Love and Loyalty

She gazes into my eyes

A Deep dark soul

With a glint of gold

Touching my heart

Many years has gone by

Standing at the post

Running as one

She covers for me

Many trials we have gone

She who takes my hand

And holds it while she

Makes me look so good

Her gentle wag of her tail

Lets me know she sees the sheep

And I should keep my mouth shut

While she brings them to my feet

Her lines are straight

The shed so clean and fast

The pen she walks them in

And waits for me to shut the gate

Many years she has carried me

And victories was ours
And I cried tears of joy

As she did me proud

Now in her older years

She no longer runs

Only in her dreams

She wins yet once again

Now she has taken on a new role

Once again, she takes care of me

As I heal from my wounds

She takes care of me again

She is a nurturing dog

On and off the field

She was sent to me

To learn to live and love

I look at her now next to me

And know in my heart

How greatly I am blessed

To have a dog such as she

Tess, who has taught me much

On the field and off the field

That life is to live and love

And laughter is good for the soul

She is my keeper

She is my friend

But mostly of all,

She is the love of my life.

diane pagel 2010

Nan, Lucy and Roo at Whidbey Island Trial

Here is the Open course we had to run last weekend. To the far left is the setout. To the left of the setout is the setout pens so the draw was very heavy there. The dog had to be stopped at 10:00 then walked straight into the sheep to then make the first dog leg, which is to the far right. You can see the red cone. You had to do a come bye turn at the first dog leg red cone. Then swing wide to make the fetch panels. At the first dog leg, the sheep wanted to run over the hill or slip past the dog to go back to the setout pen. At the fetch panel, they wanted to run back to the setout. It was not easy at all.

click on the pixs for a larger view

See Nan has taken the sheep around the first dog leg. She also made the fetch panels.

You had to do your post turn at the tiny red flag in front of you. Nan did it quite well. Actually all of my dogs did the post turn quite well.

Nice line to the first panel.

She made her panels, although she was hard to stop and on the muscle. She placed 4th. She tied with Roo but based on outwork, she placed 4th and Roo got 6th. There was a three way tie for 4th,  5th and 6th.

Setting up for the shed. We timed out.

Lucy waiting for her run.

Lucy did her outrun quite nice. At her lift, the sheep faced her off and we had to work to get her to walk into the heads of the sheep. This took a bit of time, but she did it. She got the Z leg fetch. He drive was slow but pretty much online. At the pen as we were closing the gate, we ran out of time. So needless to day, we lost 20 points for no pen or shed. Aside from that, she had a very nice run. She placed 11th but had she got her pen, she would have placed quite well.

Roo was actually the first dog that I ran.  He stopped where I told him and had the best fetch of the four dogs that I ran. He downed where I asked him and was very cool. He handled the sheep quite well. He had a nice drive, a bit high at the first turn. At the pen, we had it but one ewe lambs was flighty and busted out. We got her in for a pen.

We had the sheep all line up for a shed then time was called. I was very happy how Roo ran that weekend.  Roo and I have been running very well.

I ran four Open dogs and placed 4th (Nan), 6th (Roo) , 8th (Scott)  and 11th (Lucy). I was wore  out then had to run an Ranch dog, Faye, and placed 1st in that class. Lucky for me, Janet helped me quite a bit by driving the truck, to handing me dogs at the gate so I could run them, take these photos so you could see them and making sure that I was ok. Much thanks to her for all of her help.

The Grande Old Man

Scott was my retired Open dog. I retired him a few years ago and he was my farm dog. I saw him many years ago when he belonged to Chris and Terri Hanson and it took a few years to get him. He is a an excellent dog that reads his stock and is sensible. He had worked as the main cattledog on a large cattle ranch in Canada and then came to me. I ran him in cattle  and sheepdog trials and he was succesful in Open. He won trials and made it look easy as he could handle any type of stock. He is not an easy dog to run but will run right if you handle him proper. He is a true gentleman of a dog and a kind, old soul.

He was enjoying being the main male dog and farm hand in his retirement. One day, a upcoming nice handler came by and she wanted a dog and she proved her worth by coming out twice a week and working him. Soon they fell in love and Scott went home with her. Janet Thorpe is the new owner of Scott and he has showed her how to run a dog and become a better handler. She runs him in PN and he takes very good care of her. He makes you look good as he knows what to do. She has had him since Nov 2008.

I swear sometimes he says "Just stand at the post and look cute, I'll do  the rest" and then *poof*, you have a great run. Janet takes good care of Scott and he takes good care of her. Just like how he took good care of me. He is a Grande Old Man!!

We were at Whidbey Island trial and needed a dog to up round up the class. Janet volunteered me to run Scott. Do realize that, I haven't run him in a trial close to three years and he has been with Janet for over 15 months. Also his whistles are opposite of Tess's and Roo's whistles and no where near Nan's whistles.

Scott's ritual before we would go to the post was "I got your nose" and I would play/pull on his nose  and it would *disappear*  and I would  say, "Oh no, your nose is gone!" Then we would goof around looking for his "nose" and he would spin/be goofy and then I would play/pull his nose and ti would magically appear again. He loved this trick and when I did  that day, his eyes shone as he knew he was going to the post. He was not certainly acting like a 10.5 year old dog but more like a 2 year old dog. He was so excited!!

At the post and he sees his sheep. He was really happy to be there. So was i!!

A nice fetch. We had to do the Z dog leg fetch (which I will show in Nan's  post) but he got it. I had to stop him short at 9:00  to have his walk straight on the sheep to have them lift to hit the first leg which was way off to the right. He did stop but I am sure he thought that I was crazy.

On the first leg, the sheep took a quick run back to the setout but he got them. We made out Z leg fetch but in areas it was wobbly and funky. Part way through it I REALIZED the poor dog was not only listening to his whistles, but Tess's whistles and then Nan's whistles. It must have been confusing to him as Tess's whistles are opposite of his, so when he took him and I thought he was wrong, I would down him then reflank him. Then I blew Nan's whistles which made NO sense and he looked back at me, and  then I realized what I had done. I went to voice commands and the run went a lot nicer (duh!) and he completed  his fetch. He has the patience of a Saint.  He knew what to do and didn't get bothered by my frantic whistles. He settled the sheep so they remained calm.

He had a nice drive, going high on his first turn but got them back on line. He got his second panel and went straight to the pen. He was on the muscle at this point.

I think it was one of the best pens of the day. He just walked them in. My part was to shut the gate for him.

The sheep  bolted out of the pen but he quickly rounded them up into the ring. He can calm sheep quite easily and soon had them settled.  We were lined up nicely for a shed and timed out. Scott ran like  a champ, was on the push and quite pleased with himself. He placed 8th in this class and I was very happy as he was the senior citizen in the class. He was only a few point off from 4th place.

Later that day, Janet ran him in PN and she placed 2nd. He ran very well and was also on the push. He was very happy that day and quite pleased with himself. It might had to do with the fact that he got to ride in the front of the truck with the girls and get fussed over. He loves being the center of attention. I appreciate that Janet let me run her fine ole wise dog!!

And I am especially happy that Scott is yet, once again, teaching someone else the ropes!

Did I fail to mention he is a house dog, has his own room and a big screen TV?

Faye's Ranch run

I sold Faye a couple of years ago to Tony. She is a daughter of Nan and Imp Drift.  Tony runs her on cattle and sheep but only has run her in arena trials. Tony asked me to run Faye in a couple of trials. I have never run Faye so this would be interesting. I just got her prior to the trial, did a couple of works on her and away we went!!

 We raised Faye from a pup and had her until we sold her. She went to Scott's for training then came back. I had a chance to buy her mother Nan so then I sold Faye to Tony. Tony adores her and they are a good team.

This is the trial on Jan 10 at Whidbey Island.

click on the pixs for a larger view

Faye's fetch. She came in a little flat but had a nice lift and straight fetch.

Nice tight turn at the post.

They went a little wide on the first leg but only for a short bit, then lined out nice, hit the panel, ahd a tight turn. Faye was listening very well to me.

You can see the first drive panel at the left side of the photo. The cross drive was up the hill and not straight, but about a 15 degree drive off and up the hill. Then you had to so a pull through the fetch panels. I was very pleased on how well her drive went.

Faye did a great pen. She sorts all the time so is well versed in this part.

I am very happy with her run. We won the Ranch Class. I called Tony after the trial and he was very happy. Faye will be running in Ranch and PN at the next trial and then goes back to Tony.  As she has matured, she has turned into a really nice dog. She is a lot easier than her mother but runs a lot like her too. I look forward to running her again.

A Drop of Water

This is fascinating!! I am totally amazed!!

A water drop filmed in ultra-slow-motion at 2000 frames per second.

WATER DROPS