11th of March 2008

After going four days overdue Rio presented us with three pups in the early hours of Mon morning the 10th of March. I sat up most of the rest of the night waiting for the rest of them but there was no more. They will be fat little pups as she has masses of milk. One red and tan male, one red and tan female and a black and tan male. Three is enough anyway, less to look after. Both mum and pups are doing well.

Competed in my first trial for the year at Wagin last Thur and Fri. In fact my first trial since about Sep last year as I do not manage to get to as many trials as I would like due to time constraints and other responibilities.

The sheep are usually a bit tricky at Wagin and this year was no exception, they did not want to stick together and too much pressure caused them to split and run back to the let outs. A steady calm dog was needed. Lare did quite a fair job but put in a lot of turn tails, due I am told to the pressure I am putting on her as she is a soft litle dog. So for her next run I just praised her, tried not to look at her too much and just let her do the job. She was much improved and did a lovely job of the first obstacle but unfortunetely I had not noticed earlier that the sheep had gone on the inside of the second winding pole and so I was disqualified after that. I was pleased with her and it was good to finish on a good note.

The sheep did not suit Driftz and she did not want to work off the head but had the sheep pinned to the fence so eventually crossed. With sheep like these strong headin gdogs can be hard to move around as they know if they do come off the head the sheep will bolt. In her first run one sheep split and one ran about 50m away and making a quick decision I sent her back for the others, a bad decision, and the lone sheep ran further away. I should have let her hold that one but it is hard to think quickly sometimes and at least I learned something. In the open event they changed the sheep and the next lot were much less flightly and inclined to stand up to the dog so the weaker dogs got stuck up and battled to move them. These sheep would have suited Driftz better but as I was waiting for Rio's pups to arrive I had to head home and missed the open runs on the Sat.

There are not a lot of trials on this year, the next is a Utility trial. I hope to have Caleb up for the yard section as well as Lara and Driftz in the utility. More training needed though.