Grateful

For 8 years now, I have been walking to the post with my good dog, Lou.  But over the last winter, I noticed that he was slower to get up, that his outruns had a cantering component to them now.  My big dog who used to sound like a thundering horse going up the field, was starting to break down.

We went to the vet, and x-rays showed that his right hip was an arthritic ball.  Well, that would explain the lack of rear-wheel drive I'd been seeing.  :-(  I've put him on cartrophen, and tomorrow, we will do stem cell therapy.  Still, I have to accept that his big field days are over.  He is a large dog, and he turned 11 this past March.

How lucky I have been to have run this dog for 8 years!  And for 8 years, he literally carried me out there.  I had never run in a field trial before I got him, and after 2 trials in Pro Novice, we started running in Open, where we ran for 7 years.  He always brought me the sheep, he took every flank, even the wrong ones, and did his best to do what he was told.  There were trials when he would have been better off shutting out the ineffectual shouts and whistles of his person, but that is not how he rolls.

Once a year, he would cross over on the outrun.  He usually ran literally over my feet, so there was no opportunity to redirect.  Also once a year, he would ring the sheep on the driveaway panel.  These infractions were so small compared to his handler's errors, that they were filed away as anomalies and never discussed again.

We ran in three CBCA championships, we have been to most every trial on the West Coast, we even flew to Kingston, Ontario, to see how the eastern dogs do it.  Lou and I have made so many wonderful friends during this journey, and even folks who didn't like him as a working dog would admit, perhaps grudgingly, that he was a pretty nice dog to have around.

Lou will still run in the odd small arena trials and he will still putter around Rose's front field, where for whatever reason, he takes none of my whistles and just meanders around, taking the sheep hither and thither.  He will still be under the handler's tent, politely asking for a bite of your sandwich.  But the actual running, that will fall to Rex.  He has very large paw prints to fill, and it would be unfair to compare him to Lou (though I do, often, and he always comes up short).  While Rex is a lovely little dog, he is not the king.    Enjoy your retirement, buddy.  You've earned it.

In like a lion

So far, March has been a very damp month.  I don't know why I'm surprised. I've only lived on the Wet Coast for my entire life.  Still, my penchant for hyperbole makes me say thing such as "Bloody hell, I'm going to build an ark" and "Great, now I'm all pruney."  I won't complain on Facebook, though, as the photos of snow banks make me realize that being a bit pruney isn't the worst thing in the world, weather-wise.

In truth, we've managed to get a lot done for all the rain.  First, Lou celebrated his 11th birthday!

I am largely in denial that my big beautiful border collie is now a senior citizen.  He is still keen to work, but I think his days of field trials are over.  I'll try him one more time at Lee's Stirling Acres trial in April.  It seems fitting, since my first trip to the post was at Lee's trial in 2006. 

Don't be sad, we have cake!

On the other end of the aging spectrum is The Wickens.  I am not sure that she's a dog at all.  My friend has always maintained that she is a Terminator, sent back through time to terrorize squirrels and warn mankind about ceiling fans.  Whatever she is, she's still running strong at 12+ years of age.  

In a few years, I suppose all I will have in either herding or agility is this:

Why do you say it like it's a bad thing?

In fairness to Rex, he's turned out to be a nice little agility dog (bark!  bounce!  barkbounce!!!) and I think he's very close to being a good sheepdog.  My puppy will be 6 in May.  I am not sure how all these dogs can be getting so old when I am still 23.  Or so.

Rather than lament the fleeting nature of youth, I shall reflect with fondness on the fun Wick and Rex had just this past weekend!  No need to dive back to the halcyon days of 2007 - oh no!  The second weekend of March, 2013, we went down to Argus Ranch and ran at the Red Hot Rovers USDAA all-tournament trial.  Wick and I ran with our friend and teacher, Wendy, and her rocket dog, Phoenix.  While the girls didn't qualify in PVP (stupid off-courses!) we had a lot of fun.  Rex ran with Wendy and her little red dog, Chili, and Stefan and his good border collie, Chronos.  We stayed largely on course (glares severely at Rex) and actually managed to place 2nd out of 21 teams in DAM - yay!

And with fond reflection comes gratuitous dog videos, set to music that may or may not have anything to do with the content of the video.  'Cause you know what?  I like AC/DC.  There, I said it!


And why Pink?  Why not!  It's only the best colour, like, ever.

2012, and the world didn't end

2012 was another crazy year of Dog.  In my defence, the world was meant to end, so I wanted to squeeze every last, glorious moment out of it.

All three dogs competed in some sort of Nationals.  Wick and Rex each showed well at the AAC Nationals in Nanaimo, and Lou and I crossed off the Kingston Sheep Dog Trials (and CBCA championship) from our bucket list.

Wick also completed, after nearly a decade of futility, her ATChC.  In true Wick fashion, she made a liar of me, earning that final Q on a dreaded teeter gamble.  She even got a gamble at Nationals, and earned a 3rd place in one of the Jumpers runs.  This year, Wick is coming up 12 or perhaps a smidge older.  I thought that the 2012 AAC Nationals would be her last hurrah, but it seems that Nationals in 2013 is in Alberta.  So yes, for the THIRD time, I will say:  it will be her last Nationals.  And again, she will probably prove me a liar!

Lou, my good, faithful sheepdog, had some nice moments himself.  He certainly held up his end at the Stampede, while I let my end fall in a spectacular fashion.  He competed in a couple of field trials, and while he did ok, he seemed to be struggling a bit on the longer outruns in Alberta.  I probably won't run him on the big fields anymore, which hurts my heart.  Watching my big handsome dog thunder up a hill is one of my favourite sights of all time.  I won't have him struggle, though, as he is too good a dog to go out like that.  He's still got more than enough pep for smaller field trials and arena trials, so he's not going to be retiring completely!

Rex, my perpetual puppy... what can I say about Rex?  He is a brave, crazy, happy, silly dog who both delights and frustrates me.  He had a great agility year, qualifying for Nationals when I thought it impossible (did I mention my dogs like to make liars of me??), he got himself into all Masters classes by the summer, and he gave me 4 great runs at Nationals (and two horrific Gamblers runs but that's a handler thing).  On sheep, he showed signs of brilliance and signs of lunacy.  Still, he really tries his heart out for me on sheep, so I need to try harder to get him out on sheep more, to practice in a constructive and meaningful way, and to appreciate my dog for who he is, rather than resent him for what he is not.  This dog is a reflection of my soul - in 2013, I am going to like what I see!  Rex won't quit on me, and I won't quit on him.

We put a lot of kilometres on the truck, we took ferries, and planes, crossed bridges and climbed mountains, in pursuit of all things dog sport.  We made new friends, reconnected with old friends, spent  a lot of time laughing, we made memories to last a lifetime, and we're keen to do it all over again!  Here's a look back at the year that was, Collie Nation style.

Washington road trip

We headed down to Washington on Friday for a couple of hours of lessons with Scott Glen.  The topic:  penning.  In the history of sheepdoggery, I do not know that there is a more inept penner than I.  Of course, in the past, I've blamed my failure to pen every year at Calgary on my dogs, but since they've started to livestream the event, that lie will no longer hold up.  Thus ... two hours of penning lessons.

Scott was very patient with me, and he's also got a great sense of humour.  He actually got Lou to bend on a close at hand flank, something that dog hasn't done in about 5 years.  And then New Rex came out with his fancy stops and pace and shizzle, and he did well too.  He even got right underneath the lamb's nose as she was grazing, and that lamb still has a nose!  My god!  Have we turned a corner?

As much as I would have loved to stay at Fido's Farm for the weekend, it was off to Elma, for the RAT agility trial.  I haven't run USDAA in, like, forever.  I want to say it's been 6 years, but it might be even longer.  Wick was entered in the tournament classes only because I can't remember where she was in the titling program from 6 years ago.  Rex was entered in everything because I knew he must be in Starters.

It was quite a successful weekend for both dogs.  Wick had a nice run in Steeplechase, or Performance Speed Jumping, or whatever it's called, but she had an off-course.  She also ran a really nice Grand Prix, but got called for a refusal on the 3rd from last obstacle.  Drats!!!

Rex did quite well too.  He Q'ed all of his Starters games classes and got a Steeplechase Q to boot!  That was pretty cool, especially since we had a big bobble in that run.  Thank goodness for running a-frames!  He missed both DWs in Standard, so I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that.  Still, he was fine with the tire, didn't jump the chute, and overall exceeded my expectations.

Best part of the weekend was seeing people I haven't seen in, well, 6 years!  Also got to meet a lot of people I've only known through Facebook.  Oh, and thanks to my Nexus card, there were no border line-ups.  A pretty good weekend altogether!

Here's a mash-up of most of Rex's runs.  Thanks for reading!

National Hug a Sheep Day 2012

October 27 is National Hug a Sheep Day.  Did you hug a sheep?  I did.  :-)

USBCHA Finals

The dogs and I went down to Klamath Falls, OR, to watch the 2012 USBCHA Finals.  What a great venue, with tough sheep, stunning views, and volunteers who made sure every detail was covered.  Awesome vendors too,

We cheered on friends, laughed way too much, and when the dust cleared (literally - it was wicked dusty), the champion was Patricia MacRae and the handsome Cap.  Because, you know, it would be a shame if the title went to someone NOT named MacRae.  But Cap had much the class run of the finals, with the only clean turn-back, nice fetches and a decent drive.  Congrats!

I took loads of pics, as the light was just dreamy.  Here are some of them - thanks for reading!

Wasn't that a party - herding version

Part two of Doggy Palooza involved flying to Kingston, ON, to run Lou in the Kingston Sheepdog and CBCA Championship trials.  Two days after AAC Nationals.  Yeah, seemed like a sane thing to do.  As I once told Amanda, when I'm lying on my death bed, I probably won't be thinking, "Gee, I sure wish I'd spent more time at home, resting."  So onto Kingston!

First of all, big shout-out to WestJet.  They were super about letting Lou check in at the very last minute (we hung out at Tim Hortons at YVR for an hour).  I was a bit nervous about flying Lou, but he didn't seem fizzed at all by the experience.  When I picked him up from oversize luggage at the Ottawa airport, he looked like he just woke up from a nap .. which he probably did.  :-)  Grabbed a rental car and hit the road just in time to enjoy a torrential rain storm.  I thought I left Vancouver behind?

Got to the trial field around 10pm.  Everyone was settled in for bed, so after a quick run, and a bit of dinner, off to bed we went (despite the fact that it was only 7:30 back home).  My roommate, Lee, was up early with Chica, so we set the alarms for 5:30 (that would be 2:30 am back home!).

Lou ran later in the day, and he had trouble moving his group along on the crossdrive.  His outwork was lovely, and he only needed a few whistles to bring them to my feet.  I believe he lost 4 on the outwork.  Unfortunately, he timed out at the crossdrive panels, so we lost a whole lot more than that on the drive!

That evening, prior to the CBCA AGM, Lee and I decided to have a quick bath in the St Lawrence river.  Now I can mark off the bucket list "bathing in an iconic Canadian river".  Actually, it was quite nice, and very clean.  We weren't the only ones bathing in the river either.  Who knew I could be so outdoorsy!

Lou spent a lot of time playing in the river too.  Here he is, showing off his very best "Handsome Rugged" look.

Our second run was marginally more successful than our first, in that we completed the drive.  We missed both panels and never really had a line.  I think we got more points for our shed than our drive!  Oh well, whaddyagonnado.  (Answer:  drink wine and eat kettle corn).

For that second run, I wore the fascinator that Amanda made.  She made one for each of the woman handlers.  I love mine, and it's now framed for posterity.

I borrowed Lee's crook.  I didn't want to deal with the hassle of flying a crook (even the HKSS), but Lee flew with three dogs, two pieces of luggage and a crook.  Lee = crazier than me.

The sheep were easy to shed, though it could be tricky to put them back together once shed!

Thanks, Lou.  It's been a helluva ride.

Now that Western Canada had been shut out of the double-lift, we were content to drink.  (photo by Robin French)

Really enjoyed watching the double-lift finals on the Sunday.  Felt really bad for Dawn Boyce, who went to the post in a pretty pink shirt and hat, and then the skies opened.

There were heavy casualties in the hander's tent.  Here is just a partial body count.

When it was all done, Amanda and Roz won.  As an extra bonus, Amanda won a mountie.  This caused much excitement.

And then, just like that, Doggy Palooza 2012 was done.  Nothing left but to pose for a few last pics, get on a place and reunite Collie Nation.

Lou says he could stay here a few more days.

I'm really glad that I went to Kingston and experienced the spectacle.  Mark that off the bucket list.  Now to plan the next bucket list trip.  Hmm, how tough are those Meeker sheep anyway ... I'll bet Rex would like them ....

Oh yeah, here's a slideshow summary of the trial.  Thanks for reading!