Sheepdog Trial at Nearfield Farm

This weekend Marli & Todd entered their first sheep dog trial at Roger Deschambeault's trial in East Conway, NH. They were entered in the Novice Novice class, which is for beginners. The following drawings should give you an idea of what the course looked like.
The first step is the Outrun. This starts when the dog leaves the handler. The dog runs out wide to get behind the sheep without disturbing them.

Next is the Lift. The dog should come in easy and get the sheep moving without upsetting them, and the sheep should start to run straight forward.

During the Fetch the dog runs the sheep in a strait line towards the handler, through the first set of panels, and around the post.

Then the dog must Drive the sheep up through the next set of panels.

finally, the dog needs to bring the sheep back around and Pen them.

Since Marli is used to working a group of two hundred sheep and lambs, this was quite a change for her, but she really did quite well! Here she and Todd are nervously waiting their turn to go. Marli was all worked up because she just knew something fun was about to happen.

Their turn at last! Todd paces back & forth while they wait for the sheep to come onto the course.

Some last minute tips from judge Dean Holcomb.

Ready. . . .

And she's off! This is a video of Marli's run. Sorry for the poor quality!

Here is Roger running his dog Roy.

Roy is a half brother to the new pup we are getting in a few weeks.

This is Lynn Deschambeault with her cool looking dog, Druid.

After their run, all the dogs jumped into this water tub to cool off.

The moment of truth!! Gabe records the scores. . .

Marli did really well on her outrun (19 out of a possible 20!) but fell short on some of the other sections.

She finished 5th out of her class! Here she is sporting her pretty pink ribbon!

We are so proud of her!