Our Yearly herding Trial

Oof, the herding trial did not go well. I mean, that’s not unexpected, but I guess I’m continually surprised when Asher doesn’t do things that I think he knows how to do. So it was frustrating and discouraging, and, once again, I feel like I eroded his confidence in entering the trial. Our last trial was a year ago, and, yeah, we probably won’t trial again until next year. He’ll be 5 then, maybe grown up enough?

The good news, he HAD improved since last year where we retired when the sheep faced him and he couldn’t move them (they faced him because he was running around like an idiot). He did some nice things this year, maybe not perfectly, but he definitely did better. There was still panicking, racing around like a lunatic, freezing, losing sheep, inability to move sheep and complete lack of response to cues – but less than last year. And I have a lot of excuses, we have had very little practice this year, we’re often lucky to have once short practice session a month. And I usually have no plan for that session when it does happen, because we’re not in that mode of actually WORKING on things. Still, I have generally been pretty happy with our practice when it happens, he is doing nice work – on sheep he knows in places he’s confident with.

We ran three times, which was awesome, it’s nice to have more chances to work if I’m going to go to a trial. Now, he just got worse as the day went on, but hey. First run I was pleased with his outrun, had our usual slight panic on the lift, but he got the sheep down to me, too fast, overflanking a ridiculous amount. But, still, less panicked than in previous years. And then he was just on fast forward for the whole drive – complete with only responding to my down or there after he’d taken about 10 steps past where he needed to be. It made it ridiculous. I find it funny we still made the panels (which seemed closer than last year maybe?). But then as he really was not in control of the sheep and was pushing way too hard, and finally lied down – and then lost the sheep. And then lost a single that he clearly saw, but just ignored and then we had split sheep in different directions and I didn’t know what the hell to do since the single was back at setout. It was just stupid and I retired and he got the sheep back.

Second run was more ridiculous than the first, losing the sheep at the cross drive panels again after a bunch of ridiculous running about. Retired again when he lost the sheep and knew he couldn’t move them off the setout pen. Sigh. Such a useful sheepdog. He really does not act like this in practice. I mean, he can be too fast, but he actually can have lovely pace – and actually respond appropriately when cued. Definitely not at trials though.

Finally, they had a fun game where you team up to do either the gather or the drive of the open course with the baby dogs. We teamed up with Flee (who looked great, and much more mature than Asher!). We took outrun, and I wasn’t sure if he could do the open outrun … and turns out he can’t. He saw the sheep, started out well, but then came in low, crossed over, wouldn’t respond to any whistles and couldn’t get them off the set out pen. Sigh. So I went out and rescued him and he got the sheep down the field … eventually. And Flee did reasonable driving and we won the game – with 2 points left to our name (the other teams gripped off). So that made me laugh that we won, but, once again, I feel like I eroded Asher’s confidence. He CAN do open distance outruns, and maybe other skills, but not at trials. Poor guy.

I have never felt good about a herding trial, it’s always a mess, I always feel like I’m disappointed and my dog is overfaced. We work on it, but that doesn’t change it. Herding trials are not fun for me, and I don’t feel like they’re fun for Asher either. I still enjoy playing with herding, but trials are definitely not my goal, though once a year I have to remind myself why I don’t want to enter them. At least, the open field trial stuff. If we had more practice time I assume we could improve, but that’s not going to happen. Still, I will say, it WAS better than last year. Maybe when he’s 10 he’ll settle his ass down.

Then Bryn had a just terrible practice session the day before, she wouldn’t lie down, was just pushy and not listening and I fired her. Tried her again, still just a fight – I’m not going to fight. I’m sorry, you don’t want to listen, I’m not doing this – just ask Navarre! So I hope that was just a bad day, I had let her and Asher hang out and watch when other people were working and I think that was a very bad idea. Asher also couldn’t find the sheep again during that practice … oh well. I recognize that we don’t work on our skills enough to be feel confident with them, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.

Agility-wise, we had another evening of League. Fairly straightforward course without too many backsides, Asher did well. We almost had it the first time, but I didn’t cue the 2nd to last jump aggressively enough. So my fault, but he did have a BIG wide turn at a collection jump the first time, that he COLLECTED on when we tried it a second time. And I believe ran clean and relatively efficiently too (saw the scores, he came in 3rd in 20 inches – go Red Dog!). Bryn … was Bryn. This was NOT a good flanky dog course. She did some good things, including driving to the end of the teeter like she does at home (probably because I was running past). Nice weaves, but we couldn’t even do the stupid end of the course without lying her down and taking like 30 seconds of just telling her to come into me to take the stupid jump. And we tried it TWICE. Running a flanky dog in agility is NOT fun, let me say. So that made me want to just fire her from agility and let her be a herding dog, until she had her terrible herding session.

Ah, 2 year old dogs. Bryn will get there, in herding and agility. Maybe it won’t be perfect (when is it ever!), but I think it won’t be this much of a fight to make it happen in both sports. It’s a good thing she’s damn cute and honestly really fun in both herding and agility. Love that little pain in the ass, if she were easy, what fun would that be?

Contacted another nice pap boy owner, and another no-go by the breeder for potential borderpaps. Which I understand, it’s too bad though. Bryn borderpaps would be adorable, of course. Then another BC boy I had been looking at for Bryn ended up with a bad hip when he had his x-rays done. Which is a shame, he’s such a nice boy. So I’m taking the hint, no breeding for Bryn next year. And not that I need another dog …

But the borderpap idea has become more of a reality. The herding trial helped seal the deal – I don’t need another herding dog (as I’m clearly not doing justice to my current herding dogs), And border collies are a lot. If I’m getting any extraneous dogs, a little one is the way to go right now. And maybe they’ll do agility. And maybe they’ll just be an adorable little housedog and a playmate for Bryn. And as I’m clearly not making my own I am actually looking at litters. I’m considering a puppy already on the ground, but I’m willing to wait for the right dog. There is also another litter coming up locally that I think will be really fun. But theoretical puppies are always dicey, as will the breeding happen, how many puppies? Will there a puppy available to me? And will it be the right dog for me? All I know is that every time I see one of those borderpaps in classes they make me SO HAPPY. There is something about those happy little things, they speak to me.

So maybe I’ll get a puppy now … or maybe later – or maybe not at all. I’m open to it if the right dog comes along ….