BevLive: EID Classic, Day 1

My first western Canadian trial. We didn't exactly knock them dead, overwhelm them with our expertise. Mirk ran early, had one of his big outruns and ran into the next group of sheep on their way to be setout. Rerun. He had some sort of mental melt down at the lift and spent an unacceptable amount of time messing about with flanks and stops before he got on with the business of moving the sheep. I have no idea what he thought he was doing. Very straightforward 400 yard outrun. It's hilly and the field is about a mile long, so the dogs do need to remember where the sheep are, but not horribly hard. The drives are 150 yards and with the post on a hill, very easy to make. The sheep are a mixed-breed farm flock and a bit tricky to shed but very pennable. An altogether doable trial. Mirk just didn't get her done.Good run after the lift but too much competition here for that kind of foolishness, and he finished ninth.

Hemp ran in the windy heat. It got very hot here today. He did much better. Only one hill on the outrun so he managed that with no problem. Stupid shed. He came in and turned on the wrong sheep. I never did change his mind. I finally just turned and took the sheep he was on. Still, it was all good enough for a third place. Both dogs are at least in contention for the double lift on Sunday. Top twelve combined scores.

Esther ran in the Pro/novice.This is comparable to our ranch or to open ranch in the western US. She did okay. Needed a redirect on the outrun but took it immediately. She was a bit weavy behind her sheep. The ewes were hot and didn't really want to go, and that was her technique. I'm hoping with some experience we can find a better way for her to move the sheep.

So not much glory for us today, but little Esther did well and the boys did their best. Tomorrow is another day and I hope we do a bit better.

Scott Glen won with a nice run this morning with Maid. Stormy had a really great run with Roy and came fifth.

Ian Zoerb and Gyp in the shedding ring

It's still pretty hot here but cooling off, finally. Some very nice young dogs in the P/N. Many of them headed to the Canadian Nursery Finals next weekend.It was nice that Esther was at least in contention in that class. She is making great progress. Winning is nice but improvement promises more in the future.

Foxtails

Forgot to mention the local flora. The field has a lot of foxtails and spear grass. Both of these will get into a dog's coat and work their way right into the dog's skin and body causing infection and other problems.I'm told the foxtails here are much softer than the California variety and so not nearly as dangerous. Still, all a bit scary for a tenderfoot such as myself. So I've been doing a lot of dog grooming ever since I got to Stormy's place and even more here since they are much worse here.