My First AKC Herding Trial
First, lets all agree the following are true:
One of the greatest lies ever told to man was that sheep were stupid.
Stock Judges will editorialize the longer their judging day is. Disagree to keep up appearances, but you know it’s true.
I can’t draw.
So now that we can all agree the above is true – even if only to ourselves – we can talk about the lovely AKC Herding trial that Willimate Valley Herding put on at Fido’s Farm. My judge was Craig Watson, who was both a great source of information and totally entertaining. My favorite combination in a judge I work for. Craig is a Cattle Dog (ACD) person, but has run BC’s and Aussies.
I timed for A course and B course sheep.
The A Course looks something like this:
Remember we’re all agreeing that I can’t draw. So this is not to scale and should not under any circumstanced be used to train for a course. In AKC (or at least here at this AKC trial) sheep are set out and held at a pan with some sheepsnacks in it. So the sheep are set out and they go to the pan from there they are picked up by the dog in the standard outrun/lift/fetch sort of way. If you look at the diagram you can see the flow of sheepies (in green). Like any other sanctioning group, AKC will allow the dog to move the stock through obstacles by entering them. As it was pointed out to me though, this can be both a blessing and a curse. For instance on the Z obstacle at the top of my horrid drawing, if they dog follows in and is either too large or not trained to go inbetween bars they can loose their sheep at the end of the chute and loose course points on the way to the Hold Station. On the other hand, not ever dog seemed to have the skill or power to move sheep through every obstacle without pause. Also where ASCA has basic course points AKC dings for being ‘off line’ at just about any point and there are a lot of lines. The rules for Started are not so different between ASCA and AKC. Though in AKC there is a zone from the back fence that includes the pan where even a Started handler cannot go.
This is the AKC B Course. Apparently it is affectionately known as The Border Collie Course. I can’t imagine why.
As in the A Course your sheep are set out and then held at one of those Red (Adv), Orange (Intermediate) or Pink (started) poles. In this case, as person and their dog held the sheep in place. So instead of a pan you have to outrun/lift/fetch off of a strange person with a strange dog. Simon could never do this course. He’d sit at the person and wait for his cookie before continuing. 
The sheep fetch toward you, go around you and the post then drive over through the panels and into the poorly drawn pen. From the pen they go to the sawdust circle. I’m not sure if sawdust is the required material, but yes real sawdust was used. The advanced handlers have to do a shed – one pair of sheep go one direction and one pair go the other direction. Hold this for a few sections and then you’re done. Started handlers only need to hold their stock in the circle for the predetermined amount of time.
Just in watching, I was thinking about how to apply these new course options in our training plan. It looks like a started A course would fit nicely between ASCA Started and ASCA Open, or even after ASCA Open. In there somewhere. B course is totally daunting, but I think that’s what makes it appealing. it might make a nice stepping stone if we ever gained the skills to think about doing a BC trial when i’ve not had 2 or 3 beers. Even looking at these course maps makes me a little dizzy, but challenges make us better. Just like naps and dinner. ‘Night all.
The shedding pen is marked with sawdust so as not to spook the sheep, who are not the brightest bulbs in the string.
Just watched my first AKC course myself, and the A Course looked daunting for my BC!