What a weekend

Vicki at the Great Western Bank Sheep Dog Trial

Sneaking a peak of the trial field, I like this shot, the old girl doesn't look like she's 10

I'm going to break this down into two posts, first Bea is back to herself, last night when we arrived home from Tingley the jumped on Wayne's lap, rutting in demanding his attention. We had a cold front come through Saturday afternoon, leading to a perfect weekend. Windows back open enjoying the fresh air.


Today is worming day for Bea's pups, I'm bringing each one into the house individually to get some one on one time. They get some recall work and are getting pretty good at coming to the call of their name, Dora, Cecil, Rosie, Puppy and Puppy. Right now Dora is whinning, she trying to figure out what to do with herself, and attempt to get next to Jake resulted in a growl, she yeilded to him and did not offer to try that again, good puppy, bodes well for future training.


I can officially say that Tingley was a success, could we have done better, heck yeah, but we did well enough to feel confident that we have finally arrived. Wayne has some gorgeous work with Jake, yeah a near train wreck yesterday morning in Nursery when Jake blew a cork on his lift but it was quickly twarted and the team ended 5th out of 13. I have not seen that reaction out of Jake for a couple of months and had hoped to never see it again, the up side, it was easy for Wayne to get Jake's head back into the game.


Wayne is learning some hard lessons when it comes to judged trialling, he thought he was doing the right thing by keeping the sheep on the fence to help control them, oh Wayne, the judge is not going to reward that, trust your dog, he can do it.


Vicki was not her normal self, typically she runs out there and brings the sheep to me with no hesitation. Not yesterday, she actually got stuck and came up short, the set out was close enough to the fence to cause the dogs to stick as they came into the pressure of the sheep. Typically Vicki does not even feel it, guess my work last week to hold her to honoring the sheep is paying off, though it cost us yesterday causing her to lose some outrun points. But, that's ok, I'm not finished with her yet, now I can work to teaching her how to release her eye, mind and body which would allow her continue around to the top without bumping the sheep. And they say you can't teach old dogs new tricks....but then again, maybe I'm just helping her to remember the tricks that were taught to her 8 years ago that have grown foggy. Her stickiness also gave me a headache when taking the sheep around the post, once again close to the fences and then she did not push the way she normally does to pen the sheep. All symptoms of a problem that really is not a problem, just evolution under way. It's kinda of a nice feeling to know that the old dog is still trainable, she is coming into heat and we are hoping that she could bring us one litter of pups yet before she leaves us, being able to teach her at her advanced age opens a window into what I can hope to see in her pups. Wayne spoke to Marc Christopher last night, he owned her sire Ken, he thought that she and Jake would make a nice cross.