Not Our Most Organized Day...

... You know how some days you just want to rewind and start over? I am thinking yesterday was one of those days! Well, at least after 12:30 pm.

We went to the Lake St. Louis shows for a couple of reasons. Laura was entering with Carly, our co-own pup. I wanted to see them both, and Carly's brother Sherman was also entered. I haven't seen him since August . I also wanted to get Hawk back in the ring to practice and keep up his attention. I wanted to enter Syd just so she can DO something outside of agility practice and conformation classes. And, finally, it was time to take a deep breath and show Kane in Open B obedience again. If he's going to enter at the CWCCA specialty, we have to get some practice in. It's been two years since he trialed (at the CWCCA specialty May 2006). I had to search for his dumbell and wash all the dust off! Kane and I practiced very little before the weekend. Like going to ONE drop-in class three weeks ago. That's how "little" we practiced!

Kane showed on the dirt floor of a horse barn yesterday morning, and I got a jolt when I strolled up to the stewards table and discovered that the 4 dogs ahead of us in line were No Shows. EEEK. With a smile, the steward told me calmly that I had about four minutes and then we'd be up for our turn in the ring. I took Kane out, we played a bit in the practice arena, and off we went. Anyone who knows Kane in obedience knows that we have had on and off lagging issues in heeling. I worried that Kane would be flat and stressed. The first exercise was Drop On Recall, and, well, Kane blew the drop. He took off out of his wait like a shot, and when I gave the drop command, he slowed, lowered his head, but kept creeping. When the judge finally signaled that we failed the exercise, I gave a second command, Kane dropped like a champion, and the judge was kind enough to finish calling the front and finish. It was actually nice to blow it on the first exercise, because the rest of the run was stress free, and great practice with my dog. Second was retrieve over the high jump, and that was great. Then came heeling and figure 8. I felt a bit nervous, but hoped for the best. Well, Kane did me proud, and he was happy, up, and heeled with me beautifully. I could only see his smiling face looking up at me, but friends outside the ring said his heeling was great, and his tail was up and wagging. That made my day! He even forged a bit on the outside turn of the Figure 8. We didn't even practice this once before the trial. Kane completely blew off the Broad Jump, which was no surprise. I realized (as we were walking over to set up for the broad jump), that we had not done any practice in a LONNNGGG time. Good boy, Kane, you gave it a try! Sits and downs were perfect, so I was really thrilled with how well Kane did, considering his mother did NOT prepare him for the trial.

So, obedience was over by 11:30, and conformation was not until 2pm. We went to lunch, walked the dogs, etc. For some reason, I was walking out to pick up armbands and some liver, and I looked up to see the ONE class Cardigan dog already in the ring. ARGH. Hawk showed before Cardigans, so I completely blew his ring time. And Carly was in the first puppy btch class, and I sprinted back to grooming, grabbed her from Laura, and took off. It was close, and I arrived just as the other 6-9 puppy left the ring. SORRY LAURA and CARLY! Poor Carly thought some mad-woman had taken her lead, the way we were running. I will say that once we were at ringside, Carly was pretty animated and alert from her big dash to the ring. Nothing like having all day to putz around, and missing a 2pm ring time! We'd been at the show since 9:30 that morning. I swear... I guess it's just another day, another dog show! I'd like to say it's because this was my first dog show, but that probably wouldn't fly. :-)