Evil Pottery Sheep...
According to Grace!

Grace was once again AWESOME at her most recent herding trial. We had an ASCA trial this weekend. On Saturday she won her Post Advanced Trial class, the first time she had ever competed at that level. Only dogs with Advanced titles may compete. Not only did she win, her score of 110 (125 possible) was the highest sheep score of the day so she went High In Trial (HIT) Sheep for Saturday.

On Sunday Grace won her cattle class with a score of 86 you need an 88 for a qualifying score, in short, she didn't get her championship. This was the third consecutive time she has won her cattle class but had a score less than 88, she's had a 86, 84 & 79. The cattle have been tough! The good news is she went HIT cattle for Sunday. Missing her WTCH (Working Trial Champion title) by only 2 points is awful. I'll probably have to wait until May to be able to try it again.

The good news is I have calmed a bit about working cattle. After she got hurt on cattle in November, I had a really hard time every time she went in the arena with them. She loves working cattle and she is a really good cattle dog. She did get a graze from a hoof when a cow kicked her and she has a tiny boo boo on her nose.

On ducks, well lets just say that my dog is really the "Bomb" on ducks! She is so AWESOME! People struggle with duck runs a lot. As a handler you have to be quick on your commands and the dog has to be willing to take the quick commands and know how fast and how hard to push the ducks. Too much pressure and the group of five will split 18 different ways. To little pressure and they'll split 18 different ways. There are 125 points possible in the Advanced class, Grace scored a 121! That's the highest score she has ever earned. Her duck run was nearly flawless (as you can tell by her score). She did good!

On sheep I thought she was awesome. I really thought she would probably win the class but we were third with a score of 111. All told she was entered in 4 classes, she won 3 and was HIT on ducks, sheep & cattle, which just goes to prove how good she is at all stock. The photo of her ribbons from the weekend doesn't include her HIT sheep ribbon.

She's a winner!

Grace won her Novice/Novice class at the Black & White Sheepdog trial in Poway, CA. It was only her second USBCHA type trial. I am so proud of her. She beat 11 other dogs and earned $40 bucks. That paid her entry fee, put gas in the car and bought me soda!

(click the photo to make it bigger)

Next trial, hopefully will be the ASCA trial in on the 21st & 22. We want to get her final qualifying score for her Working Trial Championship title.