For the second year in a row we attended Lee Lumb’s Spring Stirling Acres Trial in
Coldstream, BC. Although this trial is
in the opposite direction from the majority of our destinations on this trip,
it is the perfect place to dust off the cobwebs and introduce the young dogs to
trialing. It also helps us see where
they are lacking, and we always schedule a week of just training after this
trial to fix the problems we noticed on their first time to the post. The field is flat green grass with katahdin-x,
farm flock sheep. Lee’s sheep are rare
for a home flock in that they are not knee knockers, and not only are they not
dead to humans, they also do not regroup behind your back while you try to call
your dog in on the shed. Lavon
Calzacorta from Idaho was our judge and was very aware and considerate of this
being most of Western Canada’s first field trial of the season. He often allowed
handlers in the under classes to help their dogs find the sheep on the first
day if they got lost on the outrun.
Setout was outstanding, because as we all know, setting a
dog broke farm flock is never easy when they are ready to run away as soon as
the dog is sent from the handler’s feet.
Jorgen Person set for all 3 days and was spelled out by Pam Boring and
Chris Hanson during the Nursery classes. Many thanks to all of them.
Friday started with the first class of Pro Novice. Scott and Alice ran well in this class, but were topped by relative new comer, Gord Lazzaroto
and his dog Oakley who should be proud!
The outrun on this field was deceptively hard and the sheep were hard to
see. More than one dog didn’t find their
sheep or had difficulties. Cy Peterson’s
Erin, handled by Scott was one of the dogs that needed some handler help with
redirects, but once she saw them she did fine and ended up in 13th
place. When I walked to the post with
Ford, he had spotted his sheep, but he had also spotted the geese in the
standing water on the right hand side of the field. It was proper to send left, but I knew if I
did that, Ford would cross over so I figured, “What the hey! If you want to fetch in the geese, be my
guest.” And I sent him right. He ran out
well and as he approached the geese and tried to lift them towards me, he
figured out that it wasn’t quite right and was much more agreeable to taking my
redirect after that. His run was fair- a
giant improvement on how he was running last year, and he did a nice pen
placing 16th. This was the first trial my Mikey had ever gone to the
post at and he had only outrun off the farm once before. He didn’t seem to realize what he was there
for let alone scoping the field for hard to see sheep. I sent him and never got him out there. Rather than bully him out for too long, I retired. Fortunately, Lavon told me we had enough time
if I wanted to walk out and help him find and exhaust his sheep so I did. Once Mike found them, he stopped and flanked
well as he fetched them in and it made me itch to try him again for real. In the second Pro Novice of the day, Mikey
had a perfect outrun and lift and did me proud by winning the class! Scott and Erin also improved on their run and
moved up to 6th place. Alice
had an odd sheep that wasn’t going to cooperate enough to get her another high
score so Scott retired and Ford, although he had a much better run and ran out
nicely to the left like I asked, gave me some trouble at the pen a la last
year. Still, he improved his score and
moved up to 15th place.
The next morning it was damp and had a light rain for most
of the morning, but dried up by the late afternoon. We ran Open first and even a few of those dogs had
trouble finding sheep. Scott ran Don and
surged to an early lead but was again topped by a newcomer, Jennifer MacDonnell
and her dog, Diesel . Jennifer is a
great addition to this sport because of her cheery attitude (with good runs and
bad) and this is the second year she has kicked butt and taken names at this
trial in the open. Laddie gave me a very
good run but I just couldn’t see the crossdrive panels well enough to make them
and it hurt us points wise. He ended up
in 8th place for the day.
Scott actually had a nice run going with Bliss but decided to make sure
she had a good attitude for the start of the season and trained on her and
retired in the shedding ring. (you’ll
see, it paid off later) Hemp was giving
me a fair run but it wasn’t up to the standards he had been giving me last year
and when he didn’t take a flank in front of that difficult cross drive panel,
we missed them and I decided to retire.
The next class was nursery and it’s always entertaining as
the babies go to the post for their first time.
Scott had most of the class in his stable of dogs and traded off with
others every couple of dogs. He won it
with Alice who was certainly the most experienced of the dogs. Second place was her littermate, Flint, also
handled by Scott, and owned by Jeanne Boudrieau. Flint has been a challenge for Scott but he
likes him very much so he was very happy to have him listening and trying to
figure out what Scott wanted. His outrun
wasn’t perfect but he took a redirect and then saw the sheep and opened right
up. By placing second, Flint earned his first leg towards the nursery
nationals! Scott also handled Scott Kelso’s Joe to 8th place and
Scott Johnson’s Tap to 9th.
Both of those dogs had difficulties on the outrun but looked really good
once they got behind their sheep. He
also ran Diane Pagel’s Ben who wasn’t too bad on the outrun, but stopped short
and then didn’t want to take his flanks on the fetch so Scott retired him to
make a point to him. Even though he was
nowhere near ready for this class, I ran Try to get him the feel of new
fields. There was no lower class offered
at this trial (like Pro Novice in the east with a smaller outrun and one leg
drive) so I just decided to enter him and stop when he struggled. He needed 4 redirects to get to the sheep as
he had never been that far in his life, (250yrds) but he had spotted them and did take my
commands. The set out dog got a little
antsy and the sheep started to run before he got there. I called him off, knowing it would only turn
into a grip and Lavon gave me a rerun.
On his second outrun, he only needed two redirects and stopped at the
top. He didn’t do very well with his flanks on the fetch and drive so I called
him off before he got to the first drive panel.
Sunday’s open had a change of leaders, this time, Scott won
it with Bliss. His training on her the day before paid off and she moved the sheep
quietly around the course, dropping only 4 points. Laddie ran very well for me. The only difficulty
he had was in the shedding ring. They
had started to rerun the sheep right before his run and there was only one set
waiting in the exhaust pen. They started
calling to my sheep in the shedding ring and I had a very difficult time
keeping them in the ring and it hurt my score.
Still we ended up in 3rd place and we were second place overall! Don was running well for Scott but it just
didn’t come together so he only placed in 10th.
Hemp ran very well, and felt like the dog he was last year. Unfortunately, I had one sheep that kept lagging behind and preventing him from
getting a very high score. At the post
the lead two sheep surprised me and took off for the exhaust and the lagger and
a pal hung back. I sent Hemp to catch
the sheep running and they came around the post to join the two laggers who
never turned the post. This caused me to
have to take the whole group around again because if you don’t take all the
sheep around the post, you are at the judges mercy and they might disqualify
you. We had a very good and quick shed,
pen, and single and finished with a 7th place.
In the second nursery class, Scott and Alice again placed
first. This time, Flint was feeling his
freedom a little too much so Scott called him off before Flint thought it was
acceptable. Scott added Erin to this go round and she ran well enough to take 5th
place. Joe nailed the outrun and looked
great around the course but missed both drive panels. Joe is very young and Scott didn’t want to
put too much pressure on him too soon so when the sheep ducked around them,
Scott just let it go for Joe’s sake. He placed 6th this time around.
Tap wanted to outrun on the sheep in the exhaust which is not unusual when young dogs start trialing. Scott tried to redirect him but he was
confused so he walked with him out to get his sheep and then he looked very
good. His score however was a retire. Ben was better this time around and Scott
said he was still having trouble with his fetch flanks but he made his panel and
looked good to us spectators. He placed 7th. Try was a little more
cocky on his second time to the post and wasn’t listening as well so when he
busted the sheep on the drive away, I retired.
We’d like to thank everyone who was involved in this trial
but especially Lee and Brian. It’s a
beautiful, well kept farm with great sheep and we plan to be back next year!
Pro Novice I (27 dogs)
1 Gord Lazzarotto Oakley 83
2 Scott Glen Alice 83
3 Lee Lumb Rando 81
4 Wayne Hadley-RobeDrtisck 81
5 Kathy Williams Pepe 80
6 Pam Boring Bob 79
7 Charmaine Henderson Fling 79
8 Julie Carter Hailey 78
9 Sue Wessels Skid 78
10 Charmaine Henderson Dan 77
Pro Novice II (27 dogs)
1 Jennifer Glen Mike 83
2 Sue Wessels Skid 82
3 Carol Nelson Mo 81
4 Gord Lazzarotto Oakley 81
5 Lee Lumb Rando 80
6 Scott Glen Erin 80
7 Pam Boring Sophie 79
8 Julie Carter Roy 78
9 Charmaine Henderson Fling 78
10 Carol Nelson Tiki 77
Open I (49 dogs)
1 Jennifer Macdonnell Diesel 92
2 Scott Glen Don 92
3 Thad Buckler Nic 92
4 Brian Nelson Pleat Jr. 92
5 Lynne Schweb Dex 88
6 Pam Boring Mirk 88
7 Lynne Schweb Toss 87
8 Jennifer Glen Lad 87
9 Carol Nelson Kale 87
10 Lee Lumb Cass 87
Open II (47 dogs)
1. Scott Glen and Bliss 106
2. Lee Lumb Nan 101
3. Jennifer Glen Lad 99
4. Thad Buckler Nic 99
5. Louanne Twa Craig 97
6. Jennifer Macdonnell Boomer 97
7. Jennifer Glen Hemp 96
8. Jennifer L'Arrivee Tweed 94
9. Jennifer Macdonnell Diesel 94
10. Scott Glen Don 93
Nursery I (14 dogs)
1 Scott Glen Alice 87
2 Scott Glen Flint 79
3 Lee Lumb (Bill Crawford) Bella 78
4 Lee Lumb (Daphne Tomblin) Sweep 78
5 Jennifer Macdonnell Harold 77
6 Nancy Barker Gwen 74
7 Louanne Twa Drift 72
8 Scott Glen Joe 63
9 Scott Glen Tap 57
10 Gayle Cochlan Tess 51
Nursery II (15 dogs)
1 Scott Glen Alice 86
2 Lee Lumb (Bill Crawford) Bella 85
3 Lee Lumb (Daphne Tomblin) Sweep 77
4 Jennifer Macdonnell Harold 76
5 Scott Glen Erin 75
6 Scott Glen Joe 70
7 Scott Glen Ben 70
8 Louanne Twa Drift 70
9 Gayle Cochlan Tess 62
10 Nancy Barker Gwen 55