Day One of LaCamas

It has been a tough trial so far, both in Open and in PN. The valley lambs are not used to being work and have no leader. They bolt in two or three sets or stand off the dog.  They haven't been worked in smaller groups so are either gazelles or ground huggers. Mainly the gazelles. If a dog is weak, they just stand.

I took photos but too tired to edit so it will be a few days. I think the next few days, I will just do write up then next week do the photo display.

The weather this morning was nice and cool, perfect for trialing.They were running Open on the big field and PN on a smaller field. I drew up early with Roo and late in the day with Nan. Midday was Rainey in PN. Ron drew up midday with Tigr, then end of day with Chavo and Kiki in Nursery. Bob drew up early with Rock, and late with Cloud. Rochelle and Koko were in midday. Then Bob and Rochelle had their PN dogs, Ben, Kira and rack and ran them in around their Open runs.

Later the sun came out and shone brightly on us and also on Rainey's run. She was the star of my dogs and her star shone quite brightly. The PN lambs were the same ones they used for Open. Many of the PN dogs really struggled and there were a lot of DQ and RT. I think about 40% of the Open dogs were RT or DQ (63 dogs)

Roo ran out nice and deep with a slight redirect. He was brilliant compared to last year debacle. However, his shining star was short lived like a comet and he went down in flames. He did not take my flanks on the fetch so were offline. Since his outrun and lift were nice, I tried to make up for the rest on his drive, shed and pen. But he denied me even of that and refused to down and do proper flanks so I retired him on the first leg.

Then we went to the PN field with Rainey. I wasn't to sure about her on the tough lambs but she was game. A nice outrun and I whistled her to help her kick out. She did the last kick out on her own and lifted nicely. A few tiny bobble on the fetch and a slightly wide turn. Her drive was very nice and she leaned hard into the sheep a couple of times and at the cross drive we did a dance before we made it. Nice last leg  and were working them into the pen when time ran out. She got a 68 for her efforts and was in third for a good portion of the day until late afternoon, where she dropped down to 9th out of 50 dogs.  She was very biddable and gave me her all. A few times the sheep were tough for her but she gamely pushed through it. I was elated at this since it was out second PN run together. Rack, Ben and Kira didn't fare so well and they had to  RT.

Nan ran late in the day and had a wonderful outrun that brought joy to my heart. Her lift was nice and she began to bring the sheep smartly. I flanked her to put them back on line and she did not do a single come bye flank. She busted into the lambs and we could not see if she gripped or not and one lamb ran south and the rest to me. I walked down the hall of shame with her.  Sad to say, both of my Open dogs flailed like a fish out of water while the dog that I thought would struggle shined like a diamond.

Bob and Rock got around the tough course and got a score. Monique and Lucy got around and timed out in the shed. Koko and Cloud did not get a score. Koko had the sheep in the ring and was looking quite good when two busted south and three went north. It was a very tough day and quite a few dogs got scores in the 40s and 30s.

Ron won Nursery with Kiki. She got her first Nursery Leg.  He had to retire Chavo. Ron did well wiht Tigr and got 39. He timed out on the shed.

There were some nice runs. Patrick ran like the champion he is. Bill Berhow laid a great run and was second with no shed or pen. I tried to watch and remember how everyone did but since I didn't write it down, I forget.

PN score

Nursery

Open Score (not complete for Day one)