We attempted the first leg of the JHD on friday. The first leg has a 10 min time limit and you have to go through 3 "gates" plus a re-pen. I have been pushing Neiko and in practice we could do all the requirements. However, during the trial everything fell apart. He broke his down/stay to start. The judge told us to do it again but I couldn't get Neiko to calm down. Finally he did a stand and I heard "OK thank you!". Well, to me Thank you means, you're done - thanks for trying. So, I started to move the sheep back towards the pen. The judge yelled "no I meant you're ok, that was good". Sheesh. I was all flustered.
So we start towards the first gate - the entire time Neiko is doing his off balance circling and barking *sigh*. We make it through the gates but Neiko is moving between the sheep and the fence, something he is not supposed to do. He's just going crazy, acting like an out of control puppy. We get to the re-pen and Neiko moves the sheep to the wrong spot and holds them there. I get one sheep through the gate and while I'm trying to get the other sheep in, Neiko thinks that the 1st sheep has escaped and he needs to go get it. He charges in to the pen after the single sheep in an effort to bring it back to the group. Bleh.
Needless to say we failed. And I learned that we need to move back to the small pen. Obviously I pushed him too fast - beyond his ability right now.
The judge was super nice though and has aussies himself. He complimented Neiko's enthusiam (how politically correct lol) and his natural raw talent. He just said that Neiko needs more training and he'll go far.
It was a great day over all - despite the failure. Perfect weather and not a cloud in the sky. I met a lot of people and the atmosphere was very supportive and relaxed.
anyway, back to the small pen we go!