September 29, 2010: Hanging up My Whistle

The end of September... it's raining cats, dogs, frogs and toads, so it's time to hang up my whistle to signal the end of the trialling season. Oh, didn't I say that was 'it' after Hafod Bridge? Well, the bug bit again on the weekend...Sioux and I went off trialling on Saturday. My handling sucked so perhaps I should have stopped when the going was good. We did sneak a third place at Ellemford on wild sheep! The run was pretty to the pen and pretty awful thereafter but we did finish and were amongst only a handful who did. On Sunday I took Sioux and Meg trialling. I should have stayed in bed. The dogs ran as well as they could with me at the helm! I got the run with Meg all wrong and I managed to make a mess of both pens. Time was called on Meg just as I was shutting the gate. Sioux got her sheep penned but time was called at the shed. Serves me right for not wearing a watch and keeping an eye on the time! Despite this weekend of 'non-success', I am pleased that I managed to get sheep in the pen on all runs! I think that might be a first for me. Perhaps there's hope for me yet.

I saw a nice young dog on my travels - David Gilchrist's Jake. He's just a young dog but wow was he positive and with a lot of forward thrust. He ran at Ellemford and, like all of us, drew wild beasts! He did well on them. After his run was over I went over to David to tell him how much I liked his dog. Turned out Jake is by Jamie and out of Andrew Dickman's good bitch, Rule Skye...and no, he wasn't for sale! Drat! I had seen a full brother to this dog earlier in the day and liked that youngster too. I admit, I'm totally biased!

I took a wee trip up to North Wales to John Jones and Kerstin Schwarze's place to see a litter sister to my Bee. Darcy was over visiting from Germany so I took the opportunity to take a look at her. She is a nice wee bitch. Liked her. She is very different from Bee and not as far along in her training but a lovely wee bitch. She reminded me of her mother - only a slimmer model! I took Penny along for the ride to show her to John. I'm not telling you what John thought. You'd have to ask him yourself! I like her and I'm hoping she is going to be my nursery prospect for 2011 or 2012.

Oh, major kudos to the USBCHA for their live streaming of the finals and to Heather Nadelman's running commentary. Outstanding. Of course, it was SO much more heartbreaking to actually see in real time the last 10 seconds of Scott Glen's run with his young Don. From ectasy to agony in the blink of an eye. I have never yelled - and cussed - at my computer screen quite as much as I did in the last 30 seconds of that run. Liked Don ALOT! What a magnificent turn back..from that angle! Wholly mackeral!!! Few experienced dogs could have done that, let alone a 3 year old. Majorly impressed with this team. Don's the danger dog. It was also really cool seeing some of my facebook friends in the final and I was glued to their runs as well. Super.

Time to get back to farm work. We have sheep going to market soon, and next week we'll have some fresh and frisky training sheep. I'll be back out digging fence post holes... thanks to a ewe who decided to go through a fence and not over it (no, she did not have a dog on her tail!). At least with all this rain, the ground will be soft to dig the holes. Somehow I don't think Bailey will be volunteering to help. She sees rain and heads for the comfort of her nice, warm, dry bed. Come to think of it, none of the dogs were keen for an early morning walk this morning... Autumn surely is here. Wonder if there's a trial this week....