Busy busy busy. That how the last month and a half have been. We did get to go to the LaCamas Valley sheepdog trial in Washington. The store got a great reception. The girls didn't run so well.

Kate was sent on the left. Mistake. I sent her big, and she went too big. She caught site of the ProNovice field over the ridge, and I was not able to get her to back off from them. I think she wanted to bring both sets of sheep together. Her next run was just a repeat of the first. I tried to matter-of-factly go to the post, ask her to look, then simply said "come bye". That theory didn't work, as she still wanted to bring the ProNovice flock together with the Open flock. 2 retires.

Tam, because of what went on with Kate, was sent on the right. She came up short, I lied her down, asked her to look back and "away" again. Bingo, nice redirect. The sheep were tough for everyone that day, but her score was respectable. Her second run, as I think about it, I could just cry it was so beautiful. The outrun, I could see no fault , nice life and beautiful fetch and turn. Then craziness. She quit taking my verbal flanks, and I depend on them occasionally when I cannot remember the whistle quick enough. The drive was very rough. Next was the pen, and I had a sheep that didn't want to go in. One time it popped out, and Tam recovered it, then it did it again, and ran all the way to the exhaust, and Tam turned its head, and must have gripped, as I got a thank you. Darn, if I could have held it together, we would have made it to the finals. Oh well, next year.

Chris, as foreseen, was a mess in nursery. She had never been stretched out, and she crossed over, on both runs. She ended up with retires for both of them, but her second one was better than her first. So there was improvement.

In the morning we leave for Klamath Falls Oregon. I have never been able to go, and both of my open dogs are entered. I am also selling there, and will be towing a small trailer all the way up there. I did take one to the LaCamas trial, and it was much better than stuffing everything inside the little pick up. Lots of room! Six am tomorrow is out take off time, so good night, and I hope to keep everyone up to date about the National Finals. It starts this coming Tuesday.