ASCA stockdog trial at Kitee

We had entered for two duck runs in started and two sheep runs in open. Weekends total was one qualifying score on ducks and one on sheep. The judge was Dana Mackenzie.

On Saturday the ducks were very uncooperative, every single run had at least one, some more, ducks that decided to play dead no matter what the dog did. I was not taking any chances and our run was more obedience than herding. On Sunday I trusted him a bit more and let him do more and we managed the course and got 70 points and a qualifying score. Nothing very spectacular but what can you expect when Riva has seen ducks a total of three times in his life, including these two trial runs?

The sheep were very light and we have been only working my sheep that are very heavy and stubborn. On Saturday we got to a rough start on sheep, I let Riva go into the take pen too fast and the sheep pelted out and I lost control of him. After I got things back under control and set up for the drive we managed quite nicely through the first and second obstacles and after a bit of negotiation even got the sheep through the center chute. I felt miserable because of the start but I guess the rest of the run was pretty good and we got 90,5 points and qualified! On Sunday I was determined to do a better take pen and we did, it was near perfect :-). The rest of the run didn't go so well. At some point the sheep decided that they want to hang around with the human and Riva went to fetch mode and I couldn't get things set up so that we could progress nicely on the course.