I thought I should update my blog. Much has happened since my last post: training, trialing,
and Nationals. All fun, all good, but definitely an interesting journey with
things that should be done, and perhaps some that should be avoided.
ASCA Nationals is definitely an adventure, one that
hopefully starts months before the actual event, with entries, and training,
and all the other preparations that are needed. It is a week (8 days) of ASCA
competitions, 8 days of being surrounded with talented and beautiful Aussies
and their hardworking owners and handlers. Between numerous preshows and trial,
finals in all venues, and 3 days of Nationals stock and agility, it is a packed
week. I am one of those foolhardy MVA (most versatile Aussie) competitors,
where to qualify you have to earn a q in stock (sheep, ducks or cattle), in a
companion event (tracking, agility, obedience, or rally) and participate in a
scored conformation evaluation. Obviously the more you enter and the higher
levels you participate in equate with higher combined scores. I also qualified
and got to participate in cattle finals with Tommy
This year I choose to play MVA with all 3 of my dogs: Tommy,
Lizzy and the baby, Dari. And I also ran my friend Sally’s talented girl Choca
in stock. Now mind you, I do work sheep regularly with the dogs, I do chores, I
graze sheep, the dogs are always there helping. This daily work does have its benefits, the dogs understand
working stock, they learn patience, and they understand it as a task. The down side of my training (and
limited trialing in the months before the Nationals) was that my dogs did not
get the time on different stock; they did not have the familiarity with the
courses that comes in handy. I also did not have the sharpness, the mental preparation,
and the reminder of which direction is which that you really get through
trialing. A really good trial dog
knows his job, knows the pattern, and anticipates where the stock should go. We did work on the panels and the
center obstacle some when we had our fun days at Mel’s. I worked at teaching the dogs the task
of the center pen- pulling the sheep off the fence and bringing them to the
middle. Part of the center pen is
kicking out far enough to bring them straight to the center, part is rating and
understanding the stock should be put in the pen or Y chute. The better the dog understands the task
(like loading a trailer) the easier it is for a handler. I find part of the challenge is
teaching the dog the off balance part of the center. The stock should be pushed past the handler, something Lizzy
finds very difficult to comprehend.
She defaults in bringing the stock to me. The other part of a trial
arena she has a difficult time with (and always has) is pulling stock off a
fence, getting between the stock and the fence. The strange part of this, is she does fine in take
pens. Her cattle take pen was
really quite nice!
Because I was also doing agility and rally I needed to prep
for those also. I found trips to the barn a good time for rally practice. I grabbed a handful of cat food and
worked on sits to stands. For some reason both Lizzy and Dari choose down over
sit or stand. Not useful when
doing formal heeling exercises… But that was what I had to work with. I also had to set aside time for
agility. All 3 needed work on
weaves. Well, Tommy and Lizzy needed work, Dari needed to learn how to weave.
So we worked on simple courses as well as weaving and contacts. I have most all the equipment in my
agility field; I just need to spend the time working the dogs. Fortunately I did find some time during
the cool mornings, probably not enough, but we did work on remembering contact
performance and working together as a team.
Much work and training, and this had to fit around my
schedule of judging stock trials, visiting family, doing clinics in Nashville
and of course that 4 letter word of work. Needless to say, I had a busy summer,
fortunately doing what I love.
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