Fun with sheepdogs

I was at my sheepdog lesson Thursday (the lesson is more for me than the dog) and found out that there was a trial this weekend. The trainer encourages a few of us to go and the facility is only a mile from my house so, why not? Here is a picture of Rusty before:

I had to worm all the ewes this morning and at noon I had Rusty gather the rams for their treatment and then do some more work. Just trying to take the edge off so that maybe he'd be calmer in the trial.  That photo is how is looks after a dip in the wading pool and then a roll in the dirt.

After he dries off he doesn't look so bad if I brush him. Here he is waiting in anticipation for his turn.

We watched the Advanced competition, the Open competition and then we werer third to last in the Started dogs. Lots of waiting. Rusty did very well and came home with a third place out of 16 entries!

We'll go back tomorrow for another round of this. If he gets a qualifying score again then he gets a certificate of some kind.  (And according to the Wizard of Oz its those certficates that are important--don't ask me where that came from--too much sun?)