Day 2 of Dixon Show

No obedience qualifying legs again today. Pie was still happy, again doing no warm up. She did her signals today but failed the articles. Not because she brought back the wrong one (she got them both right) but because she was confused and thought we were doing the go out! She went towards the articles, then veered to do the go out. I do not think it was avoidance, I think she was confused. Sh reched the far side of the ring and stood there, and I waited to see if she would realize her mistake. She did not so I told her to find it again. Usually I NEVER give a second command on articles but did this time since she was unsure what to do. She flinched forward like she thought I was proofing her so I called her name and she came towards me, then, just as the judge opened his mouth to say "Exercise finished," I redirected her with an arm signal to the pile and told her again to find it, which she then did. She went right to work and brought back the right one.

In open all was fine, still some distracted heeling, but stayed with me on the fast and no stress lagging. On the drop on recall I said "sit" as I walked away (as I always do) but used my "heel" tone of voice and she came with me. My fault. Yes- she should listen to what I say, not how I say it, but tone is very important (to my Mals, at least) and I should remember to be consistent. Goes to show that since humans mess up (and we understand the game) of course dogs can honestly mess up too. How would I feel if Pie berated me, or snubbed me, or glared at me or jerked me around by my neck when I messed up by essentially gaving her the wrong command? I'd feel stupid and not enjoy what I was doing and not want to do it anymore.

In groups, we did the down first. Pie appeared to have passed but the judge told me she inched forward with her rear off the ground, failing us. Also, as I returned she inched forward more, rear on the ground. Judge said we would have been ok with with, but it was what she did while I was gone that caused the failure on the long down. The inching on the return is stress related. Next we did the sit and she passed that. Last time we did the down first she went down on the sit but this time she passed. Good girl!

I'm dismayed at the number of times Pie has failed the down. It is the easier of the two group exercises, in my opinion. I've started practicing with food near her front feet so if she sniffs or inches I can tell her to leave it. Have to see what that does for us.

The ground was very wet, having rained all night. However, this was the nicest day of all. Sun shining and blue sky! We had a bit of excitement as a lady leaving couldn't drive her truck pulling a large RV trailer and got out yelling and waving her arms for people to move their cars so she could leave. She almost got stuck in the mud and I understand her frustration, but that is never an excuse for rudeness. She even threatened to ram people's cars then call the police if people didn't move their cars. Seems like she would have been calling the police on herself...

The drive back home on Halloween was fine. I listened to the last audio CDs of "Fall of Giants." GREAT story. Then I started Assagi (or something like that) by Wilber Smith. The first book of his I have "read." Started off cheesy, I thought, but I'm really into it now. I've never listened to books on tape on a long drive before and it is the way to go. I stopped at my parent's house to return FoG to my mother and saw her amazing Halloween costume. She had borrowed it from a movie costume department and she was the Queen of England. I forget which one but there was even a red curly wig. Very cool.

It was a a good trip to Dixon. Sleeping in my car was not a good idea, but it was nice to be on the show grounds with other Malinois people.