Just a quick Scribble

I'm just going to write a few things down and hopefully expand on them as I digest them.

The Bluegrass was amazing.  If you have ever wanted to go, just go you will not regret it.  The car ride however was meh.

So what I learned:

To let go of my ego
To expect perfection
To practice non-judgement and play the game moment to moment

I'm starting to become the handler I want to be.

Homework for dog training:
Gears- we have fast and stop but we need a little in between
Range sheep-need to work on more difficult sheep to improve my timing and keep the dog's work sharp
Cross drive- need to sharpen this up but with gears it should come together pretty quick
Terrain- need to work in places that aren't flat
Must gain a little more control over the dog when he's on the far side of the fetch panels, seems to be a deaf zone between the lift the the fetch panels.
Distance-must get him working a bit more farther behind the sheep.

What I liked about my runs:

My dog moved and controlled every packet of sheep we drew-4 of  our runs were on TX range sheep and 2 runs were on Vergil Holland's very cranky farm flock.  Verigil's sheep had been trialled on two weekends in a row, before coming to the Bluegrass.  He took control right away and moved the sheep down the fetch line, beautiful cover at the top.

Last 2 runs no points off outrun or lift-sent him every day to the come bye side which is his least favored side.

My dog tried hard every run, listened well and the things we had been working most on in training came through even under big pressure.

I worked every element of the run trying to keep as many points as possible without beating myself up over what had already been lost.  I kept my act together every run for the whole run.

I gave necessary corrections and backed off the minute Z reacted and adjusted. Less talk more whistle-we made that happen.

Made it to KY

Trial starts on Wednesday.  Today we have a free day to hang out, walk the dogs and find the trial site.  Best to take the guess work out of it as much as possible.  The driving wasn't too bad.

On Sunday we stoped in SD to visit with Jamie Spring.  She bred Z and is was cool to meet her and her family.  It was also really nice to meet Z's siblings and mother.  I was able to watch his sister Hope (same litter) work a little bit and she is a very nice dog.  I met Rye ( litter brother) and Pink(sister same cross but the year later).  I'll post some pictures in here when I figure out where they are! :)

It was also great for Z and Merckx to have an oppertunity to stretch thier legs and work some sheep.  Jamie had a nice group of fresh shorn yearling ewes off the range.  She had been woring them a little bit so they weren't completely rank and fighting the dog.  They would how ever turnaround and look at the dog and the boys had to work at getting them lifted.  Once they got moving they were sort of light, but the dogs still had to push a lot to prove to those sheep that they had to move.  Z's session went great, best lifts I have seen him do in a long time.  He just kept walking in with a some encounragement, but mainly on his own.  He also was fairly quick to take charge of them and push them around.  Maybe he wants to work sheep the put up a litttle fight and be naughty.  It was really cool to be able to have a traing seesion on sheep like that.  I'm sure it really built his confidence.  As for my side of the bargin, I didn't yell.  I gave a few nessary corrections, but I minded myself and my dog went really super.  Hope we can hang on to half of that when we walk to the post tomorrow.
Jamie in conjunction with Laura Hicks is having a trial at the end of August and I would say it would worth the drive, two days on Jamie's unfenced and then over to Laura's for two days.  I hope I can squeeze it in, but if not you all should go.