Life is a highway - part 1

Another road trip is in the books!  For the 5th year, the dogs and I loaded up and headed east for some great Alberta trials.  First stop was the Wild Rose Classic in Bowden, AB.  In what is now a tradition, a tornado rolled through nearby Olds the day before.

But by the time the trial started, the storm had passed.

The dogs didn't run great.  Lou wouldn't take a flank to straighten out the fetch.  The drive was a bit wonky too.  My timing was a bit off, and Lou was clearly rusty.  Still, he had some nice moments.

Rex had a nice outrun and lift, but absolutely no brakes on his fetch.  It was dead straight but oh my goodness was it fast!  Managed to get something of a handle on him for the drive, but I was mostly training on him, and didn't really care about the panels, because I was going to get my point across.  We ended up in the shedding ring in the middle of a lightening storm (because shedding with Rex isn't scary enough, let's add the possibility of death).


The next day wasn't much better.  Rex still had no brakes so I left the post to meet him on the fetch.  The little rotter saw me coming and ran FASTER - who does that?  Lou drew up late in the day and the sheep were heavy.  We missed the drive away panel so I retired the run.  Then we were off to Calgary for the Stampede!


Saturday was a day off, so I took the dogs to the Southland Park off-leash dog park.  It's 80+ hectares of doggy fun, complete with river access.  Rex and Lou found the water and stayed in it most of the 2 hours we were there.

Then it was a quick trip to the Stampede on a very hot Saturday.  We watched the dancing at the Indian Village.

I made a couple of new friends.  :-)

And generally played tourist.  Look, a sheep!