A Senior Ribbon

We ran at Sierra Nevada on Thursday a week ago.
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The terrain was typical Nevada. Scattered sagebrush, undulating terrain. The distances were maybe 75-ish yards. We ran #24. This really was more of a test than it looked. The "ditch" was not very big of a deal, none of the dogs squared it. But on the go bird, many of the dogs over-ran the mark and got lost in the sage brush, some recovered and hunted their way back, lots couldn't and made big bail-outs and headed for the flier. RD just stepped on the go-bird, came back and lined herself smack in line with her flier. Her's had hooked back toward the guns and was dropped pretty short. I made sure she was looking in the right place and cut her loose. She nailed that one and was coming back when I heard the judges behind me say "Shazam!" Her blind wasn't bad. Her initial line could have been better because she flared to the left... I imagine she thought I was being a dolt and sending her back to an old fall... (I can see where she might have gotten that impression.) It took maybe 2 whistles to get her on the correct line. She entered the heavy tall dead weedy patch and looked like she was going to be OK, but I stopped her before she exited and gave her a back cast. She was on a perfect line after that and I let her roll. Just as she got to the bird I stopped her again, then gave her a tweet-tweet... she picked it up and came back. The judge asked me if I was showing off with the last whistle and I told her my pro would kill my @ss if I lost control at the end. She laughed.

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The go bird on the water series was long by Senior dog standards. The dogs really all went after it hell for leather, then hit the drop-off, many went under, came up confused and squared the shore, backending the mark. On the second memory bird, I don't remember any dogs that cheated, but several beached early, ran past the mark, hunted on land and never found it. RD had no issues at all. Her blind was great.

The problem, however was that it was a long walk from the truck, 4 holding blinds, a re-bird... she was a bat-sh!t crazy by the time we ran. She didn't break, but she crept. Her honor was OK. But holy smoke, I almost couldn't get her leashed up and I'm here to tell you it was a near-run thing. I honestly thought she was going to go for the next working dog's birds.

But we made it and got her ribbon. 2 more and she'll have her SH title. I won't be able to run her, however with the surgery I have to have, but I'm OK with the pro doing it. We're at the point that we can just start training for Master and I'll plan on trying to run with the big dogs next spring.

Aye Lass,
Congrats to ye and RD. Keep moving forward and good luck with ye surgery. Ye will be back in the game soon and TEAM RD will be working on an MH.👍

Slainte',
Mikey🍀🇮🇪🇺🇸

Sounds like you both did a great job! Congrats!

Well done :)

So RD has remained with the local pro getting field training every day. She's running triples and double blinds (Master stuff) with the "big dogs" in the group and she's doing great.

She got another ribbon in Portland in late May. I couldn't be there, but the folks in the group sent me videos. If you know anything about Sauvie Island, you know that it's lush. It looked to me that the line was in a marshy area because everyone was wearing tall rubber boots. On the land marks, she had a hard but tight hunt on her flier. (Tall grass, probably crazy with scent everywhere) But she went to the AOTF and came up with it. She hammered the memory bird. Her land blind was a one whistle deal. When Rocket Dog runs a blind... she actually RUNS it. Full tilt. Balls to the wall. The pro let her roll about 50% of the way, gave her one course correction and she was on it.

The water series was kinda in what may have been a deep stream, or a long narrow channel of some sort. The memory bird was on the opposite shore, go bird on the near side, so both were in-throws. Pretty tight to one another. The line was set WAY back from the water. A very tough entry for Senior dogs. If they squared, they'd have ended up splitting the difference and getting really confused. Rocket Dog took a laser perfect line to the go bird, brought it back, squared up and went straight to the memory bird. Really nice. BUT... on her water blind (bad girl!) she kept drifting toward the gun on the opposite shore. The pro gave her two left angle backs but she scalloped both. So then it was TWEET... OVER!!! That changed her mind and she corrected enough to step on the bird when she beached.

So only one more and she's got her Senior title. She's entered to run the Umpquah RC HT in Glide Oregon next weekend. After that she'll be home for a while, which is a good thing. I need her around for my emotional well-being, but God willing, I'll get out to train her enough to keep us both reasonably sharp.

Congratulations your, dedication, determination and strong will are paying off. Keep us posted on RD's progress. I'm running M in an amateur and a qual this weekend. probably get our a$$ kicked but it will be for a good cause.

Best of luck. I am always in awe of FT'ers and their dogs when they double stake them. Both handler and dog have to have a bunch of stamina. Hope you are both in the zone and bring home some ribbons.

I didn't get out with my group today because I slept not one wink last night. I think because I was expecting to get the final bad news about LeeRoy today. But miraculously, the news was good. I'll sleep like a baby tonight and get out with the group tomorrow.