Rose City Classic - Friday Show

We are finally home! As I type this Nim is on his second Imodium and Leela is pacing around him on the electric blanket...talking about her feelings.

Friday was probably my favorite day of the 3 days we competed. Our biggest accomplishment was actually our CGC (Canine Good Citizen). I wasn't a good enough handler to get Odin through it and so to finally have accomplished this meant a lot to me. It was probably the most fun CGC I have ever done too (I had tried twice on Odin, and once previously on Nim). They basically used the show floor so it was a lot of real life interactions...as much real life as a show can be. Nim got to be used as the test dog for a couple of other dogs that needed to do their test as well, so a great experience all around. I was so proud of him.

We also finished our Rally Advanced title. What was extra meaningful to me is that we actually finished strong. I swear my title legs are often my weakest legs and I hate it. What I loved about this show is progressively he was more at ease and more happy for the rally trials. That made me very happy. What plagued us pretty much the entire 3 days, and Friday was no exception, was the sits. Clearly sitting under public pressure is not easy for these dogs. Lack of automatic sits or having to re-cue sits cost us all three days. There was a key sign in our final rally run in which he had to sit in front of me...he got in front of me and then just stood there frozen, looking around me at all the people and commotion. I could hardly blame him.

Friday was packed with the public, school groups, special populations groups and lots more competing dogs. It was amazing and very loud. At this point the agility rings were really going strong. Nim and I were approached a lot by people wanting to talk to him and pet him.

The worst part of the day ended up being the drive home. I left at noon and I should have been home by 4. I was home by 7. There was a terrible accident and I ended up leaving the freeway and just walking around Lacey, WA for about an hour before trying again.

Now we are just trying to decompress and get ready for work (tax season is officially upon me). Nim has ended up being a little off with a lot of gastronomic issues. I am grateful this didn't happen while we were on the 3rd floor of the hotel. This is an extra reminder to me just how big of a deal these last three days were on Nim. What a trooper. Not easy being my dog. :)