WFAC, Hop Bottom SDT, Finals Benefit SDT

It sure is easy to get behind on this blogging stuff. Life has been crazy busy this last month. Following the trial at Dr Ben's, we had to get ready and host the 3rd Whistle for a Cure SDT. It was a very successful weekend, with nearly $3000 raised for ovarian cancer research at Duke. The weekend after that, i loaded up the pack and we drove to Hop Bottom, PA for the PA State Championship SDT, hosted by Dick and Cheryl Williams. It's a fun little trial and they're always such gracious hosts. I was hoping to pick up some qualifying points on Bill for the Finals, but it wasn't meant to be, as we drew sheep that just didn't want to pen on both runs. Zac ran very well, finishing 10th the first day and 5th the second, out of about 85 dogs. The last weekend in June, we went to a benefit trial for the 2010 Finals at Dr Ben's place. There weren't a lot of dogs running but it was fun. Bill had a mostly really nice run in the first round, but a mess at the top with the setout knocked him out of the placings. Zac was winning the trial when he decided to grip after a successful shed. That was my fault for calling him in at a bad angle but it was disappointing as he had the trial won hands down. The second day, Bill had better luck at the top end and finished 3rd, picking up a couple more points towards the Finals. I don't know if he'll have enough, and we have only one more shot at it, but he's had a good year and will run in the Nursery Finals at least.

On the way to the benefit trial, i stopped and picked up my new camper. It's a little longer than the last one, and has a slide, and i think i'm really going to like it. There's a ton more room. I thought it was a good time as i'm getting ready to go on an extended dog training/trialing trip. I'll be heading to ND on July 17, training dogs for 9 or 10 days, then head to the Upper Midwest SDT in Jordan, MN, then head over to Kingston, Ontario for the big trial there. I'm especially looking forward to the training time, getting Bill and Zac and Jet out on a whole different kind of sheep than they've ever seen, on new fields, and spending some time getting Tug started, as well as seeing lots of new dogs, meeting some new people and getting some new training ideas. It should be quite the adventure!