunday which will be another good warm-up to stretch the youngsters on bigger outruns. Plus a good reminder for Blair. I lucked out to get in an extra work-out for him today at Rose`s; tidied up his flanks & did a bit of shedding. I had to stop by there to pick up a couple crates & Rose offered to let me work sheep. We are SO fortunate here in the Lower Mainland to have such generous & gracious folks as Rose & Bruce that encourage & mentor us hobbyists. Without them, we would have almost nowhere to go that would be practical or affordable.
Looking forward to the Metchosin trial next. I will go early and get to see the progress Kit has made working daily with Julie, plus get to meet her new owner, Rachel. Who is also entered in NovNov with her Murphy dog. Good to know she is keen so that Kit will be in a trial home. Seeing Kit again after a month will be sweet sadness; sweet to see her lovely temperment & sad to part with her, but also sweet to know she is going to have a wonderful home & will take her new handler as far as she wants to go. I was very fortunate that Martha sold Blair to me when she did so it is kinda neat to be able to pay that back in a way.

Big Hay Field

What a super way to spend an afternoon!
Pam hauled her sheep to the huge hay field around the corner from her place. They cut hay 10 days ago but you can see how much has grown back already. We'll be able to get out here for a couple weeks then they will cut again.
Rose & Susan head out to do some outruns. The field is about 100 acres and we only used 1/4 of it.

When we were all done, the dogs get to have a run. Pam's Tasker always has to come visit me & check out my truck.
Tasker is a littermate to Lynda's Try. He spent some time at my trailer while camping at Downriver Farm for a trial when he was 6 or 7 weeks old. He has remembered me ever since.
"Ready........whssssshhhh!"

The sheep wagon.
The girls are very happy to go for a car ride.

This is what Pearse had in his car; fresh berry pie to go to his niece's birthday party. So.......I had to stop at the Krause Farm on the way home and get one for myself. :-)

Mt.Vernon Highland Games

Arrived at the border just after 10:30a Sat. to about an hour wait. I got half way down, then drove onto the shoulder to go the Duty Free shop and saved about a half hour in line.
This shot is looking in my side mirror at all the cars lined up behind me.
Here is flock of tricky Katahdin sheep from John & SJ Gahm's On the Lamb Farm.
Handlers returning to row of shade tents after picking up some yummies at the fair concessions. It was hot but nothing like the heat wave earlier in the week.
Charmaine & Rio, last year's winners, waiting at the post for the sheep to be kicked out into the arena. Behind them are the food concessions, beer garden and other events. It was very nice this year, that the warm-up area for the bag pipers was on the far side of those tents. Instead of right around & behind our area as in the past.
Judge & trial organizer, Dawn Pucci watches as the first set come out. Dogs started off with a short come by flank then a walkup to the end of the arena. Another comeby flank, walk up and away to cross-drive around the first obstacle; a post at far end of arena.
Then handlers could leave the post & fetch the rest of the course. Here is the second obstacle a turn around the post. Only four pens out of 30 dogs were successful on Sat.
Charmaine & Reo making obstacle 3 and a very tight turn through obstacle 4. This team were repeat winners on Sunday; winning the final for the second year in a row. Reo is from Lee Lumb's Mac X Shea.
After the trial I drove a little further south to Arlington to stay overnite with Heather & Joe Haynes.
We went out for dinner then convinced Joe to gather the flock with 'his' Corgi, Les. It was getting dark as you can see, but little Les got the job done in no time.
My abode for the night. Lovely 100+ year old farm house.
Diane and Roo at the Maltese Cross obstacle on Sunday.
Judge Dawn counting sheep as they go through.
Susan & Kelpie, Rani at the Maltese Cross. I think they ended up in third place in the final. Blair & I didn't make the final so I came home early. Couple of my dogs had the runs from the heat etc. so it was time to get back.
Jayne and The Pool. Taken earlier in the week when it was 32c. It is much cooler this week although today is a pool day. Yesterday was very cool but good for working dogs at McLeods'. Marg & I hung around waiting for the gals to arrive home from the Calgary Stampede. So we got to hear all the news and stories.... It was sure nice to be able to watch the complete final 15 runs online Mon. night! Neither Rose nor Nancy made the final but Nancy's Seeker may have had a money run one day of the trial.

Training at Downriver Farm

Owen on an outrun. I cropped these photos but for some reason it didn't translate in the upload. :-( I've been using Picassa to edit my photos since my old Photoshop is not compatible with my new laptop....
I can't tell if this is Owen or Lynda's Lark driving towards the draw.
Lynda is setting with Lark as Owen comes around on an 'away' outrun. I just found these pix on my camera and can't remember exactly when I took them; before Whidbey I think. Lynda & I went out to Downriver Farm in Hope to train on some different sheep in a different field. Downriver is where we both started all of this 'herding' stuff. ;-)

Training since Whidbey

I got to work Jayne on the trial field at Susan's mid week; Lynda & I both used the opportunity to send our young dogs on bigger outruns. Plus do some driving to the panels left up after the trial. I was very pleased with Jayne; she is continuing to show more maturity in her work. Lynda's Lark is also coming along like a champ.
Then Pam hauled her sheep to the big field on Sunday where we worked in a bit of a drizzle but doing much the same kind of work; seeing how far our dogs could go and not fall apart. The cows are gone but the grass was still very high in places so Owen had a some problems going on the come by side but took a redirect and managed to hold his own. Jayne was great; I have been working on being very quiet & soft(thanks Patrick) which is helping a lot I think. I am trusting her more which she is also responding to. She overflanked one time as I had completely lost sight of her in the high grass. Lynda pointed at her with her stock stick which might have signaled something to Jayne as she then flanked back and lifted very nicely with no help from me.
Today back to McLeods' where we sorted a group into the alleyway to work in a tight space to kick off my session with Jayne. Then I penned the group in the field but kept a single out to work for a few minutes. The group of sheep I had sorted proved to be a very reactive flighty bunch so we had some different types of work with them. I did some driving with Owen toward the draw where he had to flank to hold them which put a lot of stress on him. Good news was no wobblies when we were done. He is starting to handle more pressure and was working with a ton of enthusiasm and confidence.

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.