Saturday I had the privilege to be the timekeeper for the AHBA ranch trial at Fido's Farm. Janie Nafsinger was the judge. Janie came over from the Boise area with Jodi Darling. Jodi and Janie have a blog together called
Gem State Herding. Jodi is the author of
Hay Ewe Stockdogging . I also had the pleasure of meeting Jaenne who writes
Kip & Mo. Last but not least Colleen who shares her adventures on
Reena's Training Blog.
I learned so much as the timekeeper. I was able to watch everything and hear the judges comments. One thing I realized - Beth and I could do this. So I think I am going to take the plunge and enter a trial in the near future.
The weather for the trial could only be termed as completely schizophrenic. One minute it was sunny, the next hail, sleet or horizontal rain. The tent we were standing in did no good. We were freezing and soaked to the skin several times. I couldn't feel my nose after 11 am. Elsie Rhodes took pity on me and loaned me her waterproof chaps, because I foolishly only wore jeans with my boots.
After the trial I went with Jodi, Janie, Jaenne, Colleen to dinner and had a wonderful time talking 'dogs' over some great food and hard apple cider - YUMMY! I think I may take up their invitation to go to the
AHBA trial at Janie's on April 4th & 5th in Calwell, Idaho. When I told them I didn't think Beth and I were ready Jodi laughed and told me "Get out there and suck like the rest of us!". Why not!
Saturday after the trial I picked up our newest foster dog, Daisy. She is an gorgeous 6 month old Border Collie/Aussie mix. She has the classic markings of a border collie with a short tail and loads of CURLS! Lots and lots of springy curls!! I can't wait to get some pictures of her.
Today Beth and I went back to Fido's. We spent some time working a nice group of lambs. We helped Sylvia move the lambs through several different pens, then move the ewes from the high pasture into the barn. In doing this Beth really impressed me with her restraint and how well she was listening to me. I am going to go back this week and practice on the trial course (before Chris breaks it down) and see if we really can do this. Beth has had only a little pen work and it will be a good thing for me to become more secure in this.
Today before we left for Fido's we had a serious incident with Ranger. I don't know if his nose is out of joint with the foster dogs, or there is something else wrong. I am very worried about him.
Edited Post 3/17/09 Removed this section (Update: Ranger's vet visit results posted in comments)
I would love to hear if you have ever had an experience like this with your dog. What happened? Was there anything physical wrong with your dog? What did you do to get past it?
Thanks in advance!
