Hi there! Cait is still working on her next blog. She won't tell me what it's about. She said it should be ready soon and in the mean time she said I could write something again... she is such a good girl!
I guess it's inevitable... at the close of the year you look back over the past 12 months and reflect on your accomplishments, defeats and your life in general. You look forward to the new year and make plans, set goals and hope. There are lots of great moments and it's hard to pick just a couple. But as I look back over the past year, and see how far my little Cait and I have traveled, four events stand out in my mind...
First was in February when Cait got the SJVBCA Novice Top Dog award for 2009. We received a nice jacket from the club. I had already moved her up into Pro Novice and we had been to a trial or two and not done very well. But receiving the award made me think back on our first trial in January 2009... when I was so nervous and forgot most of my flanks and Cait was so wild the sheep just ran around me in circles... to the last Novice trial in October where I was able to stand at the post and drive the whole course. During lunch when I received the jacket with every one telling me to put on the jacket and I remember my hands shaking so bad that I couldn't even unzip the darn thing.
Second was the invitational SDT at the Mid State Fair in Paso Robles. I had been lucky the year before and had been invited as a filler, with Zeke, because all the Big Hats were at another trial trying to qualify for the national finals in Klamath Falls. I got invited back and of course Cait was the dog to go. I was nervous because we would be competing against big time handlers with open dogs (here I was a novice with my 2 year old dog and there were dogs there that had competed at the National finals!! Scary, I tell you!) It would be our first arena trial and I knew the sheep would be light and with pushy, speedy Cait it could have been a disaster. We got to do our first competitive sheds and single and we nailed them! My goal for the day was to make it in the top 10 so we could move onto the final round. We did! Everything went well during the second go except a little bobble by me during the single... I got flustered and Cait felt that but we finally got it. You can really tell on the video when I started to get nervous you can see Cait get quicker and tighter... just goes to show how much your dog feeds off of you and your emotions. I think this was the most fun trial of the year for me. Everyone was very complimentary and thought Cait was a really nice dog. I even had several handlers come up to me and tell me that we should have placed higher than we did. WOW!! I was just happy to be there and make it to the top 10.
Third was the Pleasanton Scottish Games. We had never been to a timed obstacle trial and I really had no idea what to expect. The whole weekend was a crazy, loud, nerve wracking time. I was pretty nervous but my little girl came through and saved me... yet again. Everyone was so nice. The spectators were there in droves and they all wanted to talk and pet the dogs. Cait was in her element there... she is a sponge when it comes to soaking up attention! What really hit home for me that weekend was when Cait and I are working the sheep everything else disappears... the bagpipes, the drums, the heat, the millions of people, the screaming kids, time, everything. All that is there is Cait, the sheep, the obstacles and the strategies I have worked out in my head. We won a belt buckle at the trial.. my first ever dog one. I can tell you that, for some reason, I am more proud of that one buckle than all the horse ones put together.
Fourth was the Porterville Fall Driving Trial.... the trial I wrote about last time. A large part of our success was the luck of the draw... we just happened to get sets that wanted to move. (That and the fact that my friend, Judy, set out during my runs and she told the sheep that a bad ass little bitch was coming up the field to get them and they better get their cute fluffy butts moving!) Whatever it was I felt Cait and I walked away from that trial with a even better partnership than ever. And I learned to ALWAYS think positive!
Looking to 2011... My plans are to get an additional dog to trial with. Make more progress with Cait. I feel like I really need to step up my game, as I am the weak one on the team. Cait always gives me 110% and any mistakes she makes is from trying so hard. Moving her and I up to Open is always on the back of my mind but I feel we both need more experience and miles under our belts. Hopefully, we can make it to a lot of trials, work lots of different types of sheep and learn and learn and learn!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Moving Forward
Hi! its me Cait! my mom said i have to work on opening up my flanks so i can't post anything this week. she has some stuff to say. i told her she needed to get her whistles more consistent and maybe she didnt have time to post either but she never listens to me!
so i will turn it over to her.......
I am a big believer in trying to move forward and improve in my life. Staying at a stand still or moving backwards depresses me.
This was a lesson I learned two fold at a trial a few weeks ago.
The sheep were tuff... they had never been worked by dogs before. They were not mean or agressive but would just stand and look at your dog. Sometimes they would walk toward the dog and try to figure out what the strange, little black and white things were.
Cait did not do well with this. Friday when the sheep were unloaded from the truck to wander around in the field... Caitie got to keep them from wandering too far. She was a bit overwhelmed. She would hold her ground til they came toward her and then off she would go.So all weekend I went back and forth between pulling her from the trial and letting her have a go at it. My reasoning.... I didn't want her to have a bad time of it... she had not been on these kind of sheep much before and I wanted to be able to work with her to build her confidence more before I tried to run her on them. I DID NOT want them to go after her or fight her or scare her. We got a few chances to help move the sheep to back and forth form the pasture to the trial field and I helped her as much as I could.... also at the set out pen we got to move them in smaller groups.
Trial morning rolls around and I am still undecided. I am out at the set out pen and my mind is going around and around. What my heart and what my mind are telling me are two completely different things. Finally, I think... what the heck??? Give it a try. I can always call her off and go help her.
It comes our turn... I am running late for cause I had to hike from the set out to my truck to get Cait and then back to the trial field. No more time to sit and watch and worry, just walk up to the field and it's our turn. Up to the post and then off she goes... I have half a minute to continue worrying and then...... HERE COME THE SHEEP! I didn't blow her down at the top cause I wanted her going in a quick as possible, no creeping up to the sheep to give them time to stand and face her. The fetch is not pretty but I let it go cause what is important to me right now is that the sheep keep moving... I don't want to flank her too far and get her up in their eye to give them cause to stop.
I retired her during the drive, after the sheep slowed down they decided they didn't want to move. That's ok... we accomplished what we set out to do... we moved the sheep and, hopefully, Cait gained some confidence with these kind of sheep. The next run was better! We completed the course and did quite well.
So the moral of the story? Actually there are several. The most important... trust my dog, she always comes through for me. Let her run and get the experience. Give her the chance to prove herself. At least to the best of her ability. We learn from our failures... they show what we need to work on.
And, of course, by letting her run... we moved forward. A very important goal in my life. I didn't let my fears, doubts and insecurities get the best of me and I let my dog do what she loves best. That, to me, is moving forward. When you don't do what's in your heart and believe in yourself (and your dog)... that is not really living your life it's just existing.
so i will turn it over to her.......
I am a big believer in trying to move forward and improve in my life. Staying at a stand still or moving backwards depresses me.
This was a lesson I learned two fold at a trial a few weeks ago.
The sheep were tuff... they had never been worked by dogs before. They were not mean or agressive but would just stand and look at your dog. Sometimes they would walk toward the dog and try to figure out what the strange, little black and white things were.
Cait did not do well with this. Friday when the sheep were unloaded from the truck to wander around in the field... Caitie got to keep them from wandering too far. She was a bit overwhelmed. She would hold her ground til they came toward her and then off she would go.So all weekend I went back and forth between pulling her from the trial and letting her have a go at it. My reasoning.... I didn't want her to have a bad time of it... she had not been on these kind of sheep much before and I wanted to be able to work with her to build her confidence more before I tried to run her on them. I DID NOT want them to go after her or fight her or scare her. We got a few chances to help move the sheep to back and forth form the pasture to the trial field and I helped her as much as I could.... also at the set out pen we got to move them in smaller groups.
Trial morning rolls around and I am still undecided. I am out at the set out pen and my mind is going around and around. What my heart and what my mind are telling me are two completely different things. Finally, I think... what the heck??? Give it a try. I can always call her off and go help her.
It comes our turn... I am running late for cause I had to hike from the set out to my truck to get Cait and then back to the trial field. No more time to sit and watch and worry, just walk up to the field and it's our turn. Up to the post and then off she goes... I have half a minute to continue worrying and then...... HERE COME THE SHEEP! I didn't blow her down at the top cause I wanted her going in a quick as possible, no creeping up to the sheep to give them time to stand and face her. The fetch is not pretty but I let it go cause what is important to me right now is that the sheep keep moving... I don't want to flank her too far and get her up in their eye to give them cause to stop.
I retired her during the drive, after the sheep slowed down they decided they didn't want to move. That's ok... we accomplished what we set out to do... we moved the sheep and, hopefully, Cait gained some confidence with these kind of sheep. The next run was better! We completed the course and did quite well.
So the moral of the story? Actually there are several. The most important... trust my dog, she always comes through for me. Let her run and get the experience. Give her the chance to prove herself. At least to the best of her ability. We learn from our failures... they show what we need to work on.
And, of course, by letting her run... we moved forward. A very important goal in my life. I didn't let my fears, doubts and insecurities get the best of me and I let my dog do what she loves best. That, to me, is moving forward. When you don't do what's in your heart and believe in yourself (and your dog)... that is not really living your life it's just existing.
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