a blog about Kilt and her kids plus Trouble our JRT mascot.

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Sequim, Washington, United States

Sunday, September 26, 2010

HTAD with shed this morning

Whoo hoo.....#1, 2, and 3 this morning in the advanced class. Jet, Yoko, and Kilt.  Thankfully, Jet got a rerun this morning.  I retired him as his first group of sheep ran 100mph as soon as they saw him.  Weird.  I'd understand it if they saw Kilt, but not Jet. :0)  Anyway, the course director talked with the judge and he got another group later in the morning.  The judge has loose eyed dogs, so she she always knocks a point or two off on my dogs wide outruns.  That's okay.  I'm there to see what I need to work on with each dog.  Jet had a bit of a turn back on the wrong group before he held his two on the shed.  It's obviously something I am doing.  He received HIT with a 97.  Yoko was wonderful.  She lost points for her beautiful wide outrun...perfect lift.  But, a bit off line on her fetch.  I'm still having difficulty getting her to square off her flanks on the fetch.  A large ewe stood her off at the pen.  YEA Yoko....she held her ground and walked one step, one step, until the ewe turned into the pen.  No grip!  SUCCESS!  Plus, her first competitive shed...better than her mother or her father.  Yoko was reserve to Jet.  Kilt was one point behind Yoko. She had the grazing strung out sheep.  I should have stepped up the pace with her.  I was pleased with all 3 and made a few mental notes about what I need to work on.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Congrats, those are great results!!
I did managed to fit in a few minutes of watching the Nationals yesterday. Since I really know nothing about sheep herding, I appreciated the commentary, as then things were making sense to me. I got a kick out of the failure to ever 'lie down' by one dog, despite the many, many times it was yelled.

gvmama said...

Karen...so glad you got a chance to watch. "Lie Down" many times does NOT mean lie down. It can mean to stand there or just back off the pressure a bit. The first BIG trial I went to, I came home and told my husband that lots of those dogs didn't know what "lie down" meant :0)

Karen said...

Funny, I had actually written something like that, about just getting the dog to release the pressure a bit, but took it off my comment. So when does 'lie down' mean lie down, as in how does the dog tell that it IS actually supposed to lie down:)? Different tone of voice?
And just to clarify, it was the shed that got cleared up for me, as to what the dog actually had to do.
I always think it's great when there is commmentary for something that has spectators that are unfamiliar with the event. Even so, it is only someone that understands herding dogs and sheep that can really appreciate the work, control and the balancing act it is to get those sheep to go where they are supposed to.