Bryna and those "other" collies
Bryna and I prepared to go into the arena as we have been doing for several months: I took her aside and, squatting in front of her, spoke very softly to her. I told her that we were going to work gently on the sheep, and not scare them, and that I would do my best to listen to her and she had to listen to me.
I fed her a bit of hot dog, and let her relax the top of her head against my chest as I softly stroked her fuzzy ears. Then I had to add, softly, "besides, we have to uphold beardie honor, and show these other collies that we can do this!"
We were at a clinic at Mary Brighoff's in Libertytown, MD. The teacher was Cheryl Jager-Williams, of Hop Bottom, PA. There were about 20 dogs registered, and various observers. On the 1st day, all were border collies except one cattle dog and Bryna. On Sunday, Bryna had to uphold the honor of upright dogs all by herself. As we arrived, at least 4 people remarked something like this, "Oh, good--a beardie! I have never seen one work before." Gulp!
Saturday was incredibly windy--we could lean into it, and Sunday was fairly breezy. After each day, it took me a whole cup of hot chocolate and an hour in the house to warm up. No rain though. The sheep were mostly sticky Barbados, if you can believe that. (Except for one they called "Big Bertha", who seemed to be a Katahdin-Holstein cross.) Pretty darned fast, I must say.
This was a beginner and intermediate clinic. Cheryl has a nice soft voice, which was especially good since she was wearing a portable microphone. There were a few young dogs who had never seen a sheep before, some who had, and a few descendants of border collies famous enough that even I thought I recognized their names. As we each went in the ring (about 30x60 feet, but irregular in shape) with our dogs, Cheryl asked us to introduce ourselves and our dogs. Some beginners had very nice styles already and were a real joy to watch.
When our turn came, I brought Bryna in on lead, and had her down several times on our way to the side of the pen. I told them about beardies more generally, and something of what they were bred for, and explained that Bryna was an abnormal specimen in that she virtually NEVER barks, and that at least some beardie people think that she has "eye", at least compared to most beardies. They seemed approving of that, although my point was that this is weird for a beardie. While I was talking, at least once, behind my back, Bryna did her "Air Beardie" stunt--a vertical leap of about 4 feet. What a crowd-pleaser! They all laughed. At that point I noted that Bryna was a fun dog to work, and Cheryl said that that seemed to be true of most beardies she had ever seen.
"So, let's see what she can do," Cheryl said. I downed Bryna, and walked to the sheep. I called her up, and with a bit of romping, she settled right in. "Circle her"--so I did, comeby and away to me. "See, this dog has nice balance, very nice balance. Try her getting them off a corner." I did, and Bryna did, several times, splitting them only rarely. I had been working with her more on "there" rather than "lie down", since that seems to come more naturally to her. I got her to do that several times, approaching the stock very nicely, although a bit too tight. (I confess that this didn't work every time, but it did most of the time.) "Call her off now for a minute." I did, and bless Bryna's sweet heart, it more or less worked. (Bryna's reaction to "that'll do" is often "h**l, no it won't!")
So Cheryl said that beardies used to win at the International in Great Britain, and that it was nice to see that there was still talent in the breed! Oooo-oooo! (I confess I ignored the condescension in that remark toward our beloved beardies and let it pass. She meant it as a compliment, and our beardie aces will just have to teach her that it isn't so surprising.) Then she said we were ready to work on teeny out runs, and Sweet Pea proceeded to do some of the best outruns she has ever done in her life! We were cookin'!
Our turn ended, and people applauded--which they did for only a few dogs! Several said they didn't know beardies could work like that. (I didn't know that Bryna could work quite that well myself, if you want to know the truth, but I didn't mention that to them.)
Our second run started out pretty raggedy, but she settled in, and we did some nice work. The best moment came on our third run, on Sunday. We had worked out to teeny outruns of 15-20 feet or so, and Cheryl had us try one when the sheep were smack-dab against the fence, and not far from a corner. So I walked a few feet toward the sheep and sent her, very softly. She did it! It was beautiful! "That's *my* dog!" I wanted to yell! I heard a few "wows!" from the side of the field.
I learned a lot from watching some dogs work in a really big area--maybe 300ft x 600ft? (I'm not good at judging such huge distances.) There was one border collie with an amazing outrun. The first 2/3 of it was just gorgeous, and the last 3rd was very nice and got better. My lurking enthusiasm for trying a B course shot way up as I watched over the weekend.
Before we left, several folks said their opinions of working beardies had gone way up. Better yet, several people said that when Bryna and I were in the pen together, we both looked so happy that it was fun just to watch us even on the less than perfect (hah! disasters!) moments. And nobody (including some muckety-muck I never identified) could believe how quiet she was.
Bryna got scrambled eggs on her dog food both evenings. And Sweet Pea, we might get a started leg this year. Yes, I think we've got a shot....
Lynne and Bryna, the Sweet Pea (Mom, I want some sheep right HERE to play with, please Mom?)