I got up at the too darn early hour of 6 to let the dog out and get ready. Thanks goodness, I had LASIK eye surgery as if I had to out in contacts lens at that ungodly hour, they would have ended up on my forehead or left ear. They were a lot of handling milling about, taking care of their dogs and getting their first jolt of caffeine.
Handler's meeting was at 7 and the cross was a tricky one. A standard outrun, lift and fetch and then a turn around the Maltese Cross, then drive through three drive panels. Then put the three sheep trough one side of a Maltese Cross and then loop about and get the other side All to be done in 7.5 minutes.
Roo was my first dog up and he ran out wide and deep on the away side. Part way up the course, she slowed down as if to cross but then cast out deeper. I held my breathe. He came nice at the top and I gave him a down. No such luck and then a little wobble so another down and he took it. The sheep veered off and I flanked him to get them back online and we brought them nice down the lane. A nice turn and they burst at the first leg. I flanked him quickly to stop them from running to the exhaust and he put them smartly through the first panel, smartly marching them to the second and finally through the last panel to the moth of the cross. We slowed way down and the sheep sauntered in and out correctly. I swung him wide and deep to cover for the tough right hand turn for the second part of the cross and he had a bit of the slice which kicked them out. We messed around for a bit but the sheep were spooked by his prior slice so we timed out. He got a score of 76 for his effort, with a six point loss on his drive that made me happy. He lost 2 for the outrun, 2 for the lift and four for his fetch. The first cross was perfect and lost ten for the second cross. I was very happy with the way he work and how he paced. He had good control of the flighty hair sheep and listened quite well.
Nan had her run after lunch and was wired, She could hear my run with Roo and was ready to go. I got her to settle down and she ran out smoothly, wide and deep and stopped at the top, She came forward hard on the lift but managed it well and had a nice steady, controlled fetch. They sheep swung on the inside of the first drive leg but Nan squared that away. Her first turn was tight and her second leg was right on, tight turn and marched through the third panel to the final leg.
Nana had a sweet Maltese Cross on the first part and we had a bit of a fuss at the second and got part of the sheep through. She ran very well, a bit on the muscle but held a nice steady. I was super happy on how well she ran and I felt like we clicked well. I did the happy dance when I saw her score of 79. She lost one for her outrun, three for her lift, two for the fetch, eight for the drive and none on the first Maltese and seven on the second part. She placed FIFTH out of 57 dogs and I am over the moon. Roo placed 12th, only a three point spread between them.
Off to bed and will write later on the outstanding handler dinner and other events!
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