Sheepdog News

Spent the morning working sheep on a huge (thousands of acres) piece of BLM land with Amanda and Derek. Connecticut needs BLM land. Very unfair.

BLM practice field

All the dogs looked pretty good. Hemp seemed to be shedding better, but since we were working ten Katahdins it was kind of hard to tell if he was or wasn't improving.

We started driving at 10:30 and drove until we got here around 6:00 Pacific time. Lovely big, irrigated hay field I think. Yellow stubble of some kind, a bright yellow I only see out here where things really get dry.

eastern Oregon

We drove through some grim country today. Don't seem to be many people living in eastern Oregon and I can understand it. Really harsh landscape.

This was a day of hospitality. First Shauna brought us in fresh sheep for our morning practice. We mostly worked our nursery dogs, who all three looked very nice in spite of the long lay off. I worked Hemp a little on shedding. Not any improvement, which is pretty scary since I'm a long way from home with him.

Amanda getting ready to send her dog at Shauna's

Then on to the important stuff–we went fishing at the pond at Shauna's all stocked with trout. The dogs loved the swimming and the hours of freedom after days of crates and chains.

Joe the pup at the fishing hole

We left Shauna's around 10:30 and had a beautiful drive to Derek Fisher's parent's ranch outside Boise, Idaho. We got here about 6:30 with a quick shopping trip at Sierra Trading Post. Unbelievable, not only are they letting us park these huge rigs in their backyard, but Dany and Frank had a steak dinner cooked for us.

At Derek's

You are only queen for a day when you win a sheep dog trial.I called my mother to tell her about it and instead of asking if I could finally come home and forget this silly chasing of sheep, she was enthusiastic.That is rare.But rarer still, she phoned our office (so she knew the number) and told my sister Cathy that I had won a big sheep dog trial.You never what she is going to remember.

We took the long drive westward to Park City, Utah.I have done this drive from Meeker to there and back more often than I would like to have done, but this is the first time it rained most of the way.Rain in the desert.Rain in the desert.What next?

We made a productive stop at the Whole Foods in Park City to stock our campers with all the necessities and thensome.I even stooped to picking up a few heirloom tomatoes in honour of my abandoned garden.I could have supplied that store.There is something about heading into the west, the desert.You need supplies, like water, oatmeal, hard cheese made in Utah.What if something goes wrong, and you’re stranded?Girl scout up, or cow girl up, or whatever it is here.Do not go unprepared.If something does happen, I’ll climb in my camper and wait, cause there could be snakes.Maybe poisonous ones.

Shauna Gorley

On a road I have never travelled, we rode up to Shauna’s.A climb followed by a sharp descent, welcomed us with two rainbows arcing over Huntsville, glowing over the lake. vista, vista, and more vista, hot running water, and sheep and Shauna.

 
TUESDAY EVENING

Trout fishing

We trout fished today at Shauna's.  What a gorgeous spectacle, the swirling trout in feeding frenzies.  Between nets and lines, we got three.  Beauties.

At Derek's

We worked the young ones this morning and they all went well.  Monty widened out his outrun for me, which I liked and I hope he keeps it up.  Tomorrow morning, we are working big outruns with the older dogs, courtesy Derek Fisher.  Derek's mom, Andy, is cooking supper for us.  I tried to contribute something but she dug in.  So we are being waited upon.  We don't deserve it, a bunch of sheepdog bums.

 Beautiful Idaho

We drove through Idaho to Derek's and what a fabulous drive, one vista more breathtaking than the last.

Sandra took over when my ass gave out and things are great.

It's raining out. I think it's the first rain I have seen since I left home. We went over to Ellen's this morning and did a little dog work. First time I have had poor Esther out in days. Ellen's sheep are mostly huge range ewes with some fairly aggressive Suffolk types for seasoning. Esther really impressed me again. The sheep didn't want to go from their home field across the road to our practice field at all. It was a very tricky bit of work to keep them off the gates and force them across the pavement.  Esther handled it perfectly. She wasn't quite so good later doing some driving when she again demonstrated a very stubborn form of dyslexia. If she ever gets to be 100% on her flanks she could be very dangerous.

I worked Hemp on shedding. He is suddenly shedding very poorly. I have no idea where this is coming from–he is normally a brilliant shedder. Somewhere on this trip something has thrown him off. We did a bit of shedding and had some success, for which I could praise him vociferously and then we quit. I was reluctant to try and correct Hemp's poor sheds, lest I discourage him from coming in when called. I'm very concerned about this. I have a few more practice chances lined up and I'll try and concentrate on his shedding.

We, Amanda Sandra, and I, left Meeker around 10:30 headed back along the RT40 way for Heber and Salt Lake, planning to stop and swim the dogs at the lake again. Alas, just as we arrived it began to rain and continues to rain still, occasionally with some seriousness. We are currently at Shauna Gourley's place in Utah. It's a beautiful drive here through some really dramatic mountains into this great valley. Really pretty country.

We stopped at Whole Foods in Park City, Utah. Beyond our trucks on the mountain are the ski jumps from the Salt Lake winter Olympics.

Everything in the camper and all the dogs are very dusty from the parking area at Meeker. I am anxious to find a place to swim the dogs and get rid of the dust.

With Meeker behind us, it is onto the young dogs.Let’s get ready for the Nursery Finals.Over the next couple of days, we are concentrating on making them a little more worldly.New fields, new sheep, new pressures.All their basics are pretty good, but their experience is not broad.

Some pictures:

Meeker, Day One

Meeker, Day Two

Meeker, Day Three

Meeker, the Finals

Exciting day. Amanda was up 4th with Ethel. They did a great job.

Ethel needed a couple of redirects on the second outrun and stayed tight until she saw her sheep. Both fetches were good, the first better than the second but solidly through the gates. The drive was very clean except for a little wobble at the tricky first gate. A very nice shed, which netted them the best shed prize, and a clean pen. Ethel came off the field looking quite fresh and performed perfectly all the way around. At one point in the shed a collard ewe broke with two uncollared and Ethel made a great save on the edge of the ring within inches of the discarded sheep. Lovely work by an old pro.

Tom ran 6th and had some fetch problems and lost his shed a couple of times and ended with a shed but no time to pen to come second.

Bill Berhow had a very nice trip around after the lunch break with Pete but no shed left him third.

Just came back from the victory dinner at the Old Rustic which is now a very nice Mexican restaurant. Interesting dog trialing custom that leaves the winner paying for the victory celebration but very generous of Amanda to treat us all.

This may well be Ethel's last season as she is ten and Amanda has Roz waiting in the wings. It was really nice to see her still running with such élan and reminding us why she is such a good bitch. Congrats to Amanda and Ethel both.

P. S.

In the excitement of yesterday's big Meeker win I forgot to mention the other great triumph of the weekend. Sandra Massie won the Novice arena trial at Meeker with Amanda's Monty. While this was a great job by both parties it was the more so for being Sandra's first trial. The deadly duo won $150 in their first outing.

We are off this morning to work sheep at our friend Ellen's, then on to Shurla Gurley's for more practice.

Amanda Milliken and Ethel.

2009 Meeker Champions.

 The mayor has offered me the keys to Paris.

  Salute from the setout crew

Amanda had a better day than I did. Ethel had a great morning run.Really not much wrong besides the first drive gate being missed. Clive lost his sheep in the top for no score. Hemp had quite a bit of fetch trouble, nearly losing his sheep, which combined with a poor score for his finish took him out of contention for the final. Tom had a poorish go with Sly but managed enough score to make the final.

So that was my day. Not much success, but it could have been worse. I have at least dodged the Meeker Curse (winner of Meeker not winning the USBCHA Finals). So we'll see how Amanda does tomorrow.

I think this was the toughest day of running. Especially this morning the sheep seemed very hard to get alongand there were quite a few bad wrecks.

Amanda ran in the midst of this and squeeked out a 54, which proved good enough for the semis. Hemp ran shortly after Amanda and was a good boy. He nailed the outrun, an enormous relief as it can be very tricky and has done in quite a few dogs this year. The rest of his run pleased me very much as his lines were good, given that we were working with Meeker sheep, and he got all his obstacles. We had a bit of trouble at the pen. The sheep were a lot less keen to pen today than they had been for some reason. Later in the day Vicky Close had a good run lost when a sheep split at the pen and was gone. Many good runs that on previous days would probably have penned did not today.Go figure.

The best run of the day was easily Tom and Sly. A very clean run with good lines. Sly made it look easy. Hemp had a nice run but it never looked easy.

Poor Mirk ended up 31st, alas. But at least I got in with Hemp. Nice to have two reasonable shots at the semis even if only one of them came through.

We drew the running order after the last run. Amanda is 2nd with Ethel and 15th with Clive. Tom is around 22 with Sly. I'm 16th with Hemp.

The running this morning was so poor it's had to know what's a good draw. So I'll guess that 16 is and go to bed happy.

I exhausted again with Esther this morning. A great chance for her to work these sheep a little with me there to help her out. She handled them much better than yesterday, pleasing me greatly.

It's a bit tricky exhausting with these young dogs. It's important not to lose sight of the work being to benefit the trial. Some folks get out there with dogs not up to the work leaving the competitors waiting while they train their dogs at the exhaust. Amanda and I were careful to go over together to make sure if either of us got into difficulty the other could help to speedily clear the field. A pet peeve of mine if you can't tell. Hate to see people training their dogs at the exhaust while my sheep are sitting at the top end of the field waiting for me.

Speaking of which, this trial has had some of the best sheep spotting I have ever seen anywhere. Each group speedily spotted in the same place and nicely held. The spotters have also not been shy about putting bad groups away. That's not to say that they didn't spot some groups that were harder to hold then others. There is no way to avoid the luck of the draw at even the best run trial.