Home!

Got home from Valparaiso around midnight last night. Or was it this morning? Hauled some stuff out of R2 and fell into bed. The Farmer pretended to be asleep but I'm pretty sure there's no way he could have slept through Phoenix telling his papa how HAPPY HE WAS TO BE HOME!

Obedience yesterday had its ups and down. Rally and obedience judging started at 8 a.m. There were two judges but only one ring. With practically dozens of classes, the schedule went south in a hurry. By the time we got into Utility, they were two hours behind. 

Utility didn't go so well. Nix missed a signal (lights were on, no one was home) and that pretty much described the rest of the run. Although he did LOVELY go-outs to wire ring stanchions which he's never seen before so it wasn't a total loss. Generalizing go-outs in new places is a gigantic leap for a green Utility dog.

As the day wore on, I debated about staying for Versatility, which was the second to last class of the day. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us and looking at the judging schedule, I had (stupidly) calculated we could be on the road by 3 p.m. By 3 p.m., there were still about six classes left to judge. 

None of these classes were very big but being a national specialty, people entered every crazy class they could to show off their dogs. Who wouldn't? 

By 5 p.m., I thought about just cutting my losses and hitting the road. Then I figured it would be REALLY stupid (as opposed to only slightly stupid) to leave now since I'd already been waiting nearly six hours for Versatility. Might as well wait the final hour.

It was worth it. Phoenix worked like our morning Utility run had never happened and won the class with a 199 (a very generous 199, thank you Edree!) to finish his Versatility title. I have NO IDEA what the abbreviation is for that. Please tell me my dog does not have VD now.

We got on the road by 7 p.m. and were home by midnight.

I enjoyed watching 11 hours of obedience and rally. It was entertaining and enlightening to watch so many different malinois work. I've got some new ideas to try and met some fun new people.

Now if that stupid house elf would just show up and finishing unpacking so I can go back to bed.