This morning Katie and I went to our first obedience fun match! It was really a 4-H  kids dog obedience match, but there was a ring for novice adults and their dogs, so a couple of friends from our last obedience class went with their Shepards, and I went with my Katie. It was less than 5 minutes from home, and it only cost $10, so how could I not go?  I took my camera and one of the husbands took a few pictures, but the lighting was terrible, so what I share with you will be grainy.  Still, it’s Katie in a ring doing WELL!

Katie did her heel pretty good… most of the errors were Mom, not dog…though she still doesn’t like to be right next to my leg.  She sat instantly each time I halted, without me having to tell her, and she came like lightening on her recall.  When I asked her to finish (going around me to sit on my left, which she does just beautifully at home) she walked around behind me but didn’t come sit next to me.  Turns out there was something behind me against the wall that she had to investigate!  They cleaned that up after our run.  LOL!  She did great on the sit stay (see picture above where she was distracted but didn’t break her sit!) and even  made it all the way to the end of the 3 minute down stay!!  That was the longest three minutes of our lives!  She shifted a bit and I knew she was thinking about wandering, but she didn’t! GOOD GIRL!.  We did two runs, the second off leash, and she did just as good that time too.  I am so proud of her!

One of the friends brought her family which included two little girls, ages 7 and maybe 4 years old.  They were instantly in love with Katie; she is so much smaller (and “fluffier!”) than their 8 month old Shepard.  Katie isn’t used to kids and initially backed away (once all the way under the chair I was sitting on, I had to tell her “TUNNEL!” to get her to come back out to me!) each time they approached.  But by the end of the morning Katie was playing with the older one, and tolerating the younger’s more intense petting.  It was really good for her and I’m proud of her for that too.

And even better?  There was no food allowed in the ring, so she did all that work without getting a treat!  I gave her treats in between runs, and told her what a good dog she was.  She snuggled in my lap for awhile, licked my face and seemed to have a good time.  But I know she’s exhausted.  How do I know that?  Cause she’s SLEEPING!  Or trying to.  The Mom keeps taking pictures of her and that is so distracting to a girl needing her beauty sleep, don’t ya know.

We’re having a great weekend, sunny, warm…hope you are all well and having good weekends too!

Now we’re off to nap!