Getting to Know Each Other

I left for Virginia at around 4am and make the 12 hour trek down south. The last hour or so of the drive is pretty arduous. If I leave early then I can drive the hard part during daylight making it a bit easier.

The morning after my arrival I helped Craig clean up his yard in preparation for his trial. Then we went to work the dogs. I was really excited to show Stella off since Craig had seen her a year ago, suffice to say he was not impressed with her. His sheep are honest and really move away from a dog. Stella was more like the old Stella. We worked on fetching, walking backwards, lie down, flank. Tiny flank, lie down, tiny flank, lie down. It was tough going but after a while she started to listen. This was the first time I had worked her except for those few minutes at Scott's. I was a bit disappointed that we weren't doing these huge outruns and all the wonderful things I had seen Scott doing with her but, I understood that I needed to keep things close at hand with her and above all REMAIN CALM. If I get all wound up, the whirling dervish in Stella can rear it's ugly head. Craig told me to run Stella in Novice Novice at his trial that weekend and make my goal to win. He said I had to get used to winning. Sigh. Ok, Novice Novice it is. I put her up and noticed she was lame. I checked her feet and she had torn all four of her pads. I wrapped her feet and worked her some more later that afternoon. I put her up for the night and hoped her tender tootsies would be fine in the morning.

By the next morning, I had realized that Novice Novice was an extraordinary idea and I was keen to run her. Her feet were still quite raw, but I figured that would just slow her down some. I re-wrapped them for her, poorly, and when my turn came I went to the post and sent her on her outrun. The sheep had been a bit flighty for the earlier runs and I knew I had to stop her in order to keep things calm. I did get her stopped, eventually, and she walked them to the post. Then it came time to turn the post. Amanda once said to me that one should always be thinking about the next phase of work. I had not thought about the next phase of work until the turn at the post was right there. I totally forgot how to do this in Novice Novice and I created an anxious moment for Stella. If I'm not mistaken, she lost her cool and pushed too hard making the sheep run. Running sheep are not great for her and off she went. I left the post and called her off. Thank you. I didn't run her in the trial the next 3 runs. Mostly because I was going to be there for a while and I wanted her feet to heal so I could work her. The trial wasn't that important to me.

The next several days were spent socializing, working dogs and of course I would spend a few minutes each day with Stella in the field and Bond in the round pen. Stella and I were making some progress and I was feeling really good about things with her. Bond was becoming king of the round pen and I was feeling pretty good about them.

Oh, Data announced at that trial that he was no longer interested in trialling. I sent him on his outrun, he stopped for a poop at around 2 on the clock. After he lifted the sheep and started on his fetch he found something wonderful to a dog. He picked it up and ran sideways across the field shaking his prey. Ok Data, I get it. I ran him a few more times and each time he sniffed the area where he found his prey but, we actually got around the course albeit pretty untidily. On one run, I gave a wrong flank at the drive away panels and Data took it, causing us to lose all but 4 of our drive points. We had a perfect pen and the judge told me that we had the nicest turn around the post he had seen all day. Ok, I'll take those small successes.

After an evening of wine and 'shine, some laughs and good friendship, we all headed to bed so we could make the drive home the next day. Once home, I was finally going to be able to show her off to my friends. Or was I?