Sheepdog News

I'm sure there is a happy camper here, but it's not mine. The high point of the day here was Sue and Maid getting the first pen of the trial. Alas, the rest of their run wasn't as good as their finish and they missed the top 5 cut.

Amanda and Ethel had a great run up to the pen where age, heat and foolish sheep got the best of Ethel's normally good temper and she gripped for a DQ.

Hemp needed two redirects on his outrun but at least he got himself up there. Of course the trip down the hill got off to a bit of a chase and the sheep got very pissed at him. By the time we got halfway to the first drive gate they had had enough and decided they would rather fight than run.Hemp couldn't figure out how to make them go when they didn't want to. A grip brought a DQ just about the time I had gotten disgusted with the whole thing and was walking off any way.

The morning running was very rough. As it got hotter and hotter the sheep seemed to get better. The winning run for the first go around came on the last run with Linda Tesdahl and Jaffe with an 83 with no pen.

Tomorrow Amanda and I both run again. I sure hope we do better. Too much humility is bad for the spirit.

I would say it was another quiet day, but any day with Amanda is bound to be pretty active.

Worked the practice sheep in the morning. Hemp and Mirk both seem to be working in a fairly mediocre sort of way, causing me not inconsiderable apprehension about the weekend.

Mirk and I did a presentation for the kindergarten kids at the ski school here. About thirty of them mobbed Mirk, who loved every moment of the hugs and kisses. What a character.

Amanda arrived before noon with just about the most beautiful truck I have ever seen. It has everything a person could want and a number of things I never would have thought of. I NEED a new truck. She took me for a joy ride up to the Zermot resort. Some truck.

As soon as she had the camper set Amanda hauled out her swimming pool and Howard Peterson was kind enough to arrange to have it filled with water.

Amanda and Jennifer Ewers trying out the pool

Tom and Flo pulled in around four and after they had their practice runs we did a nice long trial field walk. It's a tricky field. I sure hope Hemp can manage that outrun tomorrow.

Sue Schoen arrived from Denver at sevenish (she flew into Denver with her dog Maid) and we all went out for dinner. Took forever to get served for a not-very-good Southwestern dinner. Disappointing.

Soldier Hollow field from the handler's post

So we'll see what happens tomorrow. Sue, Amanda and I all run in the afternoon.

A day is a terrible thing to waste. But except for doing my laundry I have nothing to show for today.

The practice field was small, but the lambs were very western and perfect for tuning the dogs for the weekend's main event. That's it–nothing to report.

Folks are rolling in. I'm waiting to see what kind of style Amanda arrives in.

Long day of driving through some beautiful and some pretty desolate country. Came from central Montana through Idaho and Utah. A long, frequently dusty day.

What my day looked like.

Did manage to get my disgustingly dirty, bug-splattered camper washed. Tomorrow is going to be a clean-the-inside day. Everything is coveted with a layer of grit.

Arrived at Soldier Hollow around 5:00 to find Red Oliver and Alberto and Elena Stern already arrived. We all went out for the Stern's first Southwestern dinner. It's going to be a lovely trial.

Milton was all hospitality, meeting us at his gate and guiding us into a lovely fenced field where we could let our dogs run free while we stood around reliving the high and low points of the trial.

Canadian Finals trial field

This morning we found Ken Price and his family parked next to us. Joined by Milt, we all took turns working a very small portion of his hundreds of sheep. Hard to understand how any of us failed to win–our dogs all looked pretty good.

Parked at Milton Scott's

Turned out we were parked in his trial field. Must be a lovely trial. The field is nice and big with a little bit of lowness out about 450 yards which hides the sheep very effectively. Got to give poor Hemp another "redirect on the outrun lesson." I keep hoping he is like Helen Keller and one day the penny will drop and he will magically understand what I'm trying to tell him. Not so far though.

Working dogs at Milton's

Amanda and Milt left around 11:00 to go truck shopping. Tempting as it was to go watch someone else spend gobs of money, I decided to head south and try and get a chunk of the Utah trip behind me. Hence my current location in Helena, Montana.

I now feel I have seen quite a bit of North America. This sure is as pretty as any of it gets. I decided to stop early so I could drive through the rest of it in the daylight.

Sitting, stuck behind someone's accident in my truck and trailer. Too big to turn around so a good time for today's blog.

Another perfect summer day in Alberta. These guys sure have nice weather. We started the running with Hemp and me. And he started my day by crossing the second outrun. This proved to be the theme of the day.I think all but three dogs crossed. It was harder then it looked, I guess. Otherwise Hemp was a good boy, getting the only pen of the day and holding first place with a 99 until Amanda and Clive didn't cross and got 104. These scores held until the last three runs of the day.

Mirk didn't cross his second outrun, but we missed the second fetch and had trouble with the shed to score 103. Dennis Gellings and Jan followed me with a great run with no pen scoring 128. Peter Gonet and Jill were the last runners of the day and scored 108 to capture second.

Well, we didn't win, but both boys ran well and I was very pleased.

Clive also did great coming third and I know Amanda too must be pleased with her dog's great work.

We are currently on our way to Milton Scott's an hour north of Calgary to spend the might and work dogs. We had wanted to go spend a couple of days with our friend Ellen in Meeker, but when it came time to drive six or eight hours tonight neither of us could face it. So a day at Milton's, then on to Utah. I think.

It was a really good finals. The sheep could have been a little more even, especially at the pen. But the field and hospitality at the Bar Pipe Ranch could not have been better. It was great watching new people and dogs. I hope I can get back in two years when the CBCA Finals are in the west again. Next year will be easy as they are in the east.

Time to go–I think they have finally cleared the wreck.

Amanda says she will be blogging again as soon as she is able. Not much connectivity up here.

Same Alberta weather. Amanda had a really good morning run with Clive.

Got 88 and the high combined. Not much luck with Ethel and Bart. Viki did great with Merle and is in the double lift. Grant Musgrove won the second go around with a 90.

I on the other hand couldn't get much done today. I ran Mirk first and it took him an eternity to get his sheep going. He finally nipped one and they came away. We had wasted a lot of time andwe needed to really run them around the course (which we did), but a bad pen and no time to shed along with tons off our lift got us a 60. The good news is that we hung in there and managed to tie for tenth, so Mirk made the double lift.

That turned out to be my good run for the day. Hemp and I drew four crazy sheep. We missed the fetch and driveaway gates then spent six minutes chasing them all over the field at the pen. He got 52, which was sure all his run deserved. It was horrid. Happily we had yesterday's 90 to add to it so he made it into the final as well. It took 137 combined to make the CBCA Final.

We drew at the handler's dinner and got tomorrow's order of running. I'm up first with Hemp and 12th with Mirk. Amanda is 7th with Clive and Viki is 2nd with Merle. We ended up with 14 dogs running since all the ties went through and we needed the top ten for the Western Regionals and the Canadian Finals, and while there was some overlap it took 14 dogs to get a top ten for both.

The weather always seems to be the same here. I know they must have bad days, but you sure can't prove it by my experience. Every night cold. Every day 80s and bright sun. Today was more of the very nice same.

Running remained about the same today as yesterday.Ian Zoreb and I started the day tied for first with our previous day's scores of 77. Scott Glen and Drift got an 83 in the morning, quickly followed by Amanda and Clive with an 80. Those scores stood until after the lunch break when Hemp and I got a 90. He was a very good boy. That score won the go around.

Amanda had a pretty good go with Bart, but a ewe had a second go at getting past Bart at the pen: he stopped her with a little too much authority, and the judge called him off. Poor Ethel, recovering still from being ill earlier this month, drew a weak ewe who wouldn't keep up with her mates and timed out on the drive. Stormy had a great go with Roy, scoring 71 with no shed, so he is still in the hunt for Sunday. Kate failed to pen after a very good go and had a 63.

We are running 15 dogs from the second go around tonight. Dennis Gellings and Jan just got an 88 to go with a score in the 70s, so that will be in for sure. Kate and Salt had a good second trip around the course, but she had a Suffolk ewe that just refused to pen. We will have to wait and see what it takes to make the cut. Amanda and I both have all our second runs tomorrow.

Turns out only ten dogs run Sunday. Ten for the CBCA Finals, and this is also the Western Canadian Finals so ten for that with any dog that qualifies for both only running once.

Kate, Amanda and I went to Black Diamond this morning and did a little shopping, which included a visit to a local meat market. Just had the best steak of my life for dinner.

I ran into Calgary after my run for a quick look around and make a trip to a used book store. I'm running low on reading material and getting anxious as a result. I like to have about five books at a time going so I have the right book for every mood.

So that's all the Canadian news for today. There were 15 scores of 70 or higher, so I’m going to need a good go with both my guys tomorrow. We'll see what the morrow brings. Was a good day today.

For those of you who just can't wait for Amanda and Bev's updates, Louanne Twa is providing score updates on her blog.