New Place to Work

I made a couple of calls, and found a place relatively close to home that I could work my dogs. The Kentucky Bluegrass Trial was coming up and I had entered Stella. I contemplated scratching her. On the withdrawal deadline, I emailed the trial manager and asked if it would be easier on them if I put Stella in Novice Novice rather than Pro Novice. Alas, Stella had made the cut into the Pro-Novice class. I toyed with the idea of secretly swapping out Stella and running Data in her stead. Data would answer to the name Stella about as readily as he answers to his own name on the trial field.

I had been watching the DVDs made at Scott's and one of the things that Scott said was that I needed to be determined. That stuck with me, and I decided to dig in my heels and be determined. She was going to run at the Bluegrass and we weren't going to embarrass ourselves.

She and I worked and worked every day for the next week or so. At first things weren't so great. New sheep, new field, new opportunity to give me a try. I was stubborn and determined. She didn't get away with anything. I ran into a snag with her while starting the drive away. When I asked for an inside flank, she would dive in. Once again, I called Scott. He said "You don't want to give her a steady diet of that." Uhmmm nooo, that's why I'm calling. He then suggested that I simply crossdrive with her to remind her how to do it properly. Next work, I did just that. It seemed to really help.

Slowly but surely, the pieces started coming together. I took Data out one morning, I thought he might find it fun to work some sheep. I couldn't believe the difference between working with Data and working with Stella. I no longer wanted to pretend Data was Stella at the Bluegrass, Stella was working far better for me than Data ever had. Actually doing the work with Stella was paying off in spades.

I knew that Stella and I weren't going to be competitive at the Bluegrass. I had only had her back for 6 weeks, and it had only been the last week or two that she had started listening to me, but I felt confident that she and I could go to the post and not be completely humiliated.