Fleck and I have run in several other herding trials including AKC and AHBA but never the USBCHA. Thanks to my flower essence blends and essential oils, I actually wasn't nervous even though we were to do an outrun of about 600 feet (or 200 yards), bring the sheep through a center line panel, around the post and then pen. For those who are familiar with the other venues, even at the "novice" level, which is what Fleck and I are at, the handler cannot leave the post until the sheep have come around it. So once you step up to the post and send your dog, your pup is on their own to figure out how to bring you the sheep and keep it all in control - all things Fleck did with style.
One of the concerns of a Novice handler is "will my dog find the sheep." We arrived on Thursday afternoon and I took Fleck out near the field and just sat for a few minutes. The sheep were grazing in the field and I wanted to see if he could "find" them. After the wind shifted and his nose started twitching, he turned his head and spotted the sheep. He smelled them first then followed that K9 nose to find his sheepies :) Yay - I felt better...
The Novice runs were first thing on Friday and started at 7am. Good thing as it was very hot an humid in central Illinois that day. We survived the two Novice runs and ended up with placing 3rd in when the two scores were combined.
Two things we'll be working on - picking up sheep off of a spotter and penning. He is so used to sheep that see a dog coming and take off to the handler he was a little uncertain with sheep that weren't too impressed with a dog that didn't "respect" their space. The spotters held the sheep nicely and he was uncertain how to maneuver around that and pick them up. Cool to see him learn how to do this during his runs.
I don't have a pen at home so we really need to work on this. We had them in the mouth of the pen several times, but without practical knowledge of how to get them in smoothly, we struggled with getting the two ewes and 1 little lamb in there.
Biggest thing I learned - trust my dog! The first round of runs, we were the last dog in the class. So I spent the time watching what other people were doing - which way they sent their dog, how did the sheep react - all those things. I determined that a "come bye" direction would be the best approach for us. I entered the field and approached the post and Fleck quickly settled into the "Away to me" spot. I flipped him around and set up on the "come bye" side but his head was still facing "away to me". I hesitated but realized that he must be reading the pressure of the field differently than I was and I set him up on the "away to me" side. He was right. They wanted to bolt up the field to the exhaust and if he went the direction I originally wanted to send him - he would have lost his sheep. He did a great job covering the draw on the away to me side. I am very glad I was observant of how he wanted to go :)
Overall, we survived our first USBCHA trial and have two more coming up. I can see we have a lot to learn, but it was such an incredible bonding experience - hard to put into words how special it is to experience this with one of my best friends and the little red dog in the class. Good boy Mr. Fleck.
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