Alta-Pete Trials: Canadian Championships

OK - for the good news first... REBA IS THE NEW CANADIAN AND WESTERN CANADIAN NURSERY CHAMPION!!!
The second round of the nurseries started at 1:30 in the blazing heat. The sheep were very heavy and didn't do straight lines. This got the young dogs either hyped up or slowed down and I don't think the hearing was very good at the top. Reba was a little rough at the start and missed her fetch panels but after that she marched them around. Many of the dogs in both the open and nursery were turning the sheep short of the panels because of the pressure. Not Reba, she put them through both drive panels and then with a little work, got them in the pen too. We are very proud of her.
Congratulations to the Reserve Nursery Champions, Amanda Miliken and Dorey!
June also had a nice run. Until..., Until... the grip! She made all her panels but the sheep were just making her mad (she is Maid's niece after all) and she ate one at the pen.
The open ran in the morning and Donnie drew up 3rd. It was a great time to run and he didn't waste it. He took good command of his sheep and fought for his pen. He finished with a 90.
I didn't hold out much hope for Hemp. It was very hot when he ran and I felt alot of pressure to do something with him. I'm not good with that kind of pressure. I don't think there was much hearing at the top and it was very rough. He missed his fetch panels but then got them on line to go around the post. Not a bad post turn but the drive away was killer. Everyone struggled there. It was hard to line out the sheep and they were like pushing bales of hay. Hemp was trying to be good. He wasn't just blundering on. He was listening and didn't grip but he did give into the pressure once and try to bring them back to me. We adjusted and pressed on though. It didn't get much easier on the crossdrive. He really had to work. It wasn't pretty but he made both his panels and we got to the shed with a little over two minutes. I was pushing a little and then realized I wasn't going to get the pen in that amount of time. Not with this dog. So I better settle down and get a good shed. I got a shed and had about 30 seconds to pen. I ran to the pen more out of habit and opened the gate. Hemp started bringing the sheep and then I noticed that the lead sheep was walking right towards the pen. SHE WANTED IN! So I thought, "You better make an honest attempt for this." and flanked Hemp out a little. Everyone went in but the last sheep who tried to duck around the side. Hemp, with his new found appreciation for putting sheep in a pen, did a nice flank to catch her but not an overflank (like he did at the Bluegrass just 3 short months ago) and put her in. As I started to close the gate, I heard the crowd yell at me to hurry up so I slammed it closed with seconds to spare. Not a pretty run but a 67 got us into the double lift!
There were alot of really good runs in the second round and one of the prettiest was Norm Sommer and Lexi. She had a great first round too but gripped at the pen so she couldn't run in the double lift but a 94 in the second round impressed alot of people.
Louanne Twa and Meg and Joanne Zoerb with Mik were out of the double lift by ONE POINT! Good job anyway girls!
Check out the scores from today at http://wcsdt.wordpress.com/
I don't have the results for everyone in the double lift but my random memory can tell you that Scott and Maid are up 3rd and Donnie is 13th (last run of the day). I drew up 10th. Randy Dye and Sweep (yea Randy!) drew 2nd. Jean Gellings is 1rst. Dennis Gellins is 5th. After that, I can only tell you that Amanda and Bev each got one dog in. Lisa Wright got in with Kate. Brian Nelson got in with Sweep (a Pleat son) and George Stambulic and Kate (also a Pleat child). and 2 more dogs that I can't remember right now (cringe). Hopefully the website will get them up soon.
I'm planing on having fun tomorrow. It's going to be hot when we run and Hemp and I are by no means ready to be the Canadian Champions so we'll just take it easy and enjoy ourselves.