Evergreen Shetland Sheepdog Club

Auburn, Wa., June 4, 2004

This was a two day trial but the first day was limited to Shelties only, and the trial Secretary wouldn't believe that Al was actually a Sheltie that had been shaved, so we could only enter for one day.  I'm seriously considering having a "Hair Suit" made for Al so he can wear it on cold and wet days, and also to give him a break in the "Down" on the table because he has to have his elbows in perfect position on the table and is always penalized when they are not, and Shelties who have hairy elbows, always get away with not having their elbows all the way down??!!  A little hair would level the playing field.

Friday Standard Course (Excellent A)

    This was the first run of the weekend, and the Judge had set a course that was very difficult to get a Q on.  The start line jump, tire,  weave poles combination was causing most dogs to go into the tunnel (designed trap) or to miss the weave pole entry.  I was told by my instructor that I should tell Al to "wiggle" before he jumped through the tire, and if I didn't, I would likely fail.  Good advice.  I just couldn't do it!!  I didn't trust Al enough to go through the tire even though it was right in his face.  I yelled wiggle after he landed and was headed for the tunnel trap!!.  Luckily, Al didn't get a refusal or wrong course as I called him off the tunnel, but the angle of his approach back to the weave poles was bad, and as a result he put his nose into the poles on the wrong side.  Al realized this wasn't right, and stopped, but it was too late.  The judge had already raised her arm for the refusal, so I decided to just go on and run the course. 

Al did great from this point on, even following my instructions to go over the wrong jump near the end of the course, and since it didn't matter, I sent him into the wrong end of the tunnel, so we could practice the course without interrupting the flow. 

Al's time was 58.07, the course time was 70 seconds (162 yds.)

Friday JWW Course (Excellent B)

This was a warm day for Washington, and the arena was getting hot and very humid because the course had been watered down to keep down the dust. 

Al wouldn't sit at the start line and after I took off his leash he headed away to sniff at something.  This is not the kind of start you want, but the one good thing about it is that I had a 10 foot lead out as a result.  Right away I felt that Al wasn't all there.  He put his nose down after the second jump, and he wasn't running hard.  Al kind of cruised around the course until I did a rear cross about 2/3 of the way through the course, and then he started to work harder.  He finished the course with OK speed, and was happy with himself. 

Al earned a Qualifying score finishing in 5th place.  He also earned some MACH points finishing the course 6 seconds under course time and getting 6 points. Al's time was 35.03, the course time was 42 seconds, 136 yards.