Trials, Bets, and Morals

Well, I had a very busy weekend. I packed up the trailer on Thursday and headed out to Janie's for the AHBA and AKC trials. After getting set up and settled in, Jaenne and I gathered up the Halloween decorations and went out to the field, in the dark, and decorated as best we could. That night, a huge wind storm came up and blew most of it away. I was bummed. But all the actual obstacles were okay, so this was a good thing.

Friday was the AHBA trial. We were offering a ranch course on sheep, an HTAD course on sheep, and an HTAD course on ducks. I ran Echo in all three. First up ... ranch course. Jaenne ran Kip and had an awesome run. I almost pulled Echo right then and there. But I ran her. We went into the pen (the part I was really worried about) and it was much less chaotic than I anticipated. She listened real well, and we were able to break off five sheep and send them nicely out into the field. We gathered them up and headed on our way. The run was chock full of handler errors. I forget that I'm not running Zip and that I need to not expect so much out of her. We got through all the obstacles, and even trailered all of the sheep! Woo hoo! Qualified with a nice score and a 4th place.

Next up was our duck run. I said to Katy, "Here's where we're gonna hear, 'THANK YOU!'" Katy disagreed, and made me a bet. If we made it through the course, I had to pick up a duck, kiss it, and say, "I love ducks. Don't you go changin' baby!" or some such thing. If I got thanked, Katy had to make a spectacle of coming over and bowing to me and telling me -- very loudly -- that I was right. Echo has been on ducks twice -- once when she was a tiny little pup, and once at the demo a few weeks ago. At the demo, she came up with a thick mouth full of feathers, and I am sure the duck's butt hurt. It took her a few "ha-pews!" to get all the feathers out of her mouth. Quite embarrassing.

So off we go. First thing she does is dive in and ducks go everywhere. I could have kept my mouth shut, let her grab a duck and let the judge say, "Thank you!" and giggle as Katy praises me to all that can hear her. But I didn't. I gave her a strong "aahhh!" and she kicked out. This happened all. the. way. though. the. course. I avoided disaster about every ten feet. My throat hurt by the time we re-penned. Yes, we re-penned and didn't get called off! Shit! I told the stockhandler to leave the ducks out for a second. I go into the pen, I pick up the damn duck, I profess my love for it, and then kissed it's ugly little head ... knowing I'll get Katy back before the weekend is over.

Next up, we go to the arena course. It's in a pen about 200' by 100'. I try to give Echo the largest outrun possible because it's a very tight space. She crosses over and holds them in the corner. I call her back to me. Tried it again with the same result. I called the run. No sense messing up the training we're doing. Kissed my dog and thanked the judge.

Had a yummy potato bar for dinner. Or was it the good squash soup with the sandwiches? I don't remember. Either way, the food was awesome all weekend. Kirk (Janie's husband) made his chicken noodle soup on day, pulled pork another, and minestrone another. All excellent! In fact, Kirk's cooking was taken into consideration when I was talking about stockhandling for the AKC trial.

Friday night, there was a little bit of wind, but nothing to worry about.

Oh the AKC trial. That started Saturday morning. I got up bright and early and sorted sheep for B course. Jaenne did an excellent job duck wrangling. I helped her as much as I could in between sorting and setting sheep and handling miscellaneous other stuff. Later in the day, we used those sheep for the PT course. I also had a completely different set for the A course. "A" course was probably the trickiest setout of all of it. That was held in the 200' x 100' arena which offers a slight incline from the setout pens to the point where the sheep are actually set out. So we set them on corn. Zip and I would pull the set out of the pen into the main holding area, and then push them from the holding area out into the arena. Jaenne would rattle the corn and have them follow her to be set, and then she would run back to the setout pens. After a couple of runs, we had the system down, and it ran smooth as silk. I couldn't have done it without her. Thank you, Jaenne!

Katy and Colleen worked tirelessly all weekend at timing and scribing for the judges. Jeanine was the trial secretary for AHBA and was a key player in putting on the AKC trials. Janie was busy running lots of dogs and being an awesome hostest with the mostest. Hildy did a great job secretarying the AKC trial and keeping things running very smoothly. Roy Sage judged on Saturday, and Judy Garbarino judged on Sunday. Saturday night, we all went out to dinner. Oh yes. dinner. Another bet with Katy.

On the way to dinner, we got into a discussion about Arlo Guthrie's song, "Alice's Restaurant." We get to singing it (yes, the beers had already started flowing) and got to the Sandbar, and low and behold, there is a pianist there. And she's asking for requests! So Katy and I make a bet ... yes ... another bet. I bet her that the pianist -- who was 150 years old and was trying to look 20 -- would know Alice's Restaurant, because anyone over 25 knows the song for sure. Katy disagreed, and said there's no way she knows it. So to make it all fair, we had Kirk and Janie ask her to play it. We could only give her Arlo's name and the name of the song. No hints. If I win, Katy has to stick her bare ass in Janie's pond when we get back home. If Katy wins, I have to call Jack (yes, Jack with Spike ... remember the guys who help us set up for the trial ... the guys that call Katy "Blondie" and me "Doll"? That Jack.) and tell him in my best sultry voice that I am about to go skinny dipping in Janie's pond and that I am thinking of him. Thinking how ridiculous that sounded, and sure she was wrong, I made the bet. Kirk asks the pianist to play it. She says, "What?" Shit! Shit! Shit! Ugh!

So back to Janie's house we go after a few more beers. We put glow sticks on the dogs and take them to the canal and let them run around for a while. Back at the trailer, I make the oh-so-humiliating call to Jack. With that out of the way, we're able to sit around and drink some more and laugh about all of the silly goings-on the last couple of days. We pack it in about 11:00 p.m., and I pray that I wake up with a hangover, so I had something to think about while I am mindlessly setting stock again.

No such luck. I'm awake at the crack of dawn and raring to go. It rained the night before, so the sheep were wet. Immediately, the legs of my pants were wet from the sheep rubbing up against me as I am sorting. Now I am cold and wet. Ick. But the day goes pretty quick with Judy judging. And again, Jaenne, Katy and Colleen were a huge help.

We made it through the trials and it seemed everyone had a good time and appreciated the consistent stock and stock-setting. Helping to make this a success for Janie was my number one priority. I promised her a long time ago that I would set stock for this trial if she were to put it on, and I wanted to do that to the best of my ability.

Now, despite the fun I had, and all of the very nice people I met, there were a few things that really got me re-thinking my position on assisting with trials sanctioned by the AKC.

One evening, we got into a discussion about a breeder who is using a blind and deaf double merle Collie at stud. I was talking about how horrendous that was, meanwhile, the other Collie breeders in the room were telling me that it was okay because the deafness and blindness doesn't get carried on to the pups as long as you breed the dog to a good eared, good eyed dog. You know, the advantage of a double dilute is that it will throw ALL merle puppies in a litter, etc. I was being "educated" and had a hard time spitting out my point -- which was ... you cannot work a deaf and blind dog so you have no idea what the dog's actual worth as a breeding dog is. But apparently that doesn't matter, because you can get working Collies out of parents that don't work, blah blah blah. Oh it all made my head spin. I hope no Collie breeders are wondering why the working ability in their dogs has disappeared and why they are having such a hard time getting it back.

If the AKC cared about the breed, why would they allow a double merle to be registered at all?

Another thing that got me thinking ... there was a couple who came from a neighboring state ... they had three Collies with them. They were "competing" in HT. I was sorting sheep for a different course at the time, but apparently, they weren't able to succeed with any of their dogs at this level. So instead, they wanted to complete an HIC. So more sheep were set for them, and another hour or so later, and they very proudly had their HICs on all three dogs. And they were bragging and taking photos with the judges and their dogs and acting as if they'd just won the Kentucky Derby. The fur coats accented the makeup and curled hair nicely. The woman could do nothing but shoot demands at her husband, and very rudely say, "Why don't you get those girls (Katy, Jaenne and Colleen) to hold those dogs? They aren't doing anything! And you can take photos!" I stood silently by and watched the spectacle. I asked the husband where they were from, and when they told me, I recommended a very good trainer near them. When they heard the trainer's name, they said, "Oh no, she doesn't like Collies. She likes a much harder dog, and she's tried to make our dogs like that, but it isn't going to work. We won't work with her." Come to find out, these people have the intention of starting up their own herding facility.

Watching how important these titles are to people wore me out. They now consider their dogs tried and true "working dogs." What they don't realize is that you can get most any dog to pass an HIC. All you're judging is "sustained interest." A cat could do it. It also made me painfully aware that, despite the fact that I am not giving the AKC any of my money directly, I am -- whether I like it or not -- supporting the AKC by helping out to make these trials happen. I disagree with the AKC and everything it stands for. I know there are people out there who say it's the breeders and such that are the evil ones out there, and the AKC is "just an organization." I disagree. The AKC has created a program and specific criteria that the breeders and judges aspire to, and that includes, in my breed anyway, a physical standard by which the Border Collie is judged -- as if you could judge a working dog's ability by how it looks in the conformation ring. And as long as the AKC makes money, it will continue on its quest. And if I am there to support the people and help them hold a trial sanctioned by the AKC, I am contributing to the problem instead of being part of the solution. After seeing all I saw this weekend, I will be hard pressed to assist in any future AKC events.

Happy tails,
JD