We need more motorway travel! Ria found it somewhat alarming, I think since the motorbike incident as she was ok before - it's cars travelling at speed, especially if the engines are particularly noisy/revving or sound like a motorbike! Or motorbikes - she's really not happy about motorbikes. She still seems to be ok with more "regular" traffic so we'll get there. (I hope!)

From her point of view the show was really good - she dealt with it quite well, although she found some bits a bit scary (still not confident of barking dogs, for example) her confidence increased as the day went on, and she was even going up to big dogs to say hello :-) She is incredibly submissive - a lot of it is spent on her back, and it's rare she gets off her tummy - but she's doing it!

I even had a couple of people comment on what a lovely temperament she had and what a bold little puppy she was :-) So we can't be doing badly!

I put Solei in the obedience, and then at the last minute changed my mind and put Elton in too. Solei was awful....not as bad as he'd got to by last August, but after starting the year so positively he once again left me wondering if it was time to call it a day. Elton...well. His heel on lead was a little ropey, his heel free was "fantastic" (so said the judge!), his recall was quite good annnnnnnnnd he did a dumbbell retrieve :-D We still haven't cracked the sitting at the end bit, but he did the rest perfectly.

I thought his stays would be ok cos they were only short (30 sec sit 1 min down - in training he can do double that easily, he's only been in the ring once but then he did a 1 min sit no problem and broke 1 1/2 minutes into a 2 minute down). No, he decided to follow me to the middle of the ring - I think he lasted 2 seconds! He's never done that before. Though I realised after the only time he's ever done stays in competition was all toy dogs and I've never practiced stays outside before. Oops.

Anyway, Elton breaking stays wouldn't have been so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact he wouldn't come close enough for me to pick him up, I was limited as to what I could do (cos of the chair - didn't want to risk moving for disturbing other dogs, and of course I had Solei in the ring too). Despite the fact he was wandering round their feet nobody (stay stewards) actually stopped him (so not impressed) and he wandered over to the other side of the ring, where a GSD thought "OH, LUNCH!" and pounced on him. Ok Elton shouldn't have been wandering, but he did nothing - he was just standing a couple of metres away not paying this dog any attention at all. GSD owner reacted very quickly (almost too quickly...) and pulled the GSD off almost as soon as it landed on him, Elton screamed, put his tail down and came running back to me....he seems ok (physically anyway - god knows mentally!) so I hope he is. I don't even want to think about what could have happened if the owner hadn't reacted that quickly.

I was told a couple of days later that that dog has done it before (well that explains the quick reaction...) and not only that, but the owner had the cheek to ask the judge if the dog had lost marks for breaking stays!! Um...yes! (They don't usually mark them if they're "interferred with", but that means another dog physically going up to them....not standing a distance away and your dog thinking "lunch!")

Yesterday Ria attended her second ringcraft session. It was match night, so I'd taken her to watch - they do normally have a baby puppy class, but it's usually 4-6 months - and she's not 4 months until the 26th. I usually take Elton too, but I'd been dropped off and I couldn't manage them both on my own! So I went up to pay for me and they asked if I wanted a form, I said I hadn't brought anything I can enter. They told me to put Ria in the Puppy Walk anyway!

So Ria did the Puppy Walk :-) Along with 3 other puppies. She wouldn't let the judge see her teeth but was very good when I did it, was ok at being gone over and then bounced her way around the ring with a few strides of nice movement in between! She was wonderful, exactly as a baby should be <3 She did a fantastic stand at the end of her up and down, and stood ok the rest of the time - legs weren't perfect, but she held it well! And she won! :-D Her first competition and her first rosette...<3 at 3 months old! Very proud.