September October 2018

Finally, Finals!
W Lazy J Perfect Storm working hard to control the cattle in one of his 2013 Finals runs. Here you can see just how difficult it was for the dogs and
the stock to maneuver in the muddy arena. Photo: Elizabeth Leonard
Twenty-twenty hindsight
– Donna Marsh
I came home from my first Finals experience in Bryan last fall
feeling a bit disappointed in our performance but proud that Tex,
my first stockdog, got himself to Finals. In all honesty, I haven’t
watched our performance on the YouTube videos. I couldn’t bring
myself to it. I’ve never been one to make excuses for my dog or
myself. I own how we perform. But, hindsight shows me there was
more going on than what I could take responsibility for.
A fellow Finals competitor who has seen me and Tex compete
told me that starting in 2017, Tex wasn’t the same dog he saw in the
2016 part of our qualification period. He said in 2016, Tex was a
competitive Finals level dog. Not so much in our 2017 qualification
trials and at Finals. Dana Makenzie pointed out at a trial she judged
in late 2016 that Tex seemed “off.” She couldn’t quite put her finger
on it, but she started me down the road to finding out what was
going on. All vet check ups and tests came back “normal.” So, I
continued to train and strive for my goal of going to Bryan as a
Finalist. But, there was a nagging concern in the back of my mind.
Hindsight shows me that the dog that had earned a reputation
as a powerful, pushy dog had lost that push. I thought his loss
of his nice wide outrun and his willingness to allow me to place
him just about anywhere was a symptom of Finals prep burnout.
I remember, with a lump in my throat, a time in September before
heading to Bryan, that Tex came to me about half way through
an outrun to gather my sheep, and I lost my temper with him and
chased him away. After all, how could a Finals dog just quit like
that and come to the handler? He had never quit before. Now, I
know, he was asking for help, and I totally missed it. Sadly, Tex
has always been more in tune with me than I was with him.
I wasn’t angry with him because he didn’t have the push
necessary for the lambs at Bryan. I attributed that to me backing
him down in the take pen because of my concern he might put
one into a fence or send them flying out of the pen and my poor
positioning as a handler. So, despite a dismal performance in our
first Finals, the nagging voice in the back of my mind kept me from
blaming my dog. I knew deep down, something wasn’t right. But,
I had plans for Tex after Finals. Now that he had some handle on
him, he was going to teach me how to trial a dog. We had no more
pressure of earning a title or getting to Finals. Now, it was going to
be just about him teaching me to trial. And, he was going to help
me train my pup.
AUSSIE TIMES September-October 2018 97