We've had a good spring at the sheepdog trials.Lee has won (on big tough sheep)Nell has recently won (against 98 other dogs)Both have placed well enough and enough times to qualify for: 2017 USBCHA National Sheepdog Finals in Middletown VA.Now I just need to find more vacation days or plan on leave without pay.

Yeah-I'm retired now (sorry to rub it in), but I always hated when work interfered with my personal life. (ha ha!) Hopefully one day you will enjoy retirement as much as I.Congrats on your trial wins!

Less than a week to go.We take the camper over Sunday afternoon.I go to work on Monday and Monday afternoon go over for the handlers meeting.Lee runs Wednesday in the qualifying round and Nell runs Friday.I'm at work Tuesday and Thursday (too little vacation to take the week off.The top 40 out of the 150 dogs in the qualifying round go again in Saturday; the top 17 from the 40 in the semifinals run in the finals on Sunday.Lee is working very well right now; he placed 5th in a north east regional. Nell worked well at the regional but we didn't have any luck during our runs. Lee was 3rd and 7th at the trial we host and Nell was 3rd and 6th (there were about 55 dogs in each run).

Good luck, Mark! Hope the dogs have successful runs.Rita

Congratulations on the success of your dogs and good luck at the Nationals. Getting time off for a week-long event used to be a pain for us. Not having to is one of the advantages of being retired. :)Tom

Best wishes!! For success at the trials - and for making the logistics of all this work :-)

Starting our travel plans for this fall | Good Sam Community

RBak
Explorer
Oct 11, 2017
Beautiful photos Mark. And congratulations on your great results at the trials!

Rita
BCSnob
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017

By Maureen Robinson

By Maureen Robinson
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Oct 10, 2017
Mark, go to the Tech Forum and look for the sticky thread about "modifications and upgrades". Someone made a website specifically for uploading photos to RV.net and it's incredibly easy and doesn't bomb you with ads!! I want to hug whoever did that for us!
BCSnob
Explorer
Oct 09, 2017
Bummer, Photobucket changed their policy on the free account and I can't share photos
Little_Kopit
Explorer
Oct 03, 2017
Nice job Lee, Nell and all.

:B :B :B :B :B
BCSnob
Explorer
Oct 03, 2017
Lee finished 36 out of 150 in the preliminaries
Nell finished in the middle of the pack
Lee finished 9 out of 40 in the semifinals
Lee finished 13 out of 17 in the finals
BCSnob
Explorer
Sep 29, 2017
There is a free webcast of the semifinals and finals. The semis run tomorrow starting at 7:15am eastern time.

http://www.sheepdogwebcast.com

Lee runs #6
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Sep 28, 2017
Sure wish Lee could have run in cooler weather (well, I guess ALL the handlers were wishing that!) - good luck, Nell!
BCSnob
Explorer
Sep 28, 2017
Lee ran during the hottest part of the day; it was 90. The sheep were hot and didn't want to cooperate.

We start with 200pts (100 from 2 different judges) and they deduct as we go through our run. The sheep were very determined to go off the field to the left during every run; our sheep were no different. Lee did a great job bringing straight to my feet after getting them; there were several places where he had to work hard to stop the from going to the left and keep them coming to me.

After bringing them to me we had to drive them towards the left while not letting them run off. Then we turned them away from where they wanted to go (towards the cross drive panels) which took a lot of convincing by Lee; pushing the and cutting off their attempts to curl around him.

After making going through the cross drive panels he brought them into the shedding ring; at this pint both Lee and the sheep were panting very hard. We got the shed and started towards the pen. At this pint Lee was so hot he couldn't focus. We got them to the mouth of the pen 3 times and one sheep would dart away at the last moment. Each time Lee headed to the water tank to try to cool off. We ran out of time without making the pen. Lee needed to soak in the water tub for about 5min to cool off. He recovered quickly and was ready for more sheep time.

We got a 142 out of the 200 possible; the pen was worth 20pts. At the end of the day 75 of the 150 dogs had run. The top score is 180 and Lee was in 18th (the top 40 go onto the semis).

Nell runs tomorrow and it is going to be in the 70s!
Little_Kopit
Explorer
Sep 27, 2017
Sleep well in the night befores Lee and Nell.

Do your exercise runs before with great anticipation. Little guys you must know what is coming.

:B