We are enjoying our time at this trial in Turbotville, PA despite the terrible job we and our open dogs are doing. Dave Fetterman puts on a great trial but it just hasn't been working out for our dogs. On the first day, June was our only good dog with a 4th place in Open with and 82.
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| June saves the crossdrive panels |
It was good enough to add some more points to her trial numbers and she should have enough now to qualify for the Nationals. Don ran late in the day and by then the sheep had rerun this course and had decided that they were done with it. It was difficult to keep them right. He ran well but it just didn't come together. The most surprising part was that he didn't come in on the shed and Scott retired since it wasn't competitive. I did likewise with both of my runs. Hemp was actually running well but that is a foreign concept for me and my timing was off all the way around. It was a pen/shed and I retired at the pen when I knew we weren't going to get any better. Laddie ran late in that bad time and I was a little late lining him out because I misjudged the volume needed on my whistles. A little breeze had come up and it just made the sound a little funky. I blew not so loud whistles to keep it light for Lad but he didn't hear them and I increased the sound but by they we were off line and I just never got it back. I had 4.39 minutes to get a shed and it took me all of 4 minutes to get an opening. However, Lad has reverted back to the sheds of last year,- that is, none at all. He started to come in but when I asked him to flank through, he just regathered. Not good one week before the Bluegrass. It was too hard to get the hole again to train on the shed so I walked off before the timer sounded.
Vickie Kidd and Merle ended up tying with Tommy Wilson and Sly and had a run off with Vickie the victor.
Today got better and worse.
June was early again but they missed the crossdrive panel and then brought them back through. Her highlight of the day was penning sheep #45. The judge (George Northrup) had stated in the handlers meeting that no one had penned her. The sheep had been rerun several times and she was not going in. He said he'd stand up and applaud anyone who got her in. Scott and June drew her, and they broke her down and put her in the pen. The judge stayed true to his word and gave them a standing ovation. I believe she got a 79 (I don't have today's scores yet) and didn't place.
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| June gets her shed |
Hemp ran well until he got to the crossdrive panel, I was low and asked for a flank but it had gotten very hot by that time and when Hemp gets hot, he quits stopping. So he took the much needed flank but stopped late, causing them to miss it high. He got a pen, no thanks to himself. The sheep were running in at that time and you just had to get out of the way. Hemp still sliced that flank (another heat problem) but the sheep went in anyway. In shedding ring. I couldn't get the sheep to respond to me and I needed a flank from Hemp to get a gap but the sheep didn't want to help me and Hemp wouldn't stop when I moved him so we ran out our time in the ring and got a 76.
Laddie did a nice job today and I got a few compliments on him including from set out. It didn't score well but he wasn't bad. He made all his panels but had a wide turn around the post. In the shedding ring, I got a gap, called him in, held the single for him and repeated That'll do, THAT'LL DO! until I got him in the gap.He looked at the sheep behind him and then held the single he was supposed to. It wasn't great but made me feel more confident about getting a shed at the Bluegrass. He scored a 75.
Don actually did the best today.
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| Don today |
It was clear he was giving the winning run all the way up to the shed when he again didn't come in to the gap. Scott thinks he was carrying a chip on his shoulder from the last time, last week, that he schooled him on his shed. He said he will have to rethink how to handle the problem. They ended up with an 83.
Tommy again tied with the leader today only this time it was Bev Lambert and her young Joe. Again Tommy took second place with Bev edging him out.
Tomorrow we run the babies. Ford will meet up in a head to head with his sister, Lori Cunningham's Anna. Neither of us expects to even get the drive. I have, however, challenged Lori to a duel. Since neither pup will have any chance of winning, we will declare our little private competition won by whoever gets the farthest in the course. Next year, we will continue our rivalry for real.
I only have the first day scores right now. Joanne Murphy is doing a great job of keeping track of it on her computer and printed me out a copy. I will get her to give me today's copy tomorrow.
Open Day One (51 dogs)
1. Vickie Kidd and Merle 88
2. Tommy Wilson and Sly 88
3. Dick Williams and Mirk 82
4. Scott Glen and June 82
5. Lori Cunningham and Mat 81
6. Lori Cunningham and William 80
7. Bev Lambert and Hemp 76
8. Werner Reithboeck and Roy 75
9. Carla King and Sage 71
10. Dick Wiliams and Mick 70
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