Monday, October 26, 2009

Winter Series -Oct 10 at the MacDonalds

Ok, I am trying so hard to catch up now. I ran Roo, Nan and Sava in a trial on Oct 10th at Sue and George MacDonald’s. It was a one day trial held on Saturday. Janet ran Scott. Monique ran Lucy. Audrey ran Dan. Kathleen ran Emma. We ran a bunch of dogs.

I was first with Nan and she had a nice outrun and a little wobble on part of the fetch. She is a real joy to run and loves to please. She is a lot of dog but a willing partner. She has filled Tess’s shoes quite well and her 100% style different than Tess. The Scotties were tough and had some tough draws. At the end of the fetch you had a chute with one chance. I had the sheep set up but flanked her too slow so didn’t get the chute. The drive was to the right up a steep hill, then after you went through the first panel, you had to pull through a second panel, then over a rocky path to the last set of panels. Then you had to push through the cross drive panel and then pull through another one. That was a lot of panels. And she got all of them. We lost 6 points off the drive!! We timed out at the shed. She ran very well and was pleased with herself after the run. She loves to be fussed over after her run so I did just that and I am blessed to have her.

Roo was the next one to run and he is a lot of dog. I set him and gave him a couple of flanks, just in case he thought about cutting in and he took them. I gave him a down and he took it and had a nice lift. He was a bit pushy on the fetch but listened well and held a nice pace. He got three sheep in the chute but they only marked one down. He really listened well on the drive and didn’t push but had a good pace, hit the panels and we lost 6 for the drive. I was very impressed with him. We also timed out on the shed but he was trying really hard for me. I was very happy with his run and had he ran like this at the Finals, I would have been over the moon. However, in time, we will work well together. Nan got 4th and Roo got 6th.

Janet ran Scott in ProNovice and he was on the muscle. Janet had a hard time but Scott was pushy and they will have to work on their fine-tuning on the course. Scott has been pushing the edge with Janet so she knows how strong he can be.

I ran Sava in Ranch and she cast out nice. I’ve been working hard on picking sheep of people and she did fine and had nice outwork. I flanked her throughout the outwork so she would feel like she had support and she did well. Her first leg of her drive was nice and she pushed the slow ewes and got the first panel, lined them nice for the cross drive and we had a very wide turn for the last part. She did great pen work and I haven’t done any penning with her so I was very happy with this. She was pleased and turned herself inside out with joy. She is so transparent and wants to please. She is a stunning driving, stylish dog on the course.

Audrey ran Dan in ranch and he was on the muscle. He has no problem with his sheep and is a very powerful dog. Audrey ran him well and was very quiet. Kathleen ran Emma and she had a crossover and that killed her. Emma is looking really good and is one nice dog.

Kathleen ran Emma in Novice and at the last moment she crossed over. If she hadn’t crossed it would have been almost perfect. Jeanne ran Moses and they are an awesome pair. What a run.

Janet ran Rainey and flanked her to keep her free on the outrun. Rainey just had learned to pick sheep off people the day before so Janet was making sure that Rainey had the support she needed and she lifted the sheep well, had a nice controlled fetch and penned them with ease. After Rainey’s run, she made a point of running up to us in the crowd as if to say “Didn’t I do well?”

The nice part about these Winter Series is that you can use your time to train your dog. It’s low key trial and lots of fun. We really appreciate that they put this on for us. I am using it to fine tune my Open dogs and me. As for my younger dogs, it gets them to a trial field, get exposed to everyone and if needed, I can leave the post to help them. After a few of these trials, their confidence just goes up and they just get better and better.

Nan got a whopping .6 point for the Finals so she is at 7.6 right now. I hope to get a lot more points on her and go to VA. I am hoping the same for Roo. When he listens, he is a wonderful dog. He is always a happy dog. I am enjoying running my dogs now. It is still weird not running Tess though. She has been my right arm for so long.

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