Bitterbrush Stock Dog Trial

We got up at 4am yesterday, to be on the road by 5am to make it to Wellington, Nevada for the Bitterbrush Stock Dog trial. I took the above photo as I was driving, I think around Weeks, NV.
Lisa, Sylvia, Dianne F., Dianne C., Carolynn and Brett (and I'm sure others) did a fantastic job of organizing the trial and getting it set up.

This was a non-sanctioned jackpot trial. It was also kind of a training trial, where the handlers were encouraged to help the dog when needed, and not break training for the sake of a point.

I scribed for judge Terri Jones for the Advanced and Ranch classes. Paula and Vider won Advanced, and Dianne F. and Brie won Ranch.

Quicksilver Agility Club's demo team put on a nice show before the novice runs started. They were short a couple dogs and had asked me to bring a dog to run. I wasn't sure if Jane would do agility, if she knew there were sheep around, so I ran Gracie. They read the short bio I'd written and played some loud music while we ran. It was fun, and I think Grace enjoyed being out on the course, two years into her retirement.

Jane was the last of the ten novice dogs to run. I watched some really nice runs while waiting my turn!

Our run was ok, but not great. It was consistent with what we've been doing at lessons lately, so I guess that's good. Jane got really eyed up as we walked out to the cone, as the sheep were already set as we went out, and it was a very long walk. It was a very short gather and she had her laser beams on. I had the option to go to the stock, but didn't think I needed to, so I sent her from the cone. My first mistake. She ran straight through them! She hasn't done that in training in many months. I don't even remember the last time she did it.

We did well on the fetch around the cone, had a couple bobbles through the first obstacle, but then I went back to my original plan, which was to have her drive the stock through rather than try to set them up, get around the barrel and fetch them through. The drive through went nicely. I should know better from my agility experiences not to mess with my plan based on the advice of everyone else. Just stick to what I think will work best for my dog and me. We did better on the next obstacle.

On to the weave cones. As we were getting to the cones, Jane decided the stock weren't moving as quickly as she'd like it. I let her get in too close and she reached out and "gripped". . .later Terri told me what a "cute little heel bite" she has. . .she just used it unnecessarily. So we lost some points there, got a warning, and that messed up our flow. We got through the cones with Jane once kicking way out to cover the draw, and I had to call her back.

Then to penning hell. Jane was putting too much pressure on the stock, and I wasn't getting her off them, and they became a huge lump of lamb that wanted to either run away or climb on top of me. We tried several things that didn't work. I finally got the lump to stand still in the opening of the pen. Put Jane on a down to hold them, went around the back side of the pen and had her walk up and fetch them to me. Then had her down to hold them in while I shot around to close the gate.

We got a round of applause and congrats all around for the patience on the pen. I hope I didn't cause Lisa any gray hairs while she was watching. I could see her over in the stock handlers' tent with Diane C. willing me to finish and put her out of her misery.

So, I didn't score as high as I would have liked, but definitely see where I could have done things differently. It was a great opportunity to get some trial experience in a low-key, friendly environment. There was some money on the line, which made things exciting. Our novice class ended up paying $300! Congrats to Paula, Jane's breeder, and Jane's 1/2 sister, Lasca for winning!!