I mentioned a few posts ago that I planned to go to a small trial on the 19-20 of July. I asked for the days off too late to get them off. So of course I was scheduled for 18-20. Poop. Last night one of the managers was trying to figure out a schedule between me and another lady that had hired to help me, but has since been mostly learning the over-night cash office job. As it ended up, I was able to get the 19th off. But I still work Friday (which means till 3am on Saturday) and Sunday (which means being home in time to leave for work at 5:30 and hang in there till 3am...) Ella is really excited to go both days, but I'm not sure I can swing both days. I do have Monday the 21st off, so if I could just pull out the weekend I'd have a day to get caught up. There is a little mom N pop type hotel very close to the farm the trial is at, so Ella and I plan to split a room Saturday night. With the price of gas it's worth it to stay over Saturday night. Also for my sake it will be 5 less hours on the road! Her trials are normal done by about lunch time, so I could go back to the hotel Saturday afternoon, take a good nap and then make a trip back to Verna's in the evening to play with the dogs and let them run around. I think I can do it.....
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I did get Friday and Saturday off for the August trial in Gladys. I only plan on going Saturday to that trial. At the July trial I'll be moving Deal up to Ranch. No reason not to. She has all the pieces. The only thing she may do is not want to give me a good flank right off the lift if need be- but she'll do that in ProNovice as well, so it's not a problem caused by moving up. It's a distance thing, and she's improving. She doesn't always want to give me a flank when she doesn't see the need. She's my 'hardest' dog, as far as "I'll just do this my way thank you very much". What she has going for her is that usually her way is also my way, because she's a very talented bitch. She was terrible about cheating during our shedding work at Carol's. She was really being pushy about not giving me a quick stop and then she was creeping. (Carol noted that Deal didn't seem to fully understand the task- so I should take it back to the fence with her for awhile) We all know that being overly pushy and not stopping on a dime doesn't work at a pen or a shed! She leans on her sheep something terrible. I asked Carol what I needed to do, and she told me I need to walk to her and let her know a stop is a stop and to also really get in her space if she creeps in. I told her I didn't want to put too much "back off" pressure on her, and she grinned and said that Deal is not going to have any problems. She said "you'll never take anything out of that dog". Meaning Deal's enough dog that she can take some serious pressure from me to quit leaning on her sheep at a pen or a shed. I'll do lots of penning and chute work with her to work on the backing off, and then go back to shedding work when she's more responsive to a verbal get back. Asking her to back off on the shed work is putting too many steps together in my opinion.
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Off to get some things done before work. Worked until 5am again "yesterday".............
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