Magical Moment

I just returned from the Island Crossing Sheepdog Trial.....held in Arlington, Washington.....it was yet another beautiful trial. My favorite part...besides the great sheep....crazy challenging field....wonderful judge......and fun people.....was the RAIN! Yes, it rained and the temps were cool...and it felt fabulous!

As I said....the terrain was crazy challenging which provided extremes for me....."it was the best of times, it was the worst of times!" See, there was this gully, trench, long dip that ran across the top third of the field...call it what you like but, one would lose sight of the sheep in various places of the run....especially if things did not go as visualized.....because of that darn gully!

Here the sheep are just entering the gully.........

same run....sheep are in the gully.....nice dogand here they come.......This same gully created havoc on the outrun......obvious a dog could not see the sheep as they crossed it....so many a dog would run the lip of it only to cross on the outrun! It also created chaos on the drive....the wicked humored judge putting the cross drive line just this side of the gully.....off line...no sheep!

The pro novice day both Bella and Nell ran. Bella had lovely big outruns only to be shattered by tension on the lift. Back to the drawing board.....I need to lift off people with her....and work tight spots...then add in some really light sheep. Enough said. Nell got lost on her first outrun....darn gully....but we pulled it back together which gave me great hope for our second go. Nell and I ran second to last.....and all those training tears, counselling sessions with mentors and friends, hours and hours of obsessively thinking, watching, training....paid off as we entered the Zone. It was that magical moment where my dog and I were a team...Nell doing her part and me doing mine.......I could not hear a sound as I think the folks watching might have entered the zone with me.....and Nell won her first ever Pro Novice trial. Gosh I love that dog.....that whole relationship "thing" that happened was beyond any words I could use to describe......and sweeter yet was ending in third place combining both runs. Consistency with Nell.......I think I like it!

It was on to open....and what I can say is....I saw some fabulous runs ....great dogs...creative handling.....and Sally and I made progress. Her first run she struggled to find the sheep....but her second run she took a redirect from me on her outrun for the first time ever.....leaving me feeling like a winner! Both runs, I decided to leave the post to get understanding from Sally regarding taking a flank out of the pressure point....and am glad I did. Echoing in my head were words from Patrick.....sometimes you have to give-up a run to train a dog! I'm not working for today....but am looking ahead .......and so Sally and I made progress in our understanding and that has become winning in my book. It feels good to live it......

Now I prepare for four intense days of a handling clinic with Scott Glen.....bring it on!

Seize the Day!