Saturday morning, October 3rd, Kant, Echo, and I were loaded up in the car for another road trip. We went to Fido’s Farm in Olympia Washington for the Willamette Valley Herding Club’s AKC Herding Trial. When we arrived it was a drizzly morning and everything including the sheep was wet. I watched some of the A Course Cattle runs from the barn where it was dry and the cattle runs were about all you could see from there. Echo was running in her first Pre-Trial Test in the afternoon. About lunch time the rain stopped and I went down and watch a few A course runs. Then it was time for PT, Echo was the first dog to run so I did not get to see how the sheep were but I also had no time to stress. The judge was a bit too helpful and did not let me handle Echo like I wanted, I just felt I could not tell the judge to keep quiet so Echo was moving more then I liked and did not settle in. I was pleased with our run overall, I felt she was a nice distance off the sheep and her stand was good.
I could not believe how nervous I was. We were done by 3:30, after a long play time in the big field across the street we headed for dinner and the hotel. We all slept well that night.
Sunday morning was a bit foggy but no rain all day and in the afternoon the sun actually came out. Kant was running in Intermediate A Course and Started B Course, and Echo had day 2 of PT. Kant was 2nd to last in A course and did very well, she was 1 of only 2 dogs that Q’d in the class. It was a Come Bye outrun which is not Kant’s best side and she was a little tight but had a beautiful lift and fetch and a nice tight turn around the post. We had a little trouble getting started to the Y Chute but got all the sheep there with very few points lost, the drive to the Z Chute was great, and also to the Hold Pen. I still struggle with strategy for removing the sheep from the pen and getting them to the Cross Drive. I had Kant remove the sheep from the pen and it was perfect and they were heading down the fence for the cross drive and a little too much push pressure and not enough time to get around to cover and they headed straight through the cross drive panels to the exhaust gate. Kant did a great job of holding the gate and the repen was perfect. We do not trial much and my nervousness shows but I was so happy with how well Kant did. It was then time for Echo to have her second PT run. I had hoped it would be better then the day before since I knew this judge would not be so helpful. We were first in PT again but they ran 2 HT runs first. We got through the course but no at all like I had wanted. I do know if it was because I let Echo get away with so much in the first run but she was definitely out there for herself. We will be working on teamwork! Our last run for the day was Kant in Started B, Kant had a great outrun and she was almost to the sheep when the set out dog stood up because another dog was heading for the sheep and Kant stopped and the sheep saw the dogs and headed back to the set out and Kant was not in a position to cover sheep running from her. It was a bummer but things happen! We did not have to stick around for that score so we headed home and were able to get there before dark. It was a mixed weekend where my dogs did things that I really liked and where they also gave me lots to work on. Our next herding event will probably be the Sheltie National in March 2010.
I was packed up and on the road Tuesday morning with Kant and Echo; we got there in the afternoon after stopping at Rocking Dog Ranch to do the days chores.
It was an easy and uneventful drive but Kant never relaxed, she knew we were on another adventure. We set up our tent right next to Lora’s RV and then put x-pens around both so the dogs had a great place to run and explore.
The Finals were great! The location was amazing, it was a HUGE green alfalfa field surrounded by a whole lot of nothing.
151 teams competed Tuesday – Friday for the top 40 spots to run on Saturday and the final goal was to be one of the top 17 to run in the Double Lift on Sunday. The Semi-Finals for the Nursery dogs (dogs under 3 years old) where Wednesday and Thursday with their final run on Friday. The Nursery field was down by the entry gate and I only made it down there a couple of times to watch the young dogs. I did not have a specific job that I was assigned so I just bounced around wherever I was needed…at the gate, eye clinic, info booth, etc… Friday evening after the Open dogs finished running I put on an agility demo.
Monique was there with Zora her Papillion, Shawna was there with her Chihuahua/Corgi that was too cute and her border collie, Sandra with Lark her Border Collie, Dana and Tess a Barbie (Border) Collie, and me with Echo and Kant. I was a great group and we put on a nice little demo. Thanks to Lora for hauling down all her jumps and a couple tunnels and I brought in my car a set of six weave poles, a tunnel, a jump, and 2 hoops and Dana and Adele brought tunnels bags for all the tunnels.
stop, look back and get the second set that are 550 yards from the handlers post. Those dogs run their hearts out. After putting the two sets of 10 sheep together and bring them around the handlers post then they start the over 500 yard drive work. Bringing them in the shedding ring for an International shed
and the final element is to get the 5 sheep that were shed off in the pen.
Several teams ran out of time in the shed ring, they had 30 minutes to complete the course. I was completely in awe of the work I saw from both the dog and the handler! The 2011 Sheepdog Finals will be in Colorado where I expect to see Lora running a couple of dogs and where Nell’s pups could be running Nursery!! I had a great time and it was as close to a vacation as I could get; I was not competing and just got to hang out with friends and my dogs. Yes there was a little bit of dust but the weather was perfect and they did a great job of watering down the road to try and keep the dust down. 
A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WORKED SO HARD TO MAKE THIS EVENT THE AMAZING EVENT IT WAS – LORA, GERI, MELINDA, SHAWNA, AND AMY WORKED THE WHOLE TIME.
