Soldier Hollow Classic

I credit the movie Babe for introducing me to sheep dog trials. It's a charming family movie about a little pig raised by a champion mother sheep dog. Babe wants to do what he sees his mother doing, so she teaches him how to herd sheep. He gets really good at it, but not necessarily for his intimidation tactics.  He learns a code phrase from the sheep on his farm that allows him to coax any sheep into doing what he wants. My kids used to yell "Baa Ram You!" to flocks of sheep we would pass while running errands in our semi-rural community.

So when Soldier Hollow began hosting their own sheep dog trials years ago we took our family up to watch. We were hooked. Justin has mentioned many times since that he has a dream of training a border collie and participating in a sheep dog competition.

One of the dogs gets his sheep through the first gate

Dory and her handler Amanda Milliken coax the sheep into the pen with time to spare.

The stare-down

On Labor Day weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to watch the Saturday events of the trials, which is a single lift -- the dog races up the far side of the course to begin herding a small flock of five range ewes down the mountain and through a course of several gates all under the direction of his or her handler. The initial contact between dog and ewes is called the lift. The dog and handler only have 12 minutes to coax the sheep through the course and they must finish by getting the sheep into a small pen at the bottom of the course. The skill with which they do this is scored by judges.

I have only ever seen in golf tournaments where even the announcers speak in soft whispers, but it's amazing how nearly silent the stands are at Soldier Hollow while a dog and handler are working the sheep on the course -- even when the dog and the sheep are halfway up the mountain. And as the audience watches the dog and handler try to coax the ewes into the pen at the very end everyone nearly stops breathing in anticipation. Out of the many we watched over several hours, we only saw two competitors get the sheep all the way into the pen.

At least for the crowd the atmosphere is very congenial, with everyone clapping for each successfully completed challenge or groaning in sympathy for a missed one. And I was so impressed with the handlers and how encouraging they were with their dogs whether the dog successfully penned the sheep, ultimately failed to pen the sheep, or he or she faulted by barking or nipping at the sheep's heels (no barking or nipping is allowed -- the competitor is disqualified and cannot finish the run if that happens).