APCSM Walk

Overall the APCSM walk was a lot of fun!
My friend Aubrey came and Mother and Opal and Tom. Borderlands is a beautiful at this time of year. The walk was really nice. We had a gorgeous fall day, not too cool but not hot either. Lots of interesting comments about Tom's breed along the walk: "What is that? (said to the man the woman was with)" "I think he has some Afghan hound in him" "Thats a wild dog! (said by a little kid; that's my favorite of the breed game comments)" It's interesting how people want to know what Tom is. Is it because he looks like a puppy and people think that he might grow up into a noticeable breed? Or does it just illustrate a human need to label and compartmentalize everything? At this point I'm a little sick of the breed game. He's a MUTT!

I did do a little agility with Tony. Tom saw the equipment and went right into zoomy mode. I probably could have gone back to foundation work and helped him through it but I was a bit fried at that point and just did more equipment. Tom definitely associates the MSPCA equipment with zooming. Lots of tunnels at the beginning of the course didn't help much either.

It was a great opportunity to practice dog body language skills. So many dogs displaying body language. There was one moment I remember well when Tom was greeting this Boxer and the owner of the Boxer was saying "ohhh their tails are wagging they must be happy." Having just read some of the Stanley Coren body language book I had a very different interpretation. "Yeah, the tails are wagging but Tom has just pushed his chin over the Boxer's back (who wasn't too much taller than tom) for the second time, so clearly the Boxer isn't letting Tom be dominant and he wants to be, I think it's time to move on." Interestingly I watched Tom hold his tail up higher and try to have higher status over several dogs. I haven't paid too much attention of his status among other dogs before.

I liked how the contests were run last year, better. The first time I did the MSPCA walk they fell into the trap of picking little dogs instead of judging based on merit. There was some of that this year, too. There was less interest in contests which might have factored in, too. Tom and I entered in Best Kisser first. Last year I entered and wasn't able to get Tom to kiss me. For this year I figured out the canine psychology for kissing. I lay on my back and made smoochy noises and then when Tom started licking my face I turned my head away. Bingo! You have to act like you don't want kisses to get more of them.

Best Mutt was a little bit of a disappointment. Lots of mutts in the ring, some who looked like purebreds. The shelter dog they were adopting out and the woman dressed up as a pregnant dalmation advocating spay and neuter were in the ring. Many of the dogs were attracted to my high value treats and I passed out some jerkey. A little dog that looked like a Jack Russell got first and another tiny dog that I would have called a Yorkie if I'd seen it walking down the street got 2nd. The point of Best Mutt is that the dog looks like a mutt, not a purebred. I would have given 1st or 2nd to Teddy who was the shape of a Golden but had this awesome red and gold swirled coat. For Best Trick, I had some technical difficulties. I went with the cell phone trick but the Timer feature was hard to hear outside and it took me a while when everyone was waiting to program it properly. We got 2nd out of 2. A waving Chihuahua handled by a young girl took first. Tom absolutely loved his prize for 2nd. It was a green stuffed duck. In about 3 seconds he had ripped it open and was taking out all the stuffing. And really, isn't that the best part of stuffies?

A big thank you to all my supporters:
Cindy, Dakota, Krill, Annie, JR, Tricia and Larry, Helen, Kyle, Ora, Carole, Jan, Lynn and Lauren, Suzette and Tom, Hank and Tilly and those who donated at coffee hour.