Dog Show

I took the bus and let Mother bring Tom in at about 8:40. I liked being able to put my stuff down, get my number, go to the Pelletier briefing without having to worry about a dog. I helped a freshman with a sheltie look for a crate. I grabbed my math packet from my locker and asked Mrs. Brown if I needed to have it finished by tomorrow. Little worried about that because I specifically only did the even problems because I figure if I can get half of them I can get all of them. She's supposedly making sure we did the packet. Maybe she will, maybe she won't. It's like 20 pages, not kidding, so I'm not going to try and finish all of them. Back to the show. I thought Sam and Danielle looked particularly nice in show clothes.

Mrs. Pelletier told me "I scratched you from obedience because I heard that your dog doesn't know as much as you think he does." I asked to be scratched from mixed breed showmanship because it stresses Tom. Pelletier: "Does it stress you or your dog?" Me: "Him." She is a bit abravise. Just a little. That had me ruffled for quite a while. The nice way to say that would have been, "I scratched you from obedience because I think it will be less stressful for you and your dog and will give you more time to get him completely ready for next fall." And there would have been a teacher authoritarian way to say it. I think she crossed that line to the just mean version. Perhaps it's just me and being somewhat sensitive. Of course, a skill to have is to know what level of critique will be most effective. I am pretty susceptible to it and will respond to something said mildly if it makes sense to me. Mrs. Pelletier was yelling at everyone to get their dogs into the shade and give them water all day. Someone asked a friend, standing in line for the obstacle course, "How many did she say had gone clean?" (something like that) Mrs. Pelletier snapped, "what did you just call me? Apologize, right now!" I don't really understand how using a pronoun to refer to someone you're talking about if you are not directly addressing them is rude. To be fair, it was really really hot and I'm sure heat does not improve Mrs. Pelletier's mood. Mother commeneted that Katrin is like the opposite of Mrs. Pelletier, safety, not yelling, dog is always right, postive reinforcement, etc.

I watched Natalie's obedience try. Champ (I think that's her shepherd's name) wasn't very focused and messed up lots.

Mother arrived with Tom and unpacked. I set up his crate and everything. I sat with him in the crate, door open. He actually lay down and was calm, not looking around too much. He even closed his eyes a few times. It was nice sitting in the shade. I attempted to read and do hw but there were too many interesting things going on. My friend Justin came over to say hi and I had him hold Tom while I went to the bathroom. Tom didn't want to stay in his crate any longer. I walked him around some and he was able to lie down and rest but not as well as the first time.

Robbie arrived and we went over to the shade by the ring with chairs. I mentioned my Natural Resources major choice. Sam took best Herding Dog. Savvy is really really pretty.

Ms. Mattison was the showmanship judge and the judge for all of the dog classes. She graded leneintly, I think.


Then Simon Says. I did well until the command "Simon Says walk around your dogs."... "Stop." I paused, not sure it counted as a stop but whatever. I was definitely in the remaining third of dogs. Muscial bags I was thinking of scratching. There were like 30 dogs in there, way too many in any case. First time around a girl with a Golden got to one of the paper plates at the same time. Neither of us could get our dogs to sit on the plate itself with the other dog so close. We were both elimenated. It gave me time to let Tom poop and cool down before Best Trick so it was a good thing.

Best Trick. Mrs. Pelletier told everyone only to come in the ring if they had a really good or cute trick they thought they could win with. Denise trained her dog to speak four times when she held up four fingers. It was cute, but Missy was hot and it took a while to get her to do it. There was some hoop jumping, a sneeze, Sheltie jumping over a girl's arm. Tom wove through my legs in a figure eight backwards. He got first. I wrapped his leash around his neck which worked beautifully and solved the problem of how he can weave on leash. So that was my big victory. And it was my reserve trick! Cell phone I just need to slowly build up the criteria for next show. Sam didn't go in.

Obstacle Course. Long wait. Probably about 30 dogs. I critiqued the course to Sam while we waited. No one had a clean run before I went. I had a handful of liver. The course was jump, sit dog, you walk into ring of bones, call dog, sit, stay, you walk out and call them, tunnel, tire, jump, chute, jump, see-saw. No dogwalk. I messed up on the bones portion. I thought I was supposed to sit and call him out from the bones and not sit, stay, come into the bones also. Mr. C told me to stop and sit him before the bones but I didn't actually call him in. It was confusing, anyways. Tom only noticed the bones when he was sitting in the circle. But the next obstacle was a tunnel which I'm pretty sure helped. He looked great, had some speed and seemed to be having fun for the tunnel, tire, jump, chute. Except the chute was all tangled up. It's a stupid chute. A barrel with a long sheet attached. The sheet is too long for the fabric and all the dogs got a little tangled in it because it's impossible to push through cleanly. Tom put in a good effort but it wouldn't open easily and he turned around. So I got a fault for that. Really not fair. Next year I'm checking the chute before I start. Whatever happened to ring crew? Huh? The tunnel is also not staked down in any way. I mentioned it to Mrs. Pelletier (politely) and she had someone hold it from that point on. I think I'll email her the link to tunnel stakes at Affordable Agility. And the see-saw? Shakes head in disapproval. It is very low and has slats with lots of distance between them. The dogs slip and slid down it. And the tipping point is strange. It's almost 3/4 of the way down the board. Tom's seesaw was very clean and he hit the very end of the board. So I thought Tom looked the best of all the dogs I saw. He was really into it. He liked doing the obstacles and working for me. I think it's just being off leash that stresses him. Savvy ate treats and refused some obstacles. Mrs. Pelletier just wanted to be done at that point. I think I should have gotten a second go or something. Other people had clean runs and they were the ones who placed.

High Jump. I do not think this is a safe course at all! It's three jumps, a long jump, an obedience jump and the tire. They're all set really high and all dogs jump the same height. A Sheltie jumping twice it's height seems wrong to me. Can't they injure themselves pretty badly? I don't get why the school has this class. It's fun to see the dogs jump if you're not biting your nails that someone will get hurt. But is there a class like this anywhere? AKC shows? A Bichon Frise looking dog won.

Robbie liked coming. I introduced him to Sean. It seems a lot of freshman boys really like Tom. Robbie made a few comments about Mrs. Pelletier.

Mother pointed out to me afterwards that it's nice having a venue that Tom excels at. School lure coursing and the brainy aspects of the show. Mother spoke to Maggie some.

We went to Ward's afterwards for refreshments.