Last Saturday was Ria's first "proper" show experience....she's been to a few companion shows and one open show before, but it was part of an agricultural show (Bath & West) and so a completely different atmosphere.

I was actually very pleased with her. She was a bit nervous of some of the other dogs - especially large and/or black ones. Including a black Pekingese! - but on the whole I was very pleased with her, and she coped much better than I thought she might. I was actually very lucky because it was a beautiful day and a lot of the breeds were being judged outside and people had set up out there, so the building was a lot quieter and emptier than usual - but still busy enough. Perfect for a young pup at her first show :-)

She was admired by many and I even took her around the ring which was all good experience! I can't believe as I'm writing this it's less than four weeks until her first "real" show in which she's showing .

Took her to obedience on Monday, which of course couldn't be without drama! We were doing individual recalls and I was really pleased with her...she sat and waited whilst I walked across the room, I turned round and called her upon which she started towards me. Just as she arrived a dog behind her growled/barked which she jumped at but would've been ok - unfortunately that started a German Shepherd off! Poor Ria leapt out of her skin and ended up on the other side of the room. She came back to me when I called and we did eventually manage to repeat it successfully, but she was not happy for the rest of the class then. Had her ears pinned back and was very jumpy.

Then there was Elton! He was as last week outside the hall, so I took him in for the class - and although it wasn't the best selection of exercises (we spent half the class practising a "road walk" for the silver good citizen award) he was definitely more like the old Elton I love so much :-) So that was positive!

Ringcraft on Tuesday, outside again....what can I say except more practise needed lol. Badly needed, as her first shows will be on grass and we just haven't got it together yet. Too many interesting smells, anything that looks vaguely different to grass (a leaf..etc) has to be thoroughly investigated cos it may be edible :-P and I need to work on the angle she stands on to me, cos at the moment it's funny more often than not.

We went walking on Wednesday....I took her to a park that she's never been to before. Recall wasn't quite as good as usual but not bad, it wasn't helped by the fact there were some teenagers near by that were making me decidedly nervous!

Walking again on Thursday - I took her down the road to the vets and got her weighed (she's put on nearly 4lbs in a month!) and then walked home through the back so she could have a bit of a run. She took exception to a cut down tree! I have no idea why, but what was left of it (a very substantial trunk) was apparently very scary :-P

And walking yet again yesterday! Took her to a new area for both of us, so kept her on lead for safety as I didn't know what was ahead...we didn't go far, only about 15 minutes, she was not good! Too exciting, controlled walking was not particularly controlled.