I can't help but wonder how different things would be if I had sent Ricky home with Marc back in September rather then waiting until January. I feel like we are about 2 months behind where we could/should be, this has cost us from the standpoint of getting qualified for Nursery Finals. No Finals for Ricky this year, I will be there pulling for Wayne and Jake. This past weekend was our last chance, we fell short, just short. We were down in Clinton Missouri at a judged field trial.
Ricky did a good job, but he and I were still hashing out some issues. Larry Moore summed it up, "he just needs more obedience, when you say lie down he needs to lie down". It was also noted by many that he is way ahead of many 1 1/2 year old dogs, we were knocking on the door in the open division, things just have not quite gelled together yet, but I'm certain they will and sooner then later. It was a pretty tough weekend on everyone, only 2 open handlers/dogs out of over 20 entries were even able to get the cattle around the handlers post during the first Open class.
Ricky and myself ran three times, twice in Open and once in Nursery. In our first open class we had an exceptionally tough draw and snow, two cows that wanted to go one way and a third that had her own agenda always wanting to go her own way. When I walked off the field Bob Johnson came to me to say that it wasn't Ricky, that set would have needed 3 dogs to get them where they didn't want to go. I don't know about that, IMO, Ricky just wasn't strong enough mostly due to lack of seasoning.
As I stood at the post unable to help my dog I was wishing that I had Jake, I would have liked to see if Jake could have turned that set into believers, but based on the lack of success off many other good dogs odds are he would have failed also. Our next run was Nursery, this time sleet but a better cattle, with the exception of the high headed heifer that took the set out dog back to the holding pens twice before I ever sent Ricky.
The cow was managable, but Ricky got on the muscle with her after we made the turn at the post, things started to come together on the drive when she went to leave on him, rather then holding the head he fell in and went to work on her heels, I elected to not tolerate that behaivor and walked Ricky down and used Ricky to move the cattle to the exhaust demanding proper behaivor from him. Patience on his part was what I needed he wanted to use bite instead. Looking back on the run, I am also to blame for lacking patience, at one point Ricky had gone around to the head and had her stopped, but I didn't give him enough time to let her settle before asking for a flank in an attempt to hold my cross drive line, when he let go she broke, he blew up.
This time I was met by Larry Moore as I walked off the field saying that I should have stayed at the post and waited it out, he felt that Ricky was getting it worked out and that we would have had a chance at winning the Nursery even with the blow up. It's always a tough call when things begin to go wrong, wait and see or get your butt trucking down the field to get things sorted out yourself going into damage control. I stand by my decision, I would rather that my dog didn't know that he can do it the way he wants to on the trial field. Our last run was Open, this time rain and a really nice set of cows.
Unfortunately I may have handled the run in a poor fashion, either that or I did the best I could with a young dog being precented with a situation that required a more seasoned dog. I also wanted to make sure the Ricky did what I asked, following Larry's advice. As I was walking out toward the post I noted that the judge, scribe and score sheet runner were having a discussion, at the same time the cattle were being set out onto the field. I patiently waited for the judge to ok me to run as the cattle drifted to the left side of the field settling in a place that put them dead center inbetween the drive panels and the fetch gates.
This meant that either I needed to have the set out reset the cattle, which may really upset the now quiet cows; or take the cattle where they stood and after the lift have Ricky flank around and set a new line to the fetch gates. He would have to drive the cattle right toward the draw and then I would need to flank him again to get the cattle turned in time to make the panels. The line was going to have to take the cattle parrallel to the fetch gates, with a hard dogleg to get us back on course to the handlers post.
If I had been running Jake I know it would have been a piece of cake, I can position and reposition him quick and easy, almost like handling a remote controlled car. Ricky on the other hand, I need to take my time and let him settle inbetween commands, if I don't he get's tense and leans on the cattle and I didn't want a repeat of my Nursery run.
I elected to take the cattle where they stood, Ricky outran nice, lifted them straight to me, and he was bringing them, I had a moment of panic as I thought that there was no way he was going to take a flank to get the line changed...it took me two flank commands before I saw him come around so that we could set the new line, I made him stop a moment and the cattle were off toward the draw. Trying to balance patience with control while the cattle are heading where they want to go is tough, especially for Ricky, he's alot like Jake "They are getting away, I gotta stop them!!!" I didn't want Ricky to kick into a flank and stop or turn them early so I made him walk up a bit holding the drive before flanking him for the turn.
Unfortunately it was a few strides to late, the turn was made but just past the fetch panels. Ricky proceeded to bring the cattle on toward me and we began to work the turn of the post. We had a bobble or two on the turn before Ricky was off taking them to the first drive panel. The first leg of the drive went fairly well, so did the turn but I could'nt quite get Ricky back into the right place to hold the cattle away from the draw to make our cross drive panels, nor did I try hard. It would have meant that I would have to rush Ricky and I wanted to keep things calm and quiet.
Next up was the trailer, only two handler/dogs has successfully loaded the cattle in the trailer prior to our run, all day. We had plenty of time, we had to regroup once as one of the cows that gave Ricky a hard time on the handlers post turn tried him again, but we prevailed, the cows stepped up onto the trailer and in, course complete. At that point I didn't care how we scored or where we placed, I was just overjoyed with completeing a course without having the wheels fall off. My dog stopped when I asked, flanked when I asked, the cattle pretty much went where they were suppose to in a controlled fashion and as far as I was concerned we won.
Ends up...that I think we were 1 point short. We can use a top 20% open placing to qualify for Nursery Finals, I think we needed to place 4th**. We did, but tied for 4th, the tie breaker was the combined score of the outwork (outrun, lift and fetch), we lost the tie breaker. If we had preserved just one more point Ricky would have been qualified for Nursery Finals.
**Upon review of the score sheets we would have needed to place 3rd, 4 points short...
Looking back at the run I can't help but wonder if I should have had the cattle reset, but that may have upset the cattle. If I had flanked him a little sooner vs. making sure he settled before asking for the turn on the fetch panels the cows would have made the panels, but Ricky might have blown up. If I had tried a little harder to get Ricky to hold the line to the cross drive panels or I even could have had a better line from the cross drive to the trailer, but at that point I was just happy to be heading to the trailer and was in the "Let's just get this done" mode.
Originally I had planned on coming home after my runs on Saturday but bad travel weather convinced me that I was better off spending the evening at Applebee's with some other handlers and back to the motel. Since I was staying over I went ahead and entered Ricky in the Open Sunday morning. Thinking back I really was not thinking about it being one more chance to qualify, I was looking at it as one more chance to season my dog, would he be hard to handle like Saturday morning or would he pick up where we left off, each run on Saturday got better.
Sunday morning Ricky had the best run of the weekend, there were parts of the fetch and drive that I don't think we could have made any better, it was like I was running a little nearly fined tuned machine, Ricky and I were finally getting together. We had a little glitch on the cross drive, but we got through and I think we made the panels. I tried to set a better line to the trailer holding the cattle away from the draw and also a pile of hay, but the cattle got to the hay and Ricky had to convince them to move on, now we need the heel bite... We got up to the trailer, lined them up they started in but one cow said no and went to run through Ricky, Ricky got her stopped, lined things back up just in time to run out of time.
We just were not meant to go to the Nursery Finals this year, but that's ok we still have next year and the summer trialing season is yet to begin. I can't wait for this coming weekend, we will be at the Indiana Horse Fair competing in a 10 dog trial. My fingers are crossed that Ricky and myself will pick up right were we left off on Sunday.
When I came home last night we dropped Ricky's pups into the pen with the lambs for the first time. They are 8 weeks old this weekend, every one of them went to work, very willing to move the sheep but also able to go to the head and stop the sheep. We didn't see and ounce of fear or over sensitivity, one little pup looks like he is going to be a heel hellion just like his daddy.
No comments:
Post a Comment