Roo and Lucy and Heppner and so forth...

This is a long overdue posting but hey, at least I finally did it. As you well know, I was out of commission from July to January from several major open heart surgeries. Therefore, my dog training fell by the wayside. In Oct, I sent Lucy to Scott’s to get her finished out. Her outruns and flanks were slicey. I ran her in Nursery the year before and she was rocking hot but last year, I had let her flanks and outruns get slicey.

I reviewed the Nursery scores for outrun, lift and fetch in her Nursery year and had almost perfect scores while last year, she was losing 5 for her outruns and more on her drives. She had been sent the winter after her Nursery and PN year to work 3000 range sheep. She had won the PN trial and lost 6 points the day before she went. Lucy worked on the range sheep for over five months and worked quite a bit on her own so had to get the job done and when she came back I was going to polish her up but never did. Needless to say, I had let Lucy down so she went to Scott’s this winter to get back on track. Not to mention that I had my third surgery in Nov and again was out of commission for a few months.

Scott also has Roo and he is running him for me in Open. Roo is the Uncle to Lucy. His littermate, Koko is Lucy’s dam. Therefore, Scott has trained and run three generations of my dogs. First, starting with Tess, then with Jackie and Roo (Tess x Pleat) and now Lucy (granddaughter of Tess and Pleat).

DeltaBluez Roo

Interestingly enough, Roo and Lucy are red and white. Both dogs were sold as pups and then came back to me as adults. Roo was sold to Ron Green and now we co-own him and I run him. Lucy came back from the Reed’s when Dick became too allergic to dogs after a severe asthma attack. As pups, both pups were my favorites in the litters and I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to get them back.

Scott headed over here on his twice-yearly jaunts for clinics and lessons and made his stop at Heppner. He ran Roo and Lucy in Open.

DeltaBluez Lucy

This was Lucy’s first debut as an Open dog. Roo ran last year but was a bit rough so Scott fine tuned him and it paid off. I am sure all eyes were on him as he went to the post with two red dogs. I am glad it was he and not I!

I posed my fingers on the refresh button to see when Jenn would update the trial blog. I know a number of folks who did the same. Much thanks to Scott who stood in the wind and rain to call in the scores to Jenn who then posted them. Thanks to both of them!!

Was I ever doing the happy dance when I read the blog. Lucy held her own the first day and Roo place third. On the second day, Lucy placed 5th, she had a one eyed-blind ewe that was an issue in the shedding ring, and she got the pen. Roo placed 7th and point wise he tied for Lucy as they both got 78. Overall, for the two day combined, Roo placed third. Not bad for two red dogs! I heard from the grapevine that Scott could have given a *handler’s clinic* with his runs at Heppner. Also, that my dogs looked great and were any of them for sale? (not a fat chance is the answer!!)

So, Lucy has some points towards the Finals and now I have to get more points so we can go. Nan has enough point or close to it. If Roo continues to run well for Scott and he is one of the best two Open, then Scott will run Roo at the Finals. So, I am hoping that Roo continues on his good streak and does well for Scott.

I will be running Lucy this weekend at Dirk’s trial so I hope we reconnect well. Scott did a great, no, make that FANTASTIC job is cleaning up her flanks and fixing the top of her outrun as well as shedding etc….so that now she runs like a star. Scott even said she was one of the best dogs as well as other super nice things about her.

Scott came over here on Monday and we worked dogs. He gave me some tips on Nan, which will help me quite a bit. He also got to see Rainey work and was happy with what I was doing and to keep on doing that. By the time, it came to work, Belle, I was beat so he worked her and gave me a lesson plan. He also showed me how to work Lucy and Sava so I could continue down the Path of Goodness. And most of all, he didn’t laugh (too loudly) at my handling and fall on the ground in complete hysterics at my *cat strangling whistles*……however, he did say, “hmmmmm”

Then he got out Maid and Don and put them through their paces. Wow, they are such stellar dogs and they just looked smooth. My field is about 650 yards long and his dogs put the sheep wherever Scott wanted. I was bragging how my yearling Cluns would be light but that day, they decided to be sluggish. I do not know if it was because they just ate or it was late evening, being also wet and cold. It made moving them a bit of a challenge.

It was a fun working session and by the time we got home, Getty had homemade Jambalaya ready for us. Chuck dropped off some homemade brew so that was a bonus. We watched Japan beat Korea in baseball and that was good news in our household as I am of Japanese heritage.

Lucy, Rainey, Tess and Nan also cheered on the Japanese baseball teams. Red dogs rule and especially so under the fine handling of Scott Glen.