Today Katie and I got up extra early and traveled all of about two miles to the county fairgrounds where we got our second leg of Rally Novice!  Katie knew something was up because I was moving around collecting things and making trips to the car, and the sun wasn’t even up yet!  To her this can only mean one thing…the dreaded GROOMER!  So she went and hid in the bedroom.

Finally I had everything in the car except my dog, so I called her out of the bedroom.  Poor little girl; she shook in my arms all the way out to her crate in the back of the car.  But as soon as we arrived (approximately 5 minutes later) and she was out of the car she was fine.

See Mom?  I’m not scared!

We walked around outside for a bit, then ventured inside.  It was sort of scary in there, a big noisy room with lots of echos.  But she ate treats right from the start, so maybe I don’t have to get everywhere a whole hour early just to get her over that initial fear.  Maybe she’s been in big scary rooms with lots of other dogs enough times that we can just arrive like other people, set up and go!  Maybe.

I’m not scared in here either Mom.  Much anyway.

So…we waited through all the Excellent dogs and all the Advanced Dogs…and then we were on!  Luckily one of Katie’s favorite teachers was there with a camera, and one of Katie’s favorite shepherd owners took some video of us!  And extra luckily, Katie’s Dad figured out how to get the video to show up here on this blog!

Katie did very well.  I, however, needed to remember to take the empty poop bag out of my back pocket!  And to move a bit faster because Katie pays attention better when she’s moving along.

But I’d proud of her anyway.  We got 2nd place with a score of 96 out of a class of 6 dogs!  This judge didn’t give out any 100’s the whole morning.  The winner of our class had a 99.

I think Katie deserves the nap she’s taking right now.  But it’s an awfully pretty day, so perhaps the park later this afternoon will be a good reward for a good dog.

Ya think?