2009 BSCA National specialty
We had been thinking about this event ever since last year's specialty in Oregon. Joan and I were so busy with our committee work back then that we never had a chance to meet all the dogs and BSCA members we had hoped to. So, there was no doubt about it...we were going for gold at the 2009 BSCA national specialty in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin at the Olympic Resort. It was the first long cross-country trip for our dogs, but they all handled the traveling like veterans. Scroll down or use the links to the right to see summaries of each event.
Tracking
Chilko and Dave were entered in the Variable Surface Tracking (VST) test on Sunday, the first official event of the 2009 BSCA national. The VST is designed to test a dog's ability to follow a track across several different surfaces and in close proximity to buildings and other structures in an urban environment. Fewer than 5% of entered dogs pass the test. The VST at the 2009 national took place at Delavan Business Park in Delavan, WI. It was the first time we had entered a VST test. There was rain the previous night, the morning was cool with a light breeze. Perfect conditions.
Chilko started down the track (short grass) more tentatively than her usual hard-pulling style, but she was looking very confident by the second leg. The "moment of truth" turn took place in a paved loading dock area between the 2nd and 3rd legs. We've never negociated a perfect 90 degree turn on expansive pavement without some assistance during our training, but Chilko pulled this one off easily. The third turn occurred just before a paved road, then parallelled the curb for a 100 yards. This turn was very tricky and Chilko had to explore both sides of the road for a couple of minutes before finding the track. An AKC judge that was among the spectators told me after the test that watching Chilko figure out that problem sent chills down her spine, it was such a beautiful piece of work. We went off-course at the 4th turn. The track crossed a road, then turned left. Chilko turned left before the road and paralleled the track on the wrong side, probably following air scent carried on the cross wind. She eventually crossed the road and got back on track, but we had missed the 3rd article along the way and we're whistled off. The total track was 615 yards and we made it to within about 70 yards of the finish. My disappointment lasted 5 seconds. It was our first VST and Chilko did the moment of truth turn and finished almost 90% of the track!
Agility
The two agility trials (Monday and Wednsday) were held outside on the grounds of the Olympic Resort, the host hotel for the 2009 national. Rocky was entered in the Excellent B 24" class and Heart in Open JWW 20 and Open Standard 20". Joan handles both of these dogs. The Monday trial was one of those rare days in which everything falls into place. Rocky took first place in both his Standard and JWW runs among a field that included many of the best agility competitors in our breed. This was Rocky's 3rd double-Q, only 17 more to go for his MACH.
This was only Heart's 5th AKC trial (6 trials in all). She shows increasing confidence and speed every time she competes. On Monday she qualified and earned blue ribbons in both Standard and JWW! Too bad there was no High-in-Trial award offered in agility this year. 
Wednsday was a more typical trial for us. Rocky was fast as always and gave it everything, however minor faults, some his, some Joan's, prevented any qualifying runs. But Rocky and Joan are always fun to watch, Qs or no Qs. Heart didn't qualify in Standard, but did take another 1st place in JWW and finished her Open title! Hard to believe our little Heart is moving up to Excellent class in only 6 months of competition.
The great agility photos on this page were taken by Ron Worley. See more of his photos from the 2009 national at his Zenfolio website. And look for the agility videos from the national on our YouTube channel, FastBelgians!
Herding
The herding trials were hosted by High Reaches Farm in Hampshire, IL. Sheep and duck courses were offered, athough we are still only doing sheep for now. The farm had very recently changed sheep and the newly arrived Barbados were jumpy and didn't flock well. There were very few qualifiers on sheep during the two trials held that day. Rogue wascompeting in Intermediate A-course. He's not known for his brilliant outruns, but he ran soft and wide that day. Perhaps he had been watching the Advanced level competitors and already knew what we were in for. He worked like of a son-of-a-gun, but the sheep would split every time Rogue glanced at them and they would not come to me. Everytime they turned toward the top of the arena, they would dash in panic to the exhaust pen. We never even made it to the Y-chute during the first trial. We got off to a better start during the second run and Rogue wrangled them down-field to the handlers post. But these stock were no better than the first set and would scatter all directions with the slightest pressure. I moved out of the assigned handler's zone thereby losing a chance to qualify. But it was more important to get closer to the action and support Rogue. We managed to get a couple of head through the Y- and Z-chutes and had brought the set to the hold pen. But they bolted toward the top of the arena as fast as deer and Rogue finally lost his temper. We heard the expected "Thank you!" from the judge a moment later. Rogue and many other dogs displayed a lot of heart and talent in those trials, but those sheep were too difficult for all but a couple of competitors that day.
The green dogs in the test classes got the same wild stock for their Herding Tested (HT) and Pre-Trial Tested (PT) runs. It didn't seem fair. But the judges allowed a lot of latitude and offered advice to the handlers as tests were in progress. I believe all the HT dogs qualified. Heart and Joan were entered in PT for the first time. Heart started soft and made a good showing overall. But she couldn't contain her frustration as the sheep tried to bolt every time they looked upfield. During her second test, Heart got the sheep all the way to the U-turn, the halfway point in the test. I think she could have qualified on almost any other sheep than the sets on that farm that day.
Obedience
There were two obedience trials at the 2009 national (Wed and Thu). Rocky competed in Utility A and Open B; Chilko in Open B; and Rogue in Novice B. Joan trains and handles all of our dogs in obedience. Rocky had a beautiful showing in Utility, if it wasn't for needing a second command in the directed jumping exercise. He made up for it in Open B, winnning the class with a score of 187 (out of 200 pts possible).
Chilko also had terrific start to her run. She showed lovely heel work and a nice retrieve over the jump. But she was clearly thinking about that jackpot reward and started toward the gate a couple of times before she finished her exercises. She then walked through the broad jump and that was that.
Rogue has been so busy with herding, agility, and his conservation detector dog projects that he hasn't had much time for obedience trials. The 2009 national was only his second time in the ring. It was a large class for a specialty--12 entries. There were several dog/handler teams that really focus on obedience and turned in very impressive performances. Rogue looked so happy to be doing something with his Mom. It was an amazing run considering
how rarely he is trained. At the end of regular competition, there were two dogs tied for first place with scores of 197.5, and two dogs going for third with 197 pts. Ties in obedience are settled with a single heeling exercise in which the judge selects a winner. Rogue and Joan turned in a very respectable score of 194, ranking him 5th out of 12 dogs! It was a great wrap up to our participation at the 2009 BSCA national. Photo of Dave is courtesy of Shelly Brosnan.
Epilogue
We departed from the national on Thursday afternoon. We were especially sorry to miss the awards banquet on Saturday, where recognition is given to dogs and BSCA members that have achieved honors in conformation and performance events during the national, or during the last year, or over the course of their careers. Our own Chilko was given a BSCA Working Dog-Competition/Excellent Award for her lifelong achievements in herding, agility, obedience, and tracking. We are also very happy for our friend, Shelly Brosnan who received an AKC Outstanding Sportsmanship Award based on voting by BSCA members. Congratulations Shelly! And don't miss Shelly's photos from the 2009 national at her Deer Ranch website.
We took our time on the trip home to Oregon. We stopped for a day and a half to let the dogs unwind at Joan's Dad's place, 80 acres of woodland and prairie in southwest Wisconsin. The finale to the trip was our visit with Heidi and Jeff Sugheir in Boise, ID. We've been corresponding with Heidi since 2007, when I had a small part in connecting her and Jeff with a retired showdog named Eve in New York. It turned out that they knew this dog--Heidi had even made the trip with Eve's previous owner to pick up Eve from the breeder when she was a puppy . It's the most amazing rescue story. Joan and I finally got to meet Jeff, Heidi, Eve, and Ceska--their other female Belgian sheepdog. Eve played exuberantly with Rocky and Rogue, looking less than half her age! Jeff made us a wonderful dinner and the six dogs all got along like old friends. That visit was one of the most important highlights of the trip.
We're all back hard at work. Joan getting up a 4:00 am for bird surveys. I'm at my computer for hours. Chilko and Rogue are training every morning for a new wildlife detection project--searching for orange-crowned warbler nests. Life as usual.
Video clip of our visit with Heidi, Jeff, Ceska, and Eve