Double Lift Clinic In Ohio

We arrived on Friday April 13th at the McNutt Family Farm in Blue Rock Ohio for a day of lessons. The weather was glorious, warm almost up in the 80s! It was a lovely day with a nice warm breeze which was just right for training dogs.  This day was a different variety of dogs from young ones and open dogs. Each handler/dog team floated in and out of their assigned time and it was a nice relaxing 😎 day.  It is always a great atmosphere at the McNutt Farm with plenty of banter and lots of fun.

Saturday was the first day of the double lift clinic. With a small number of handlers, we could fit plenty of time in for each working session. The weather was a little cooler in the morning and heavy rain forecast for late afternoon so we made the most of the nice weather with an early start. This clinic was mainly about having control of the dogs and getting them to take your advice to you when they were lost. If you have proper control, you can direct your dog to the unseen sheep. Micheal McNutt has the ideal field as you stood on a rise so the dog could see the first packet of sheep on a right hand outrun. The dog had to run down the hollow losing sight of his sheep as he come up the hill on the other side. It was a tricky right hand as you had to almost direct your dog down the hill before sending or your dog would go too wide and completely miss the sheep. For some dogs, it was confusing to be asked to walk on in front of the handler.  It just seemed unnatural for the dogs to do this.

You then had to pull your dog across before sending him right. This clinic was not for the faint hearted as you had to dig deep and really work WITH your dog. No time for mistakes! The dog then had to bring the sheep down into the hollow of the hill and have a blind turn back up the hollow to out of sight sheep. Gordon was on hand to help the less experienced dogs and handlers.  But most experienced open dogs had to listen very well and figure it out for themselves. It was tricky: one wrong command and there was trouble ahead.

Handlers had to be quick to command and dogs really had to respond with the same quickness. For me, the most impressive dog of the clinic was Anne Spearman’s Ted.  He was the least experienced of all the dogs and tends to worry some if things don’t go to plan. He seemed to be a changed dog. He listened well and took every command that Anne gave him to get him to his sheep. What a star! He never faulted and the more Anne asked of him the better he went. Anne and Ted are becoming a real team.

Sharon Allswede’s Ben was the smoothest dog. Such a quiet way with sheep: his turn backs were with ease.  He soon picked up the routine of bringing his first packet and glancing across the field for his second packet. All the while being in full control of his first packet. Amazing little dog.

By the Sunday, Gordon made things a little more challenging with 3 packets of sheep. The weather was wet, very wet.  We had no stop heavy rain all day, but it never seemed to deter these handlers. The first packet was 20 yards in front of the dog to the right just down in the hollow dogs really couldn’t miss them. They had to fetch them in front of the handler down the hollow and drop them. Turn back was up the hollow for the second packet. The third packet were in the next field; meaning handlers had to direct their dog through a gate to get to the sheep. Everyone managed to stop their dogs and walk them through the gate where the sheep were right in front of them. This gave the dog a choice of either hand out run. But Gordon said the handler had to direct them right handed.  Almost everyone managed, it with little help from Gordon.

This clinic was about getting your dogs to listen and becoming team players. From my view, everyone seemed to really enjoy it.  With less dogs, we had plenty of time at lunch with the white board and explaining things. Having this valuable time really helped handlers get the job done once on the field.  All handlers and dogs worked as a team. It was a joy to see happy faces and handlers realizing what their dogs where really capable of when questions were asked and dogs delivered. And that’s what it’s all about!

I’m looking forward to these guys running their dogs this Open season and gaining points for finals sometime in the near future.

It is always an enjoyable time at the McNutt Family Farm.  We would like to thank Micheal, Phyllis and Patti McNutt for having us . Especially thank you to Phyllis for her delicious cooking. It’s a real treat!

And to Claudia Frank (who couldn’t make it to the clinic) for her loan of the sheep for 3 days.  We couldn’t have done it without sheep of course. Sending well wishes to Claudia.

We hope to see you all soon at a clinic, day of lessons or at a trial!
Kerry

Photos by Sharon Allswede. Check out the gallery here. 

March 20^th, 2018, we all hit the road for a 4-day clinic at Shoofly Farm in beautiful North Carolina

Arriving at Shoofly Farm, we were greeted by beautiful, sunny weather. It was nice to feel warm sun on us again. Friday and Saturday were the clinic days which had a different variety of dogs on both days. Handlers and dogs improved over the two days. Throughout the whole clinic, we had all levels of dogs and covered all aspects of training: shedding, look backs, and blow outs. The clinic and lessons were available to all levels of handlers from very novice to open handlers. Almost everything handlers asked about was covered in this clinic.

For the Novice handlers, Gordon gave them more confidence on handling their dogs. He helped to reassure them that is was ok just to let their dogs have the sheep.  By handling their dogs this way it helped keep things moving rather than creating problems by trying to enforce a stop.

Lots of young dogs just starting with novice handlers are unsure of how to progress with them. By the end of the second day, the handlers had more of an idea of how to help their young dog move to the next stage of their training. It was nice to see very happy faces from these handlers.

Sunday and Monday were lesson days, with most handlers staying on from the clinic and some new handlers attending.  Lessons had more open handlers where they were working on the final touches for trialing. Over the four days, we just had one day of snow early morning by mid-afternoon the sun arrived and snow went home.  It was truly a most enjoyable clinic with a great setting and lovely people and dogs.

Every single handler went home very happy and with lots of home work.

Thank you to Robin French and all of the handlers that came out to the clinic and lessons. We hope to see you all again soon.

What a beautiful weekend for our March 2018 move forward clinic
The sun shined on us all weekend.

Most handlers arrived Friday with time for a lesson before the clinic.
This clinic was to designed to help handlers and dogs of all levels that have competed at trials. It was great for handlers which needed help with the finer details of getting around a course.

Kick off time was 8am Saturday morning.
With the morning session, Gordon set up a straight forward course for all handlers and dogs to run just like in a trial situation. Each run was timed.
We didn’t have a judge but a very observant clinician.

Five sheep was set on a tub of corn to keep them settled so each handler had a fair chance. Sophie was doing set out with Tic and they stayed with the sheep till the dogs had contact with the sheep just like at a trial . Gordon and other handlers watched closely.

What was strange was that even though it wasn’t an actual trial, most handlers seemed nervous and it showed a little on some runs with late commands, wrong commands and even no commands. As everyone took their turn at the post, Gordon and other handlers watched in silence until everyone had their first run of the morning.

When everyone had taken part on the course, Gordon went through each run in detail asking each handler where they thought mistakes were made.
Gordon has an unbelievable memory!  After 13 dogs ran, he remembered each run in great detail and pointed out what went wrong and of course most faults had to do with some handlers being a nervous. We adjourned for lunch giving each handler time to reflect on their faults. Of course the dogs hardly did anything wrong only by doing what their handlers told them.

Merry put on a lovely spread for lunch spaghetti and meatballs, salad and some handlers donated cakes for dessert.

The afternoon session started up again this time Gordon stepped to the post with each handler making some more nervous and some relieved. Gordon helped with the crucial timing of commands on the dogs making the handler react quicker to situations that came up. Most of the handlers had the same issues, timing on the lift and the first half of the fetch. The majority of handlers had decent drives but almost everyone had trouble at the pen. Gordon helped with smoothing the dogs out around the pen which helped keep the sheep calmer and making them easier to pen.

Sunday morning started again with the sun was shinning on us making it so nice to sit in the sun while watching.

A small course change with just a slight dog leg fetch. Nothing that challenging but causing a few problems for some handlers keeping sheep on line. Most dogs of course wanted to bring the sheep straight to the handler and it was up to the handler to tell the dogs which line they were taking without letting panic set in.

Gordon watched and stepped in if he felt anyone needed help. Almost everyone manage to get around without Gordon stepping out onto the field.
After everyone had ran, each run was discussed again, seeing much improvement in handling. Handlers seemed much more relaxed and their timing was better and therefore, dogs were much calmer with the sheep.

Sunday afternoon session saw big improvement. Handlers looked more confident walking to the post with much more purpose. The were making sure everything was in order before sending their dogs. Almost no one needed help until entering the shedding ring. Gordon stepping in to help most handlers at the shedding.

Pens were much more relaxed and controlled handler and dogs working as a team. It was nice to watch.  It really was an enjoyable weekend.

I’m sensing everyone took home information about their dogs they never knew before and how to handle many different situations with them.  Please feel free to leave a comment on the comments page. It’s always nice to listen to what handlers take home from these clinics.

Looking forward to seeing most of you at the next move forward clinic April 7/8 weekend.

Our next clinic is the puppy/ young dog clinic March 31-April 1 weekend .
One of my favorite clinics. Love to see the young ones starting out and how they progress in just 2 days.

Kerry

Check out the Gallery for more pictures from the clinic.

Trialing in Florida, February 2018

Recap on Florida trials

Earlier in February, we left cold, snowy Wisconsin headed for Florida for the first trials of the season on the 17^th. After the long drive and change in climate, it took our dogs a while to get used to the new setting. Temperatures were hotter than usual for February in Florida too.

 C54
C54 is a 2 day trial for both Open and Pro-Novice dogs. It has a big outrun and testy sheep. All of our dogs managed to have respectable runs for the 2 days. Storm placed 4^th and 8^th out of the 70 +/- runs. Monday, was the day for the Pro-Novice dogs and it was still a big distance to outrun for these youngsters. The sheep were rather testy for these dogs with lots of draws creating several tricky pulls. Ava managed a beautiful outrun, lift and fetch but had trouble on the drive away when sheep pulled hard to the exhaust. This left Ava feeling she had to stop them from running off, so we retired gracefully. Lyric managed a very respectable run and got them penned! Good job Lyric.

Asher Dell Farm
Tuesday was the start of 3 days at Asher Dell Farm. This is a much smaller field and very well dogged sheep that just loved to stand at your feet. This made it hard to get them away from you on the drive away with the younger dogs. Ava still had trouble with her driving away and was determined that her sheep weren’t going anywhere she didn’t feel was right. Lyric sorted it out and put a score of 81 taking first place in the “ranch” class. An early finish this day meant we were off to a trip to the ocean. This was very much enjoyed by all!

Wednesday was the start of Open at Asher Dell. In this small field, the clever sheep knew every inch of their field, therefore every escape route too. If you gave them an inch, they certainly took a mile! This made it very difficult to shed.  The first runs were about getting our dogs used to these sheep as in Wisconsin, we never came across this issue. Shedding was difficult for most. Also, these sheep were put around the course a fair number of times adding to their confidence in besting the dogs and handlers.

Flo put up a half decent run with 4^th place out of 59 runs. In the second round of Open on Thursday, we saw our dogs starting to figure out the sheep and we all learned their shedding tricks. We managed to take 3 placings: Flo with 3^rd, Hawk with 2^nd and Storm at 8^th out of 65 runs.

That’ll Do Farm
Friday brought a whole new trial at That’ll Do Farm. New trial – new challenge. This trial brought very fit hair sheep that taught one wrong move from the dog and they were gone! It was a racing match around the field!  First up were our young dogs in the ranch class. Ava, with her quiet and calm actions, managed to get the sheep settled giving us a 3^rd place.  Lyric drew a set of runners which took off on every turn. Gordon retired gracefully.

Saturday brought Open 1 and it was a real “luck of the draw” on what sheep you got and how quietly you could lift them. The sheep were rather challenging to the set out crew as they had lots of trouble holding them in place until your dog arrived. The exhaust was close to the field pen and the handler’s post. With this BIG draw, if you weren’t on top of the issue, the sheep easily made it to the exhaust gate. If you DID manage to hang onto them around the post, the drive away was the next challenge. They’d just go back to the holding pen. If your sheep were on-line, you couldn’t miss the gate, as they’d run straight through.  These sheep were a real test of dog and handler skills.

For Open 1 (out of 76): Hawk was 3^rd, Storm was 5^th and Reba was 9^th
For Open 2 (out of 79): Hawk 1^st, Flo 7^th, Storm 14^th

Now we are back home after 9 days of trialing. Wisconsin welcomed us back with warmer weather, red-wing black birds (a sign of spring here) and sunny days.

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