Sheepdog News

BevLive: Castle Rock, Day 1

Hung around Lise Anderson’s for a while in the morning and then drove twenty five miles to the next trial in Castle Rock. Turns out the town is named for this really neat pile of exposed rock on top of a very tall mesa. It rather dominates the local skyline.

Anyway the trial field was quite small. This trial appears to be part of some larger event whose nature I never really determined. The outrun is perhaps a hundred and fifty yards, very flat and directly into the prevailing winds as it happened. The wind started at fifty miles an hour and by lunch was up to sixty five. Not very good conditions for working four very reluctant, ignorant range ewes around a course.

Hemp was up fourth and had a fairly poor run. We got everything but I laid Hemp into the ewes at the top end and kept them hustling all the way around trying to avoid the sort of face off that had already sent more then one handler walking up the field to retrieve their dog. The speed had its desired result and we finished but it was very cowboy.

The running never got any better and Hemp ended up winning with Lise Anderson and Mack second out of about sixteen dogs. Joe’s run came to grief with a face off that ended with a hanging on grip. He’s gotten pretty good about not gripping but the nature of his grips hasn’t improved at all. When he bites it’s for keeps.

I missed the young dog classes in the afternoon as I needed to run some errands in town and get out of the wind for a few hours. It did warm up. Was 88 degrees when I drove to town and we were all in shirt sleeves again which would have been nice had there been a bit less wind. I’m sorry if I sound like I’m complaining about the weather all the time, don’t mean to, but you sure do notice it when you’re sitting outside all day.

Tomorrow is young dogs and nursery. I doubt if it’s going to be very pretty the way the sheep were working for the open dogs. At least the wind is supposed to let up after tonight.

BevLive: Table Top SDT: Double Lift

Double lift day. Turned out the hardest part of he day was the split, not the double lift. Go figure???

I ran first after a demonstration run by our judge, Emil Ludekie. This gave the set out crews a chance to perfect their game, which they did, getting the second set out all day without any dog needing to wait.

Hemp had a fairly good run but we were to split, pen the four sheep our dogs turned on, then single one of our group of four. My shed off sheep snuck up behind me to rejoin on both the she’d and the single.

This proved to be the story of the day. The shed off sheep would come running from a hundred yards away to rejoin. Very frustrating and the ruin of many a very good run.

Hemp’s score stood until Alan Mills ran Sis with a cracking run and perfect finish. Tom Wilson had any even better run but came to grief on the shed. Joe and I ran between Alan and Tom and while our out work was no where near as nice as theirs it totally blew me away. I had never had Joe actually do a good turn back and this one was quite good. Coupled with good fetches and a great finish he is currently sitting second. A bunch of us left for dinner with three dogs left to run but even if all three of them beat him I’m an extremely happy camper. I can’t believe how much Joe has learned at one dog trial. He’s my hero.

BevLive: Table Top SDT, Day Four

Sitting at the handler’s dinner after a tough day of trialing. Today we had a 600 yard outrun with a long first leg to the drive. Again there were many no scores and low scores. Sheep remain very uncooperative and aggressive.

Tom and Sly won with a 79 followed by Lise Anderson with Mack. Joe pleased me very much by having a good outrun and steady lift without chasing the sheep which was a huge improvement for us. Alas we DQed on the cross drive when the sheep decided to stand their ground and make a fight of it. Hemp did better tying Libby and Derby for third and ending 4th after a stupid fetch.



Lise got the most beautiful mugs for first prize. Many different colors and designs naked choosing hard. Thank you Lise and Joe.



The wind is beginning to drop and it’s warming a little. We all spent the day in most of our winter clothes, a summer day in Colorado. Was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow is the double lift. I can hardly wait to see if Joe can figure that out.

BevLive: Table Top SDT, Day Three

Sitting with handlers watching the beginning of today’s running and it was pointed out to me that I never blogged yesterday’s events. I had no idea anyone was actually keeping track.

Yesterday we ran the open ranch and the nursery twice. The running was very tough. We ran four sheep hoping they would be a bit easier to move. Not so much alas.

We had about three scores in the first nursery and open ranch. Very hard for the young dogs. Joe ran well for me benefiting from a morning draw and won the nursery. The first ranch was won by Jennifer Boznes with Ron Burkey and Shadow in second.

The second nursery was really hard for Joe as his sheep were very reluctant to go and he ended up diving into them at the first drive gate to get them going, missing the gate and nearly breaking his winning streak. Tom Wilson and Roy had a nice go with the sheep moving off Roy well to finish second in both nurseries.

The second ranch had quite a few fewer dogs as a few folks decided to scratch rather then let the aggressive sheep out face their dogs again. The second ranch was won by Mindy Bower and Griz with Ron and shadow again in second.

BevLive: Table Top SDT, Day 2

Finishing up the nursery at 7:30. Been a very long day for the great setout crew and other workers. Was quite hot and often very windy, which in Colorado can be VERY windy indeed.

The top runs were in the first four runs this morning. Libby Neider and Sidney won with the first run if the morning. Alan Mills and Sis were second and Tom Wilson and Sly were third. Late in the day Kay Stephens and Gala came 4th.

I was very pleased again with young Joe. He kept his head better today and managed a very credible run to get 6th. He just finished running in the nursery where he managed to get recalcitrant sheep Going with much more finesse then he has previously demonstrated so maybe he’s getting the hang of these critters. They spend an inordinate amount of time stamping their feet at the dogs and walking towards the dogs instead of away.

The nursery class was very strong with many excellent runs. Very nice to see as the sheep aren’t giving it up easily.

Tomorrow is ranch and nursery. I’m looking forward to more great sheep work. I’m off now to the Mills camper. They bought pizza for all the handlers and then poor Alan volunteered to help the set out kids with Sis. So we’re going to go eat his pizza while he walks up and down the big hill.

BevLive: Table Top SDT, Day 1

Hot here too but a cool breeze. Sheep are very hard to spot and hard to keep moving. Big course. 11:30 time. Only one pen so far. Scores mostly DQs and RTs with some 40 and 50s to mix it up. Sheep are great five yearlings, wonderfully ignorant.



The Blue Grass is old news by now so I won’t revisit poor Hemp’s unfortunate performance beyond saying we were finished quickly and on the road to Colorado Springs by one o’clock Sunday afternoon. I did some pretty serious driving and arrived at the next trial Monday morning. Pretty good driving even for me.

I was at Lise Anderson’s great trial site at nine in the morning. The sheep proved pretty challenging for the riders to spot which slowed the trial a bit. Actually, they were pretty challenging for everyone but Tom Wilson who finished first and second. Alan Mills and his Sis were third beating Hemp and out by a point and leaving us 4th with our 57.

Joe ran very well and was really laying one down until we got to the second drive gate. The girls were determined to break back up the field to the set out, as they’d pretty much been doing all day and Joe wouldn’t let them. Joe broke the impasse with an overwhelming demonstration of force and our judge, Emil Ludeckie, called us for unnecessary roughness. I ask
you, “what’s a dog to do?”

We ran 49 dogs of which fewer than twenty got scores and more then half of those scores were below 40. The sheep were great, alas, they seemed to pretty much carry the day except for Tim and Sly’s 78.

Had a great dinner with friends. Gosh some folks sure can do the cooking in the camper thing with style. I’ve never been much of a hand at it.

We have great weather forecast for the whole week and we all get multiple chances on these tremendously good sheep. I’m hoping they will help with Joe’s education. He learned a lot at the Blue Grass but this is really advanced stuff for my youngster.

BevLive: Bluegrass Classic, Day Four

Got very hot today and is supposed to be hotter tomorrow for the double lift, which is certainly too bad. Some great runs on both fields in spite of the heat. Bruce Fogt had a very nice run with Cam which broke into the 80s for a score. Later in the day he got beat by Roy Taber and York’s winning run which I missed. Hemp ran just as the heat was becoming an issue and did well except for another fairly poor finish to end up eleventh. Not what we’d hoped but good enough for a turn tomorrow and that’s the main thing. Joe ran very well in nursery to get second and win the overall which was nice. He’s certainly more comfortable on the smaller field. I hope by the end of the trip he will have gained more comfort in bigger spaces.

The draw is done for the double lift. Speculation is that it’s going to take an early, cool draw to win. I hope not as I drew up tenth. Don Whittington is in with his good old Fionn running just before me. We’re both hoping for a sudden cool front.

BevLive: Bluegrass Classic, Day 3

Another sunny, dry day in Kentucky. I almost slept through my morning nursery run it was so nice and cool. Helped by the fact that the generator parked next to me left yesterday. Joe ran strong in the nursery which scared me a little as the nursery field is very small and I had him to run in the big open field in the afternoon.

I was right to be worried. He ran like a train with no brakes on the fetch. Too bad as the rest of his run wasn’t too bad. I took a cheap shed as they were very hard to shed and it was almost ninety degrees. After yesterday’s unfortunate shed I wanted him to succeed which he did. Still the hard pushing was a little worrying.

The nursery was won by Lyle Lad and Lucky. Joe hung on for third. The running there was all pretty good. The lambs are leaning on the dogs some but mostly have given up on fighting.

The open still has a day to go and was tough sledding all day. Don Whittington got the day started with a very good run and was still hanging on to the lead when I left for dinner. The sheep are testing the dogs on the top and the first leg of the drive going past the exhaust. The look pretty doable to me watching but seem to be pressing all the buttons on a lot of dogs. They have become even more difficult to shed and many low scores reflect fairly good runs with no pen or shed. At the shed the are very hard to split and once split not shy about going over the dog to rejoin.

BevLive: Bluegrass Classic, Day 2

We’ve finished the first open trial. They’re still running on the novice field but almost done. We finished so early because there were so many open DQs and RTs. A very hard day. The wind was up and the lambs were quite unhappy. However, we also had the two top scores of the trial so the top dogs managed just fine.

Scott and Don had a very difficult group of sheep and win with them beating Alasdair and his nursery dog’s very nice early run.

I know you are all anxious to know how I did. I ran Joe, my nursery, dog last in the open and I thought he was great. Still a little rough in places but he listened and handled his sheep with confidence. Alas the opportunity I saw for a shed was really a clever lamb trap and Joe solved the difficult shedding problem by biting the lamb. Mea culpa, mea culpa. I have no idea now why it looked like a good idea but such is life. We got no score but I’m very proud of my boy and looking forward to running him again.

The novice field was much easier today with most of the groups much more manageable. The scores were generally higher with many pens although there were plenty of lambs that remembered the pen from yesterday and refused to go in. Lyle again won the Ranch although with a different dog. I think Scott won the nursery. He sure had much the highest score the last time I looked. Both my entries ran pretty well.

New open tomorrow. We all need to try and do it again to make the double lift.

BevLive: Bluecrass Classic, Day 1

First day of running was another gorgeous day, bright and sunny, got a bit warm in the eighties but very nice. The open began at 6:30 which was a bit foggy and not great light. The first three runs were particularly tough as a result.

Carla King and Alasdair MacRae both had early draws though and handled them well. I also ran early with Hemp and had a reasonable go that would have been helped tremendously by a pen.

We ran three very fit Texas lambs in the open and they were never less than a demanding test of dog and handler. They were tough to get started down the field and very hard to navigate through the fetch gates. Once the turn was negotiated, a difficult process for not just Hemp and I, the drove fairly well. The single was last one on the head and doable but tricky as the lambs are fast, anxious and ignorant. Most folks who got there seemed to pen.

We ran half the open finishing around 7-7:30 I think. The Open Ranch was run on the novice field also on the fresh Texas lambs, each dog getting four, a much nicer number. The running there was very rough. Lyle Lad won with a 63 and the only score in the sixties. My Meg managed to get fifth on a rough run.

The Nursery followed the open with more triumphant sheep and over whelmed youngsters. Joe ran late in the class and with hard work on my part cooling his youthful exuberance we managed a good win and my only pen of the day. Yeah Joe!

So tomorrow we run another sixty plus open dogs to finish the first open and run the ranch and nursery again. It’s a lovely night, clear skies and the smell of gasoline in the air and the sound of generators all around.