Although Laura might be induced to toot her own horn, I thought I'd save her the trouble and do it for her.

Laura ran Nick in only their third trial this past weekend in pro-novice. They had a gorgeous run on Saturday and won the class. Then she went back on Sunday and tied for first, which meant a run off to determine the winner. Laura was caught off guard and had to run back to her van to get Nick for the run off, which left her a bit flustered, and then they had the bad luck to draw a tough set of sheep, which they still managed to handle pretty nicely around the course. Unfortunately, they didn't win the run off, so they placed second in the class on Sunday.

And their combined scores from Saturday and Sunday made them the overall pro-novice champions for the weekend.

[ETA: So that what they did will be put in context for those unfamiliar with sheepdog trials: In the eastern part of the country, USBCHA type trials are broken into four classes. Novice-novice, is for novice handlers and their novice dogs and generally has a short outrun, lift, and fetch, a wear (handler-sheep-dog) through a set of drive panels, and pen. Pro-novice includes teams where one member is a "pro," for example, an open-level dog with a novice handler or an open handler with a young dog they're bringing along, as well as dog-handler teams moving up from novice-novice. The course has a longer outrun than N/N and the handler must stay at the post while the dog drives the sheep through the drive panels, leaving the post after the panels are made or missed to go to the pen. Open ranch is the third class, and is basically the full open course, without the shed and sometimes with a slightly shorter outrun. The course consists of the outrun, lift, and fetch, a drive away through one set of panels, a cross drive through another set of panels, and a return leg to the pen. The nursery course is the same as the open ranch course and is limited to dogs who are 2.5 years old or less by Dec. 31 of the year preceding the year in which they would attend the nursery finals (so for example, any dog who is 2.5 years old or younger as of Dec. 31 2008 is eligible to compete in the 2009 nursery finals and so could run in nursery classes this year). The step up from P/N to ranch/nursery is a huge one because the size of the course increases dramatically.]

They also had a lovely nursery run (open ranch course on tough sheep) on Saturday to win the class with a score of 71 (out of 90).

Laura and Nick are an awesome team, and I foresee great things in their future!

J.

Woo hoo! Go Laura and Noodleman! I hope someone got pics or video or something.

Sherri,
I think Becca got video on Saturday and will probably post it sometime soon. Sorry, no pics, but we were sort of scrambling since I ran two littermates to Nick and there wasn't time to get photos and run dogs.

J.

WOOOHOOO Congrats Laura and Nick!

Very cool - congrats Laura and Nick!

And thanks for the explanation for us non-herding people!

Wow, congrats, Laura and Nick!! That's way impressive!

Great Job, Nick and Laura.

YAY!! Huge congrats. Way to go, Team Noodle! You guys rock.

Congratulations. He might not be a Noodle anymore.

Thank you all very much! It was a good weekend - and of course Julie and her dogs had some great successes themselves! Nick was a very good boy, and we had a blast together!

I am late!!! Wahooo for team Noodlaura!!!! (NudeLaura!!!) And thanks to Niners for the explanation!!!

Woo-hoo! That's awesome...Congrats guys!!

Congratulations! The explanation really helped me, too. I'm hoping Havana and I can compete next fall in Novice-Novice and now I have a better idea of what we need to do. 'Course we know that Laura and NickyNoodle are a great team, but it's nice to have it backed up.

You guys freaking rock.

That's awesome! What a team.

Woo Hoo! We are all cheering here for Laura and Nick. Beauty and Talent. Woo Hoo!

Thank you all! Nick's been very full of himself this week - all prancing around and stuff.

He has every right to be proud. Watch out Linc, you're next!

Well, here's a very well-deserved congratulations!

Wow, what a great weekend, congratulations! I would love to attend one of those events as a spectator ... maybe someday I will be able to, instead of just reading Donald McCaig books.

Congrats Laura and Nick!!