Olympia Nov.12-15

Good old Art is very patient watching dogs work his sheep. He even allows my dogs on the property. I went down to Olympia on Fri. Nov.12 to spend the weekend with the Marroni's. I had a lesson booked Sat. morning with Karen Child at Fido's.
So after I got back from my lesson, we worked dogs. Dee & Art watching Jeff work his pup.
Yes you may have noticed something in Dee's hand. It is her birthday coming up so we celebrated while I was visiting.
This is Jeff's young 'Tank'. He is just around a year old and has only been on sheep a few times.
Nice thoughtful dog.
Tank doing a little gather with nice natural pace on his fetch.
Sunday night is 'happy hour' in the hot tub before going out for dinner to Red Lobster.
no caption needed....
fighting over the last biscuit. They are almost as good as the seafood!
I love this barn.
This space between the barn on the left and the treeline to the right used to have cross-fencing for a night paddock. Now the 2 mid-sized fields have been opened up into one nice big 'L' shaped area to work. Owen is ready to help do some real chores.
Owen got to be the man to help separate 8 ewes to go to the ram to be bred.
Owen is out of sight somewhere behind the sheep.
Pushed down to Jeff at the gate and into ram's field.
Job well done young Owen. Who says weekend trial dogs can't be useful on a farm? ;-)

Happy Bday Jayne you bitch!

I just a few minutes ago had to look up Jayne's pedigree to remember her birthdate. It was today. We spent it running P/N at the Island Crossing SDT. in Arlington with some pretty nice mixed sun & cloud weather. Blair gave up his Open runs over the weekend so the youngsters could run in both trials for a change....hindsight; should have run Blair. lol
Owen did an exact repeat of his run on this field in August; he went to the sheep he could see - in the exhaust pen. I left the post and helped him find sheep across the gully which we then exhausted. I have no idea why he is doing this as I have been sending him bigger distances on other strange fields with no problem; only difference is the dips and gully on this field where they lose sight of the sheep. He hasn't had enough work at bigger distances to go out blindly on trust but goes to where he can smell/hear/see sheep I guess.
Jayne ran next and did a repeat of her run on this field in August; beautiful outrun although leaving my feet too wide, but got to the top, lifted ok, started the fetch, then dove in & grabbed a leg. Left that one behind, continued down the fetch deaf to all my whistles and corrections. I left the post and exhausted the sheep.
Owen's second chance; figured he now knows where the sheep are. Wrong - he went to the exhaust again. I left the post, helped him find sheep & exhausted them.
I pulled Jayne from her 2nd run as there is obviously something going on with these sheep/this field that is blowing her mind. No point in doing the same stuff over again; we need to come down here and train before attempting to trial here. So instead, I threw Dusty in her place.
He hasn't worked much since I retired him from trialing in June so I didn't have high expectations but thought it was an opportunity for him on a field & sheep he used to be very familiar with. Wrong again; he also went to the exhaust. However I managed to get him up the field without leaving the post but when a set out dog moved, in the usual Dusty fashion, he quit & let the sheep run back to the pens.....sigh.
So a fun day visiting with friends and watching other dogs make some nice runs, including my travel partner, Lynda. She and Lark threw down a sweet 5th place run in the second trial today! Whoohoo for them! She also had a very decent run with her tough little Try in the first go. So at least one of us was pretty happy on the ride home tonite....which is all we can ask for.
Oh yeah, we had a ton of fun & laughs visiting with everyone Sun. nite at Joe & Heather's house & then out to Red Robin for Heather's birthday dinner. Joe's choice but he promised not to let the staff know about the celebration.....oops....someone else told them and we were treated to the 5th?6th? of the night's "Happy Birthday song & clapping" by the waiters. LOL
Last but not least congrats to Ruedi and Blair's daughter, Teak for their win in Open on Sat. and a repeat with his good rescue dog, Scot on Sun.

Thanksgiving in Metchosin

Our Canadian Thanksgiving was a couple weeks ago. I made a trip to the Island to spend some time with my Mom for her 95th birthday then went to Metchosin for the weekend to work dogs with my mentor & friend, Martha McHardy. Here Martha has sent Ceri to collect the flock; Ceri is littermate to Blair.
After shedding off a working group, Martha took them down the field so we could set for each other. John Buchanon had been working all day with that tractor spreading manure on various nearby fields. This is the awesome 80 acre 'Banzer' field where a large flock of ewes are spending the fall.
The lovely Parry Bay ewes. One of Martha's young dogs coming around on the lift.

Young Kenny had a tough ewe that did not want to co-operate. Martha went over to help him succeed.
Here is my young Owen fetching to me. This is a fabulous field to stretch out my guys.
Here is Owen holding the sheep while Martha sends Kenny.
Ewes need a couple minutes between fetches to catch their breath. I love these sheep! They are so nice to work; dogs can dig in and really push on the drive, but not too much or they will turn on the dog.
You don't mess with this momma in the early spring with lambs by her side.
Smart protective old gals will gang up & hunt down a dog that misbehaves when they have their lambs at side. This time of year, however, they are mellow and mostly co-operative.
These pix were taken the day I left. I stopped at my friend, Julie Carter's place to work dogs before hopping on the ferry home. Julie leases a super great place on the Saanich Peninsula just 5 mins. from the ferry. Owen is ready for a turn.
This is the view from the gate looking left to the south. Fenceline runs along the road at treeline and turns corner at the white house.
This is looking directly across & west from the gate. Julie is doing some driving with one of her dogs. Handy store/deli across the street provides spectators who stop and watch the dogs & sheep.
Looking north to the right; Julie's dog has driven all the way down the field to some panels. The field is more than big enough for a nice little trial someday. Julie had a mix of Parry Bay sheep and St.Croix/dorpers from McLeods' but will be changing over to all Parry Bay sheep. Below; Julie has a topper much like mine.

Handy Dog Arena trial

Last Sunday was forecast for sunshine so a group of us headed out to the Handy Dog Winter series trial.
Here is Donna & Foxy in P/N. The day started out chilly with frost on the ground but you can see the sun starting to come up & over the mountain behind us. The trial was held at Lynn & Jim Leach's Downriver Farm in Laidlaw; my old stomping grounds with ACD, Wyatt. This arena was where I took my first steps in this journey of stockdogs and sheep.
John Carter designed a tricky course which had handler stand INSIDE a barrel whilst trying to pen sheep in an open free standing pen. The trial was BCSDA sanctioned time/points style arena which is very much like AHBA ranch courses; taking sheep out of pens, through gates, driving thru obstacles etc.
Blair's first up run in Open showed how the pen could be done. I am in a barrel directly behind Blair to the left of picture.
This was actually the start of our course; Blair has just come out of the pens and is covering the sheep as we entered the arena.
Here is Lynda in the 'barrel' at the pen.
After penning, Try drives the sheep up the fenceline and through a gate into the field next door where we had more 'panels' to negotiate. Lynda had the bad luck to draw this same group with young Lark. The big white sheep on the right is a ram who worked fine but the little old horned ewe on the left proved to be very wily; she had no respect or fear of dogs and would stop and graze anywhere she wanted. Costing Lynda's dogs time & inability to finish the course. They were the only 'tricky' group.
Kristi & Lou start the course with a counterclock turn around the barrel acting as handler's post for first part of course. This team had a very solid steady run for 3rd. place.
Tim Ballard's Nell fetching.
Tim & Jim watching runs in the morning. Still cold enough to see his breath. Tim is a local legend; where there is a trial, one can always find Tim working behind the scenes helping stock handle, set out or whatever needs doing. He has also been seen each Sept. at the Nationals working as Course Director for the finals.
Sun has come over the mountain by mid-morning for Kristi's run with Rex.
Jana & Rose at the pen which is just out of sight to the right.
Here is Owen & myself at the turn of the post. I've shed my coat and gloves by this time as it is lovely out now.
Owen getting set up to pen.
owen not thrilled with getting puppy kisses after his run. Owen places first just ahead of his daddy, Blair. We were lucky to draw nice groups which made for good runs.
All photos by Rose.

Week with David Rees

Rose sorting sheep on Tues.
Rose working Lexy with David.
Nancy has a lesson on Wed.
Nancy's good Aussie.
Deb's Crumbie; renowned ratter. He doesn't get to work sheep but keeps the chicken yard clear of rodents.
Dusty & Jana watch through the fence as usual.
The weather could not have been any better. Warm but not too hot.
Kristi and David.
Rose shedding with Jana.
They needed to set up a temporary round pen for Susan's keen young pup, Tru.
Susan leaving the pen for David to work Tru.
Finally got her to call off. David had his work cut out for him with this pushy youngster.
Wyatt spent the days watching from the truck.
Wow what a great week! Weather to die for at this time of year. Working dogs almost every day. I made a lot of progress with my three on shedding. David has a slightly different way of showing dogs the 'hold'. Seems to make a lot of sense to them.

Boring

No pix & not anything new to report; we have been home; going to McLeods' twice a week to 'work' my dogs. It is hard to think up exercises that replicate any kind of real work. So it has been a boring sort of time in my dogs' minds I think. One good benefit has been working the lamb crop since they will be used in the upcoming David Rees clinic/lessons next week.
I gave all 4 dogs some exposure on Tues. It has been quite awhile since Dusty got any sheep time. Plus I need to keep Blair 'tuned' up. They both did ok considering. But back to working just Owen & Jayne today....on the lamb crew which did make for some new&different challenges which was all good. It is a challenge to think up different exercises/skills to work on....we badly need some input on what we need to work on....David's arrival is very timely.