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WANNABE STUFF
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APPRENTICE STUFF
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MASTER STUFF
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And for our former harrowing adventures, there's always the archives
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Phyl and I haven't done a whole lot since coming back from Hop Bottom, mostly due to the horrendous spell of heat and humidity that's weighing us down right now: we've worked a total of four times, and none of our sessions have lasted longer than ten minutes. Session one was just a quick whistle review and a little driving a few days after the trial. Session two was one in which I let Phyl push the sheep around the field pretty much without commands, just to make sure she doesn't start anticipating tiny little flanks and lots of stops--and she seemed to have a lot of fun with it. Session three was fun for me, because I worked on shedding off a single for the first time: I was awkward, but Phyl came right in twice as soon as I made her understand what I wanted, and she held and drove off the single sheep easily. (I'm not totally sure how much shedding training Phyl has, and I *am* totally sure that I have *no* shedding training--any progress the two of us make feels terrific!) And session four was one in which I played catch with Sally and her dogs, working just on controlled fetches and outruns. I'm pleased with how Phyl did, but it's a little worrisome that another trial will be here in a week, and I'm not able to do much of anything. Phyl doesn't need constant work to stay sharp, but I'm afraid that I do. *Sigh*. Perhaps we'll get a break in the weather in the next few days.
Monday, June 17, 2002
Hop Bottom was eerily similar to Newark Valley--there's a lesson here somewhere, if only I can be bright enough to decipher it.
THURSDAY was my worst trial experience so far, hands down. (And this time I don't even have fog or early morning to blame: I could see fine, and I wasn't on until noon.) I sent to the left (really the only way to send on that field), Phyl lifted hard, the sheep started running, and to the best of my recollection I just tried to steer Phyl rather than stopping her. We missed the fetch panels, had a wild turn around the post, and (even though I stopped her at the start of the drive), the sheep never stopped running. We careened all over the field, missing both panels by a mile, and finally ended up at the pen where I spent the remainder---a LONG remainder, since it was a lightening-fast pseudo-"run"--circling the pen with the evil sheep baahing in triumph. I felt completely out of my element and totally demoralized; it was the first time that I really thought that I just didn't belong out on the trial field yet. The only bright spot was the fact that Phyl did a perfect outrun; her earlier tight outruns seem to be working themselves out with every trial. Our score was as follows: Outrun: 20; Lift: 7; Fetch: 11; Drive: 10 (and that was darn generous!); Pen: 0 (we should have had a negative 10!); Total: 48.
FRIDAY I was just bloody determined that no matter *what* happened I was going to have a nice controlled run--I have a dog who drops as if she were shot when I blow a stop whistle, so there's no excuse for what happened on Thursday. I resolved not to worry about the fetch panels (since I think worrying about them too much makes me overflank, which makes us miss them anyway) I was going to worry about slowing Phyl down as early into the run as possible. I sent to the left again and blew and emphatic stop at the top. Phyl slowed but didn't lie down, and I blew a stop again. This time she *did* lie down, and after that things were much, much easier. With the sheep moving at a reasonable pace, I had time to make some flank adjustments that sent the sheep cleanly through the panels. I stopped her a couple more times on the fetch but let the sheep drift a little to the left on the lower fetch as I prepared for the turn around the post. We got a nice tight turn, and the drive started pretty easily. I had a little bobble on the beginning of the drive that needed to be corrected, but I blew a zillion stops and kept things nice and quiet through the drive (we made our panels) and through the cross-drive (and we made *those* panels, which lots of people missed). Unfortunately, we had a chute before our pen, and I had never confronted a chute before. I couldn't figure out what to do, which meant that the sheep circled around while I practiced being ineffectual. So the nice run ended there, but it was still a rush to have things go so well up to that point. We didn't place--there were a lot of really good runs that day--but it was still our best run to date. I learned that stopping Phyl early is *very* important, and I'm determined that I'll do that at our next trial (which won't be until fourth of July weekend). Our score: Outrun: 20; Lift: 9; Fetch: 17; Drive: 28 (tied for highest drive score of the class!); Pen: 0. Total: 74.
Sorry for being remiss in reporting our adventures at Newark Valley--it's taken me awhile to recover enough to write, and now I'm about to leave for yet another trial! Here's the dish:
SATURDAY dawned grey and foggy. I ran second at the ungodly hour of 7:00. I woke up at 5:00 to try to fool myself into believing that it was 9:00 when I ran, to no avail. As a result of the fog and my foggy brain, I made a whole series of egregious handling errors. I sent Phyl to the right, since the outrun to the left appeared blind in spots. She ran out nicely, which is good considering that I've come to consider her come-bye outrun her stronger side. Because of the fog and my general confusion, I stopped her way short (I'd planned to stop her a *little* short, but I overdid it!) The sheep bolted, and then I stupidly stopped her. Even worse, I flanked her IN THE WRONG DIRECTION to cover them--I can't understand why "come-bye" kept coming out of my mouth when "away" was what I *should* have been telling her. She hesitated but ultimately took the commands once I insisted. Poor Phyl! As a result, the fetch was a real mess--we missed the panels by a lot, and it took a lot of work to get the sheep collected and turned around to the post. After that, things went better: her lines on her drive and her crossdrive were actually beautiful, although we unfortunately just missed both panels. Then I botched an easy pen by not flanking Phyl quite enough to push them in, and I had to bobble them around before getting them in. *Sigh*. All in all, not good: the only thing I was happy about were her drive lines, particularly her nice line on the crossdrive (I've been working hard on that since the last trial). We ended up with a 44: Outrun: 15; Lift: 6; Fetch: 5; Drive: 13 (great, considering the bad turn around the post and missing both panels!); Pen: 5.
SUNDAY went better for us, although worse for practically everyone else: there was a wicked dead spot near the drive panels, and dog after dog who reached that point couldn't recover their drive and kept losing sheep all over the field. I sent Phyl to the right again, and her outrun was very nice. The sheep broke hard, and this time (although I DID give her the right flanks), she didn't take them and just chase the sheep in. (I haven't noticed her doing that before--I think it's either a result of Saturday's disastrous fetch, or a product of the silent gathers that I let her do when we're bringing in our whole flock to sort, or a little of both.) As a result, the fetch was very offline, and we missed the panels by a mile; the turn around the post was extremely wide. The first leg of her drive was quite nice, but we missed the panels because at the last second I was afraid to give her the flank that would push the sheep through the panels. We lost the sheep (as did so many other dogs) on the crossdrive--they dipped way low. However, unlike most other dogs Phyl was able to push them back on line--I gave her a lot of hard inside come-bye flanks to straighten it out, and she did it admirable. About half of the crossdrive was nicely on line, and we DID make those panels. I had to move quickly after I turned her around the crossdrive panels to the pen, yelling at her to come-bye to cover the sheep as I did. I flanked her slightly when we both got to the pen, and the sheep went right in--at least I'd managed to do right what I'd done wrong the day before. We ended up with a 62 and 7th place out of 24 dogs (high score was a 68, so that was pretty good). The breakdown was as follows: Outrun: 20; Lift: 8; Fetch: 8; Drive: 16; Pen: 10.
The weather's been miserable, and I've only worked Phyl about five minutes since I've been back, when I practiced making sure she'd take flanks on a fast fetch (she didn't at first, and then she did. Maybe it'll help for the next trial.). I'll be leaving in a couple of hours, and I might take her up to the sheep and just work her quickly, if the weather feels any better to me. In any case, I'll report on Hop Bottom when I return.
Thursday, June 06, 2002
I worked Phyl this morning, our last session before Newark Valley. This is only my fifth trial weekend, and I'm still trying to figure out what the proper pre-trial routine should be for the two of us. Today I ran her through a Ranch course on our field a couple of times, trying as hard as I could to keep the lines straight and make our panels. We did pretty well, but it was very humid, and Phyl appears to despise humidity. (She lived in north Yorkshire for her first three years of life, up until about eight months ago. This coming summer will be her first exposure to the heat and humidity, and I think it's going to be a real shock for her.) When she's hot and tired she has a tendency not to want to take the inside flank on the cross-drive to hold the pressure--she'll take it if I insist, but at that point she usually takes it slowly. She's normally perfect when she *isn't* tired, so I guess I'll have to keep building up her stamina and testing her in that situation to see if she's improving. And I suppose that in situation where I know she's likely to be tired I should give the command in a fast, excited, exaggerated way, to spur her on. There's so much to remember!
At any rate, I'll check in after the trial. Whether I have good news or bad news, I'm sure there should be lots to write about!
Wednesday, June 05, 2002
Phyl and I are entered in the Newark Valley trial this weekend, in Ranch. I'm a little nervous about it: we did ok at our last trial, but I also made lots of handling mistakes. And that trial was almost a month ago, so I'm worried that whatever few trial skills I've picked up are already starting to atrophy. (Not to mention the fact that I'll be second up in a class that starts at 6:45 in the morning--and I normally get up at 7:30!) I've been working a lot with Phyl on holding straight lines on the crossdrive, since I wasn't pleased with our crossdrive lines in the last trial. I hope it'll do some good. Phyl is a terrific dog, always ready to do anything I tell her, no matter how wrong or goofy. While it's wonderful to have a dog like that, there's nobody to blame except myself when things go awry.
