Amanda: Mopping Up

I had a long twenty four hours of travel, a milk run to Ottawa from Regina.
The drive up from Plentywood, Montana in the morning was gorgeous but the Regina plains looked like rice paddies. They might better take up that crop this year if they could. I had a couple of hours to kill in the morning, so I checked out the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and a couple of small galleries. I am a complete fan of the prairies. Home was reached at three a.m. and it never looked better.

The Dakota trials were ones to which I would gladly go back, given the opportunity. The extremity of them was a marvel. The outruns were colossal. I don’t know how such space could be found here. And of course the sheep were very demanding of any dog encountering them. For uninitiated eastern dogs, a shock. Without travel to such places, I don’t know how you could get the experience. The western fine wools get doggy easily. By the last day of Slash J, they had become quite civilized compared to day one, never easy, but significantly tamed down. Besides that they would die around here of foot rot or wet weather, they never stay crisp, like they were at the onset of the trial. The weather played a huge rule in the outcome of the trial. If the wind came up, there was very little chance of successfully handling through it. I loved getting my dogs on them. Each of them knows more for having been there.

All these people hosting these trials, Rene LeBree, Joni Swanke, Tom Kok, Barb Ross, Gloria and Harry Kerr, work hard at keeping people entertained and provided with high sport.
Some more pictures from the trip:
Wild Dakota Sky
Slash J 2011
Big One 2011