July 20, 2010: Ass Backwards
In a former life, I was a social scientist. That's a poofy term for the study of people and their behaviour. Social scientists draw upon methods used in the natural sciences for understanding society.We'd formulate null and alternative hypotheses, then test these hypotheses using data collected through various means. (ie. data as in 'facts' and not myths, rumour, hearsay or superstition). Have I lost you yet?

Well, I recently had occasion to go back to my scientific roots. You see, before the LLandefalle trial, I was out walking my dogs early in the morning - VERY early - and I was out of sorts. Was it the early hour? The lack of sleep? A premonition of the trialling day ahead? I could not figure it out ... until I realized I had put my pants on backwards (wet weather pants, that is!). Hmmm...I thought, here was a good opportunity to put my scientific background to work. The 'reasearch' question I asked myself was:

Would putting your pants on backwards mean a bad day
on the trial field was about to ensue?

As it turned out the answer was no! But one piece of data, what we would call an n=1 (or a sample size of one) does not provide sufficient evidence to accept or reject hypotheses. So, this week, I thought I'd test my hypotheses again. I carefully put my pants on the right way and thought would I have a bad day today at a trial if my pants were on the right way?

The answer was again NO!

My very 'scientific' conclusion: Putting your pants on ass backwards has absolutely no correlation with performance at a sheepdog trial. Still, it's a heck of a lot more comfortable having your pants on the right way!

So this week Kelvin and I went to a trial together - the first time since April. We got up at some ungodly hour, woke all the dogs up to take them for a walk, and then hopped in the truck for the trek up to North Wales and the hallowed Selattyn trial - officially named the Cymdeithas Bugeiliaid Y Berwyn trial. I have discovered that no-one actually calls it that - perhaps because it is beyond the language abilities of most of us (although Dai Meek did give me some lessons on how to say it) - so it is referred to as the Selattyn or Alun Jones' (Selattyn) trial. When I went to Nigel Watkins' trials earlier in the year and asked Alastair Gilchrist (a VERY nice man, by the way) if he could recommend some trials that I should have a go at in North Wales, Alastair immediately said "Selattyn." Home I went with the North Wales trials booklet and searched and searched and searched for this trial. Just about to give up, Kelvin grabbed the book, looked at all the addresses and said "this is it." Phew!

It was a 3 hour trip to the trial fields and we arrived early so we could see as many runs as possible. Kelvin had been to this trial previously (in 2007) but for me, it was my first time. Saturday was qualifying day for the double fetch final to be held Sunday. We thought we'd whip up to North Wales on Saturday for the trial and on Sunday, dig some holes for fence posts.Weekend all planned out. Or so we thought.

The qualifying trial was conducted on two different fields: one was a smaller, more compact field and the other a really good sized trial field with lots of scope (and room for error!). The sheep were first run on the 'big' field and then exhausted to the 'small' field where they would be run on again. They seemed to run better on the big field.

We decided to run Sioux and Tina on the smaller field, and Blade and Meg on the larger field. Running the two fields at once was superb and VERY well organized. The weather was super. The food...oh my goodness, if you want a roast beef or roast pork sandwich, this is THE trial to go to. The roast pork came with stuffing and apple sauce; the beef with mustard. Yummy! The trial booklet says "Excellent refreshments on field" - NO KIDDING! That was a big understatement. The cooks should be hired for the Welsh National!

The list of triallists read like a who's who of Welsh trialling, along with a small, but elite, English invasion. Exciting! There were enough South Waleans there to make it feel like any other week at a trial.

Tina was making her first trial appearance of the year; Blade was making his first appearance since April after a serious injury; and Kelvin was making his first appearance since April too as work commitments and a lack of dogs have kept him at home most weekends. Both dogs worked well under the circumstances, and now that Kelvin finishes school this week, Blade and Tina will be 'back to school' to have a few reminders of trial etiquette!

My pint-sized 3 year old speedster, Sioux, had a good run and almost made it into the final!!! She finished on the cut off points but with two others on the same score, she missed out on the OLF rule. We have a few things to work on before her next trial!

Meg had a good run on the big field despite my atrocious navigation at the cross drive gate...and it was terrible! Poor Meg. She did her best to keep us in the running with a the best shed, pen and single we have ever done. I was very proud of her. As I came off the field, I was very disappointed in myself but delighted with the way Meg ran. She is class!

We left not long afterwards as we had dogs at home that needed feeding and exercising and a 3 hour trip ahead of us. We arrived home a 10pm and for the next 2 hours we cleaned kennels, fed dogs, walked them and then tucked them into their beds for the night. It was a long day, we were tired, and I was relieved to be finally heading to bed. My thoughts turned to digging holes the next day. I HATE digging holes.

Inside I was greeted with the answer machine light blinking...two messages. "You're in the final with Meg" said Kevin (Evans). "I'll call you back." SAY WHAT? REPLAY BUTTON. "You're running number 11 so you'll run in the afternoon" said Kevin in the next message. YOU'RE JOKING! My 'get out of jail' card...no digging holes for me on Sunday. Yippee!

Yes, we had made the final! 'How exciting' was quickly followed by 'Oh s***t.'

Now to put this in perspective for you all...This is my 3rd year trialling. Meg is my second dog (ever); first trial dog I have trained. Meg and I have never competed in a Double Fetch trial. We have never done an international shed, except fiddling around at home now and then. Were we out of our depth? Yes, seriously (!) but let me see...would I rather be at home digging fence post holes or having a go on a very challenging double fetch course? You don't need to be a rocket scientist - or social scientist - to work that one out. So 5.30am on Sunday we were off again for the adventure of a life time. And an adventure it was.

I walked the course and took a big gulp at the angle needed for the turn back. It was tough...if you turned the dog back at the right angle, the dog quickly went out of sight. This was going to be hard! I decided to take each component of the trial course one at a time and not think about the next component until - or IF - I got to it. I was excited, not nervous. Could we do this?

Well to cut a long story short, the answer was no.

We got the first packet of sheep OK with Meg taking my redirects very well (much better than expected). We caught the first fetch gate. Alun Jones had given me some tips about how to bring the sheep from the fetch gates to the turn back post. I decided to take his advice, forgo some points on the line to try to get the turn back right. Meg turned back for sheep at the right place and the right angle...and quickly went out of sight. I counted to 10 slowly and did not see her where I needed to. The next I knew Meg was coming back onto the first set of sheep. Oops! She did finally go back for the second packet but crossed on her outrun. Big oops. We pretty much got everything - in some fashion - to the shedding ring, and that was when the wheels fell off! Meg was awesome, I was horrible...and that is the end of the story!

Cutting my teeth in the double fetch trial at Selattyn was never going to be easy but I was there with the dog I wanted to be there with...and Meg did not disappoint me. She showed me once again just how good she is. There are 'gaps' in her training - yes. But most of the improvement has to come from me. I had no clue about international shedding and that was embarrassing! But I was not scared or daunted by the course or the competition - as I thought I might have been. Standing at the post I was so excited...I hope I can do it again someday. And that was the best excuse for not digging post holes that I've come up with yet!

Kevin Evans and Mirk won the trial with a class run. Outstanding! One day when I grow up, I'd like to be half as good as him! Thank you Kevin, Nigel and Alun for giving me course tips. Much appreciated.

Two older fellas, perhaps in their 70s, whom I don't know and did not get their names, came up to me afterwards and congratulated me on a good run (they never saw the crossed outrun and they can't possibly have been watching the shed!!!). They urged me not to give up and to be proud because I was the only 'girl' to make the final. Don't worry fellas, I'm going to keep trying. Perhaps next time I should put my pants on ass backwards and see if that helps!

(And Richard, I told you (jokingly, of course) I was giving you a chance at Mynydd Islwyn this year :-))) I am so pleased you grabbed the bull by the horn and won it with Jen. Well done!!!).