Field Trip Friday #38--Sheepdog Competition

Today was Kent's annual summer work party and I had planned on that being our Friday field trip activity.  Kent was going to come home early, we were going to go up to Dal's house and jump in a bounce house and run around, and then it was windy.  Kent did come home about 3:00, but the bounce house guy wouldn't set it up because of concerns about it blowing away, and so we got a text saying, "Don't come now.  Nothing to do."  Well, I wasn't going to let field trip Friday be a bust, so we all jumped in the car and went to the sheepdog competition at Soldier Hollow, five minutes away from Dal's house.  I figured we could watch the dogs do their thing for a while, then go to the party, and we'd have a good time both places.

The sheepdog competition was super cool.  Well, Kent and I thought it was super cool.  The kids were engaged for about five minutes and then wanted to do other things, like climb up and down and under and over the bleachers, run around, and eat something.  Fortunately, there weren't lots and lots of people around to irritate, so we sort of let them do their thing as we watched the dogs.

The dogs began with their owners at the base of a hill near the observers.  Five sheep were released way up the hill and the dog had to run up to them, herd them down the hill and between two gates, further down to the owner and into a large circle.  Then the dog had to take them back up through another gate, across the hill going in as straight a line as possible, through a gate on the opposite side, then back to the owner and into the circle.  The dog had to separate the sheep into a group of two and three, then get them into a small fenced enclosure, and they had to do all that in thirteen minutes.  The owner couldn't help beyond whistling and giving the dog verbal commands, including getting the sheep into the pen.  It seemed very challenging to me, and yet the dogs were able to get the sheep to do what they wanted.  There were some fairly uncooperative sheep further complicating the process, and because it was windy, it might have made it a bit more difficult to hear the commands.

All the dogs we saw were border collies.  Although the announcer said that any dogs could compete, almost all of them were collies.  They were good dogs, skilled and obedient.  I was sorry the whole thing wasn't a bit more engaging for the children, but I do like exposing them to new and interesting things we have never done before, so I was glad we went.

 

Good dog!

The work party was a good time.  The wind died down and so we set up a volleyball net and played around a bit.  All the kids wanted to join us, so there wasn't any real "game" being played, unless you call, "Avoid squashing the little kids who are right under foot" a game.  We ate and talked and connected in a casual way which is always a treat.  We acknowledged Ron Bird and Kason Hills as being with the company for ten years, and congratulated ourselves that we are still in business at fifteen years.  How fantastic is that?  I didn't take a single picture of the work party.  I was too busy talking and playing.  But in spite of the fact that there is no photographic evidence, we did have a great time.