Luckily for me, this trial didn't start until 9:00 so I got to sleep in a whopping 30 minutes. I left early which was a good thing as there was a good traffic accident on the way and we had to sit and wait until the police cleared the scene. From what I could tell, two cars slid on black ice and hit each other. They were in the middle of the road and refused to move so a bunch of us had to wait. As soon as the police got there, they made them move asap. So by putting this buffer in, I just made it to the trial in time, which was good as Rainey was second.
Dave Imas was the judge. The fetch was a L dog fetch, around a shed and then a set of panels. Most of the dogs brought the sheep straight or semi straight down, mine included. Then a standard drive, a pen and a single from the four ewes.
Rainey was first and had a nice outrun but crawled in at the top and refused to listen to a single flank, this making a spectacular offline fetch. Nice turn and halfway on the cross drive, decided down was not in her vocabulary so I left the post. Her eyes got really wide when she saw me approaching.
Nan was the second of my dogs up and true to form, heeded no flanks on the fetch and we lost most of the points. She usually is very obedient but not on the fetch today. Nice turn and nice drive but she was pushy. Nice pen and we had to work the sheep about to get the single but she got it.
Maid was last and keyed up as she had heard me run the other two dogs earlier. She ran out nice and totally forgot the down and flanks until the sheep had passed the fetch panels, then suddenly began to be good. She was very pushy and her downs were short but she listened very well on the drive, although I had to stay on top of her. Nice pen and a wonderful single. She came in like a rocket and held the single like a champ. She actually beat Nan for the first time. Both girls were very pushy today. But aside from the horrible fetches and slow to down, I was happy with them on the other phases of the work. It's a work in progress and the journey with Maid is getting much better.
I hopped in my truck and headed home as Tess was coughing for most of the night. She has had more down days than good and a lot more coughing, which is not a good sign. Getty stayed home to babysit her and then went to work after I got home. Once of us stays home with her as we needs a lot of attention now.
I didn't see the rest of the run but here are the scores.
Cynthia Mills is the vet who helped Tess when she had her vestibular attack in August. I will always root for her!
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