Stuiker Trial 27 May 2012

This video of Jessie & me is taken by Carola Van Tilburg. I am very happy she did this for me, because it's really handy to look at your dog and see what she's doing and how she responds to your commands. You can clearly see what mistakes you make yourself, because it's never the fault of the dog if things go wrong, the dog only wants to work sheep and please his handler! I saw a few things that surprised me, and I will work on them to improve my handling and to give Jessie more confidence. But I'm also very pleased by the way she works sheep, and it's a pleasure to watch her without the stress of the moment, when you're standing there on the field.

This is what is called Class 1 trialling, more or less comparable with Nursery Class in the UK. I didn't shed the sheep here, just stopped them and grabbed a horn. The next week however (I have no video of that, sorry to say) I was able to shed for the first time in a trial! Bad luck my time was up then and we couldn't pen, because Jessie is actually good at that. She is a bit reluctant to come in at shedding though, and it certainly doesn't help when I think I'm helping to shed the sheep but I'm actually blocking them... But hey, I think I will get the hang of it with more practice for me, a lot more practice!