Blue Debut

Last weekend was Blue’s first trial. It was a novice trial that had 2 trials/runs each day for each class, but we only entered on Saturday since I was leaving for my WV trip on Sunday. And for his very first run, HE GOT A SCORE. Only a 52, but it was a very respectable run for a very novice dog. He went up the middle on his outrun and I gave him some flanks to help him go around the sheep, so we lost ½ our outrun points. He got a 7 on his lift. The fetch was off line so we lost ½ our points there too. The rest was okay but he was getting pushy and wouldn’t take a lie down so we weaved on the wear a bit, losing points there. I like that he was pushy because that is something to work with. (I have another youngster that I am always having to encourage to stay into her sheep. That’s another story though….. ) The sheep were very nice for the beginner dogs and forgiving when a dog was too tight or a little too pushy. So we got around the course and even penned the sheep.

On his second run, he again went up the middle and because the set out had been moved back he was very tight coming into the sheep and pushed them off to towards the exhaust. I left the post and went to help him because he looked a little stressed about pulling them off the fence at the exhaust gate with someone standing there. I got closer and he gathered the sheep, brought them to me and then we stopped there.

I was very happy with both of his runs and I know he’ll be lots of fun to bring up. I haven’t worked him much up to this point because of some of his issues with being sensitive, but he now takes corrections without getting stressed and so now he needs more time on sheep! I know he’ll progress very quickly from this point on. He’ll be a good sheepdog (even though he looks like a hound dog!).