After I had been writing earlier on facebook, about me loosing concentration after I felt it wasn´t going as planned and ruining our runs at trials, two friends contacted me about it. After talking to them, I realized some things I can change and work on, and also understood why I might have reacted that way.
I have now tried to also "train trialling", split the run in peaces etc. and also worked with my own mind, talking even more to myself . I think I have found a good path to continue on now. Thank you so much, you two know who you are!!
Italy
WednesdayMe, Leena and Jonna with Rhy, Spot and Magda flew to Rome in the morning. Flight went well, got all our bags and dogs. Found our rental car, a big van so there were plenty of room for the cages, suitcases etc.
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| Italy here we come |
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| First stop after Rome, pizza and beer |
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| Jonna, me and our guide who didn´t understand one word english |
On Thursday me and Jonna went riding for 2 hours, nice horses but a bit too slow and boring...we had hoped for some yahoo on the beach. When it was time to pay, I had to explain with my hands that "my wallet is not, here but I´ll drive and get it...and that Jonna will stay as a deposit..." hah, don´t think he understood me, but he got his money in the end
On the afternoon we took the dogs to the vet control and checked out the trial field, it was quite big and wide. The outletting post was just in front of the outletting pen in the the upper end of the field (still a lot of room behind it), it was possible for the dogs to end up behind the pen if it would go wide. Sending right meant that the dog had to run past/in front of the pen...sending left was safer if you had a dog who loves the pens...but, the dog could get lost and still end up behind the pen...
In the evening there was a parade trough Piombino.
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| Team Finland in the parade trough Piombino |
I was going to run first of us Finns, as number 19. I would of course had prefered to run on the second day, when the sheep often have settled down a little by then. But, as someone said, you have to think this is the perfect place to run.
The outletting
We came to the field in the morning when a couple of dogs had run... We heard that the outletting people had big problems to bring the sheep to the post, that the sheep were running trough the 6-8 persons with one dog who are trying to hold them.
Well, I don´t even know how to describe it...so I won´t, all I can say it was a chaos no-one had seen before, brave and determined dogs were needed to lift and fetch the sheep in the middle of it.
The run
When I walked to the post, I noticed that Rhy was looking to the left, I was sending right, I thought that´s good so he might not be too wide then... Well, he went out narrow to be Rhy, I realized after about 100m he was coming in way too much, blew him out - didn´t take it properly so I stopped him, he turned and screened the field - saw the sheep, new right whistle and now he was back on track.
I had got an advice from a top handler, to let Rhy lift his sheep the way he wants, it´s so challening up there so you just have to trust your dog even if it seems he is lifting them to the the left. I trusted him and let Rhy do the job the way he felt was right, the sheep tryed to go over him (Leena had binocculars) but Rhy gave them no chance to run back to the outletting pen, so he got his sheep lifted at first a bit to the left, but then back on line again.
Fetch was okay, drive okay but didn´t trust my feeling that they were a bit too low in the end of the crossdrive, I noticed it too late so we missed the second gate. In the shedding ring I told myself "forget the drive, relax and shed", it worked, we got the shed done even if it took some minute before I got them calmed down and made the gap, Rhy came in calm and steady.
Then to the pen. Not many had penned before us, again I remembered the top handlers advice, give them time. We gave them time but kept enought preassure to make them go in. Rhy was really good here! Unfornately we run out of time in the single.
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| Rhy at the pen. The outletting in the right corner of the pic, a lot of room behind it |
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| Rhy by the sea |
Anyway, the circumstances had been hard for us "ordinary" handlers, so I was really happy with Rhy and a little with myself also. I have noticed a couple of times, that when the sheep put a lot of preassure on the dogs, Rhy is on his best then as he enjoys challenges. It´s same at work, after several hours hard work with angry ewes, big bunches of heavy lambs etc. and he is tired, he goes in in a mood were he just works and he doesn´t faint. I think this feature is one of the traits, that in my opinion makes a quality dog.
I should have been able to hit the second gate, but I didn´t and that sucks. I was still a tiny little bit happy with myself, for keeping the concentration and fighting spirit even if I had failed, because that´s where I gave up before. At this stage, I´m at the level were I can do good runs now and then, this one was an okay run minus.
If you have a look at the tophandlers, they manage almost always to perform good runs in all conditions and with all sorts of sheep, with several dogs and several days after each other. I´m not sure if I´ll live long enough to even get close to that...maybe if I turn 120yrs and still go strong ;-)
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| Food tent. Felt sorry for this dog, wasn´t able to lay down at all... |
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| Main course, tryed to save the chips from the meat juice |
Sunday
Drama in the double fetch final
Because of the problems with the outletting, the second bunch was set in a cage, which they opened when the dog approached on the second outrun. There weren´t any really good or wow-runs, someone said that on of the last bad runs won.
It was a hot day (again) and for most of the dogs it was really heavy to drive the 20 sheep around the course. There were three really nice dogs, the french who came second and two other, but they didn´t finish so they weren´t placed. The spectators were also really surprised, when one dog took down a ewe twice and still didn´t get disqualified. The spectators favourite parts in the double fetch finals are the look back and the international shedding. This time the winner crossed 2 or 3 times on the second outrun, even a video is up of it, but the rest of the run must have been so good so he eneded up winning after a good shed and pen. The last two runners dogs didn´t find the sheep so they had to go and get their dogs with the quad.
Italy will be remembered for the nice weather, good grand stand and the outletting issue. Next year the Continental Sheepdog Trial will be held in Finland, one is for sure, we might not have a big brilliant infra structure with grand stands etc, but the sheep are gonna be set out smoothly!
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| A walk with the dogs on the beach, Leenas first ever, and she even got wild and tasted her first beer |
Referat
- Finnish team became 6th, not bad
- Kari & Sammy had the best run, Juha & Shine ad a good one, me & Rhy okay, Mico&Börje good start, beaten by the standard, Leena & Spot, beaten by the standard, Jonna & Magda, Magda went to the outletting pen
-Nice stands to buy souveniers etc
- Expensive bad food
- Good fried pizzas
- Big grandstand, but the flags were in front of the spectators
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