North Carolina State Championships - Open Day 2

Today was mercifully cooler than yesterday.  Still very hot, but a little breeze and the occasional cloud gave us a break once in a while.  Scott ran another nice run with June.  We are pretty proud of this girl in her first year of open.  She has rarely disappointed us this year.  She had a little bobble on the fetch and a little one on the drive away and that was it.  The left hand drive is pretty tricky because the exhaust is near there and there is some terrain that makes you think you have the sheep on the line, just to have them sneak away from you when you don't expect it.  They run on the crossdrive because it is facing the gate where they go to sleep at night (and their llama's are right behind that fence).  Today we had a pen, then shed a single.  June had a very nice single but had one glance behind her before she committed.  Her final score was a 92.5 which got her another 5th place today and put her in the top 3 to go to the double lift tomorrow. (the other double lift competitors are Linda Fogt and her nice new import, Jill, - who won the day- and Virgil Holland and Brooke)
Hemp was better under control today - I put him on his belly at the top instead of letting him walk in on a steady whistle.  There were two major mistakes in his run today and they were both made by him.  Just before we turned the post, he ducked the wrong way and sent them the wrong way around, and just in front of the drive away panels, he read the pressure wrong and took  a flank without being told, and it happened to be the wrong flank so we missed the panels.  He also glanced behind him on the shed, like his niece, but then focused on the right one.  He got an 85 today.
I was very happy with Laddie today!  He handled like a dream and did everything I asked and he controlled his drive away line by himself.  He seemed to be reading the pressure of the terrain very well so I decided to trust him and gave very little guidance.  Scott said we lost most of our points on the third leg of the drive.  Because it was a pen and then shed, I had to walk from the post to the pen while I was trying to find the line on the third leg of the drive and apparently I cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.  He did have a nice pen and with 3 minutes left in the shed, I waited for the perfect opportunity and set it up just right so Laddie couldn't fail and he came in nicely and took a very good single for a 91.5 and 6th place!  The best part of that was earning another 8 points which now brings us up to 22 + points.  We started this trip with only 3 points so I'm proud of him and we should have enough to get in the Nationals now.
Donnie didn't have a very good start to his run today so Scott just trained on him a little bit down the terraced fetch  and then walked off on the drive.

Scott prepares to send Donnie up the terraced hill

 A delicious dinner was served to us with a festive atmosphere of tiki torches and a bonfire,  and the the party went on long after dark with plenty of volunteers for Karaoke.

Dr. Ben's famous handler's dinner

 Tomorrow, we have the 3 double lift runs in the early morning and then start the underclasses to finish the trial.

Open 2 (69 dogs)
1. Linda Fogt and Jill 94.5
2. Richard Whorton and Tess 93.5
3. David Saunders and Curtis 93
4. Kate Ash and Roxie 93
5. Scott Glen and June 92.5
6. Jennifer Glen and Lad 91.5
7. Virgil Holland and Brooke 90.5
8. Anita Young and Mitch 90.5
9. Mike Hanley and Moss 90.5
10. Renee Billadeau and Bette 90