Today (4/10/1999) Bryna and I went to a one day AHBA trial of the Potomac Valley Stockdog Association, at the farm where we usually train near Leesburg, VA. Since Bryna has her JHD, I entered her in HTD-I(s). This is the AHBA trial that looks a lot like a border collie trial. The trial was in a field of about 4-5 acres, I think, and not a field we had ever practiced in before. For that matter, we had never done all of these obstacles in order, before, and we had not recently worked in a large field. But, I thought, I get nerves when I trial, and here, where my expectations are not high, we'll just go and learn, and relax.
For those who have never seen an HTD-I course before, let me try to describe it. Imagine a big field. A good run will use much less than the entire size of this field. The course is set up like this:
SSS
F
A A B
B
Post
Pen (next to fence)
F=food; S= sheep; A = one side of a panel; B = on side of 2nd panel. I can start Bryna on a line between Post and F, up to but no closer than a line between A and B. I can even put her on a stay there, and move closer to the 3 sheep, as long as I don't get within 15 ft of them before I send her.
Then once she finishes her outrun, and pauses, we have to go back to the post, around it clockwise, through the A gate, through the B gate, and then pen the sheep.
The day was just stunningly beautiful. There were redbuds in bloom, and the sky was bright, bright blue, with a lovely view of the Shenandoah Mountains in the distance. The temperature was about low 50s F, and maybe got into the 60s F around 3:00. There was a moderate breeze. It was, in other words, right in that window about 10 degrees wide when both Bryna and I love the temperature, and are very happy to work in it.
Thank goodness, we were 3rd, so that I had time to watch at least 1 run before we went in. About 2 hr before, I had taken Bryna on a walk for about an hour, with her carrying her saddlebags with about 8-10 lb. This is a tactic I use just to settle her a bit. And for about 5 min beforehand, I gave a soothing back, neck, and shoulder massage. As I did this I told her, very quietly, that if I hadn't thought that there was at least a remote chance of qualifying, we wouldn't be there. But I knew it would be hard, and if we qualified, I would be thrilled -- and she would get a very big bone -- and if we didn't, I would still love her all to pieces anyway.
Kathy Stokey-Dillon was our judge. As some of you may know, she particularly stresses calm working of the stock. We heard about the trade offs in outrun, and how close the handler could move to the 3 sheep before sending the dog. We learned that only small points were deducted for a handler going through a gate, and that staying in nice smooth flow on the course without reverses generally counted for more than making sure every sheep went through. She hates to see nipping and gripping.
While the test dogs were running, I spent many minutes (15?) alone walking the course (after joining other handlers in setting it up), envisioning where I would be, and how I wanted Bryna to be positioned at each juncture.
And what I would do if the most obvious things went wrong. I could see, for example, that we needed to have especially calm work on the drive from the handler's post to the first (A) panel, since the sheep would be traveling toward the barn gate from which they had come. Their desire to bolt would be intense if we scared them. The other course directions didn't look as bad, from what I could see.
The first handler went. She had a border collie. From my vantage point, I couldn't see what went wrong at the top of the outrun, but whatever it was, it wasn't her fault, and they let her do it again. Good thing -- her dog had a lovely outrun. And she had chosen to stand back with the dog, so clearly she was going to get lots of points on that. The rest of her run was good, if not quite as pretty, until she got to the pen. There, I think she positioned the dog as if she expected the sheep to be drawn to the pen, since that is what happens on lots of courses. But the pen was a new thing for them, and they were actually drawn in the opposite direction. So the sheep paused, considered the situation briefly, and bolted for the barn while she was unfastening the gate. She got them back finally, but big points off. Still, it confirmed my guess about where these sheep would want to head if left on their own.
The 2nd handler NQed in short order with her English shepherd. Bryna and I went next. I had decided that my goal was to qualify, not to go for big points in the hopes of getting the highest score. So I put Bryna out as close as we were allowed to, and walked nearly as close to the sheep as I was allowed to go. Took deep breath....and sent her. She did a nice comebye (chosen with the barn location in mind) though closer than I liked, and slowed nicely at the top of the outrun. I started to beat-feet back to the handler's post, given all the commands I wanted (mostly steaaady, sit, walk up, lie down, steady) in very quiet tones, which seem to help her mood. We got to the post, did NOT do more than slow down a bit, and then I really worked to keep her off the sheep, by walking backwards even more than I had on the fetch, and downing her more.
When I got to the first panel, I saw that I could, if I accepted not having all the sheep go through the panel and didn't go through it myself, practically guarantee that we wouldn't have a barn-bound stampede, by passing the near side of the panel closely, and still have all the sheep headed squarely to the next panel. So I got closer, and set her so that they would either just squeak through, or just barely miss. They all missed, but the near sheep was grazing the panel with its shoulder. Close enough, so we went on. The next panel wasn't bad, and all three sheep went through, although I decided that I would go through too.
The trip to the pen (right past Kathy + scribe, at the high point in the field) was raggedy with over-flanking, but not catastrophically so. But I did remember to position Bryna for the hold so that she was between the sheep and the barn, not between the sheep and the pen. The dratted gate at the pen was very hard to work, and tended to flop over slightly. We were allowed to pass the front edge of the gate, but not the plane of the hinge.
While trying to do this, Bryna pushed the sheep around to the other side of the pen (behind). But it wasn't total zooming, and I got her to stop out to the side and her looming presence got the sheep past the front of the gate, if not into the pen. She then tore around to the outside back of the pen, and nearly drove the sheep out again, before I got her to come back and loom them back far enough to SHUT THE GATE! I dropped to my knees and hugged her and told her how wonderful she was. And snapped the leash on.
We had done far, far better than I had hoped, without any catastrophes, and only some mistakes, or handler's cautious choices. Not sure I knew how the scoring worked that well, I was merely hopeful we had qualified. There were 2 more HTD-I dogs (an Aussie and a bouvier), 2 HTD II dogs (a corgi and a border collie), and 1 HTD III dog (a border collie). There were no other beardies all day in test or trial.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.... They started giving out ribbons. Kathy said 3 HTD-I dogs qualified. Handed out 3rd. Not us. 2nd -- not us. I was getting very nervous. 1st -- Bryna and I got first place with 75 of 90 possible points! AND WE GOT HIGH IN TRIAL TOO!
I spent the trip home alternating between singing and telling her how good a girl she was. Bryna got a very large beef marrow bone when we got home. And I am very, very happy.