Must share the news that as of this month's update, Shar and Ryder are 12th and 9th in the national standings for Rally Obedience. We are very proud of that and wish them both more High Scores this summer! Shar and MaryEllen head south to show Stateside this month as well.
Last week, Lore, Louann, Shar, Joan and I headed to Phantomridge for a Lynn Leach herding clinic and CKC trials. The clinic was excellent and Lynn proclaimed our dogs ready to try the trials. Lore and Bonnie achieved a Qualifying Score in the Herding Started class. One more to go.... it was great to see the corgis at work as they have a distinct style of herding. And Lore did a fantastic job of handling both Bonnie, her own dog, and Never, Louann's dog. She ended up getting the Award for the Most Promising Cardigan Corgi!! Well-deserved.
Louann was responsible for the meals for two days and we were treated to the best lunches ever!! The weather was miserable and cold and windy and rainy but we were well-fortified with hamburger soup and Bruder Barbecued beef, and countless cups of coffee. Every morning, muffins and fruit was available and there was always something to nibble on.
Sharlet pitched in and helped Louann wherever she was needed and everything ran so smoothly. The Cardigan club and the Australian Cattle Dog club both had wonderful goody bags and prizes. Each morning dawned on a new display.
Token had an admirer in the little shop cat who wanted desperately to sleep curled in Token's tail. In the end, it was not Token, but Mesa, who allowed the beautiful feline to curl up with her on the heated cement in the shop. Kristan got a lovely photo of Token and the cat and I think I will ask her permission to enter it in the Alberta SPCA photo contest on her behalf.
Joan and her Belgian, Dex, had a great weekend, ending it with two 'legs' towards their Herding Tested title. Dex can move like lightning and it was so nice to see him skid to a 'wait'. He had the same attitude as my own dog, Token, in that he couldn't stand to stay in place out of balance when the sheep moved in front of us. He just had to move to control them for Joan which sometimes resulted in him moving them backwards and having to regroup and regather, which he loved to do anyway.
By Sunday the sheep, after two days of clinic time and two days of trials, were crabby and just wanted to get back into their pens. One wrong move on our part and they were off like a shot to the exhaust pens. Saturday, Mesa used up a lot of time getting her sheep through the third obstacle, the free-standing chute, and they escaped twice on her. Back to the pens to gather and fetch again. I knew that we were getting close to the time limit and I was surprised to have the energy to race ahead of her and just let her keep the sheep to me through the last two obstacles and back to the pens. A good hold off the pen and we let them in. Phew!!! I don't want to do that too many times in the heat, but it was worth it. We took third place . By the end of the day, we had a new Herding Started title. We picked up our insurance leg Sunday morning and that allowed Mesa to relax for the rest of the weekend.
Token started off on Saturday with a pretty calm run and ended up second out of 15 dogs! I was amazed. And so was everyone else, I am sure. I am really losing confidence in myself in my ability to keep a controlled run that allows my dog to show her talent. My dad would have understood. He probably would have explained it by saying, "It is hard to realize that your original intent was to drain the swamp when you are up to your a__ in alligators." That's kind of what it feels like. The last run of the day I couldn't have cared less whether or not we had a title. And so I let Token run it her way.
We were done in under four minutes and I truly couldn't recall whether or not we had done every obstacle. It was like being on a Disney Ride! But we squeaked by and qualified, ending our weekend with her Herding Started title and a third and fourth place rating.
Was I impressed with our SAWHDA dogs? For sure! To me, the most impressive thing was the "hold" off the exhaust pen.
Every dog held those sheep until we asked the sheep to come in. And every dog took the sheep out of the take pen without incident although none of us had ever asked our dogs to do the job before taking the clinic.
Sneaky Shar, Louann and Lore bought a cake and presented it to me at the end of Saturday's trial as a birthday celebration. It was delicious as yet another treat for the trials!!! Yum.
Home didn't seem so far away with friends there, but I am sure Lore and Louann were happy to get home after two weeks on the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment