I had checked directions to the location from my phone the night before and the google maps told me it was 1 hour and 4 min away. When I got to the car, a bit later than I planned : first, I had realized that the directions were taking me over the tall road that EZpass only, that meant that my commute is now longer. My GPS told me that I will arrive there at precisely 8:30 and that's assuming I will not get lost somewhere trying to find that park.
Secondly, I had a bit less than a quarter of gas in the tank. Damn it! I am not really sure that I will be able to make there on that much gas and I don't really have time to go get some. My plan became - go until I can no longer go and then find a gas station, there got to be a one on the way somewhere.
Of course nothing went as planned. The "low gas" light came up just as I was getting off the high way and if there was a gas station on the way I would have stopped and gotten some gas. The problem was - no gas station on the way. With just 10 min to spare I had decided that I will go to the match considering that I was only 3 min away when the light came up. I know, I know, I had been told before that when the light comes up you should have plenty of gas in your tank to find a gas station. The thing is, my car is kind of funny that way. When the light came up, I was informed that I have 9 miles to go till empty. I hadn't make a mile when it changed to 3 miles and by the time I pulled over at the park, the indicator was letting me know that I had 0 miles till empty.
I got out of the car and went to register for the match, where I was given the match flier that stated that the registration is till 9:45! Cursing under my breath that I could have stayed in bed longer not to mention would have plenty of time to get gas and wouldn't have to be scratching my head now trying to figure out how to proceed, I asked where the nearest gas station was. It wasn't very far. I had driven on empty before. I should be able to make it ok. Smart person would have probably waited till the end of the match to go get gas, but with over an hour to spare, I really wanted to stop worrying about the gas business.
I found that nice lady, who seemed to be in charge, and asked her if in case I get stuck on the road if there is anybody here who will be willing to come over and rescue me. She gave me her daughters phone number. As I was driving to the gas station I was thinking that it probably would be smarter to ask her daughter to drive me to gas station to pick up a couple of gallons of gas instead of taking chances of getting stuck.
I did make to the gas station ok and finally was able to take a deep breath and relax a bit, picked up an ice tea for me and a bottle of water for Moz.
A friend of mine who lives near by came over to hang out with us, it was really nice. My handling in breed ring was horrendous, the only reason we got BOB is because we were the only dog in the ring, but we did get what we came after - the exam. The judge was a man and he did what any breed judge seem to do, jumped into examining his teeth before I had any chances to compose myself, that's the whole reason why I need to go to as many conformations matches as I can, so I can finally figure out how to be ready at all times. Mozart took it like a champ, although his stand wasn't solid and he tried to wiggle while being examined.
Before we had to go back into the group, Marina beat me up and told me to take longer steps, and hold the lead properly and bunch of other things. Those damn rings are so small that if I take large steps and move fast I ran into the gave on the step 3! Non the less, we did much better. I thought I was taking pretty large steps, but I got yelled when I came out of the ring anyway:-) We managed to get a Group II. We lost to a very nice dobe, but we also did beat a few dogs, the most importantly we did make progress, yey!
From the breed ring we ran straight into obedience ring, just having enough time to take off the show lead and put the chain collar back on, came right in time to do a bit of warm up and get into the ring. Moz as distracted, as usual. I think he only gave me a single straight sit, I had been working and working on it, and apparently we still have to do more work, he lagged a bit on the fast. He bumped me a lot on the inside of the figure 8, not sure if judge had noticed it. His stand for exam was pretty solid - the judge was a tall, old gentleman and Mozart didn't even blink. His front was almost perfect, but not quite. His recall was very lovely and fast. Overall just what I was expecting, no real surprises.
When the time came for stays, he barely made it through. He was hot, although it wasn't really a hot day, but he was sitting in the sun, he was stressed. On the sit, he rolled back onto his hip, kind of like a puppy sit, I thought he will go down so I start sending him reaffirming thoughts.
On the down, he just lost it. He was rolling from one hip onto another and started whining. In meantime, 3 dogs out of 5 in line had broke and ran for their owners. the owners went and put their dogs back in line, that commotion added to more of Mozart's stress. He became antsy and the whining picked up to the full volume. dang it! I am not quite sure how I am going to deal with his whining on stays, I am hoping that more practice will help it.
If it wasn't an "A" match, I would have probably went in and corrected him, but I couldn't do it at the "A" match, plus, I am pretty sure if I even had touched him, he would pop right up and I would have made the situation worse. Knowing that the other 3 dogs in the line up are pretty shaky, I've decided to let it go.
With all the rolling and whining, he did held his stay though.Even with lots of points lost for whining, we had managed to win the open B and even get the "High in Match" ribbon. Yey!
I had also entered him in BN class, which we also won. His figure 8 was better, his front was worse. He danced a bit on the stay as I was walking behind him and he started to loose his marbles as we were walking out. You'd think by now he'll be more tired and there-though lazy, but it seems he is just like a toddler that becomes more crazy as the tiredness progresses, until it turns into a full blown tantrum. Luckily we were done for the day. I took him to the corner of the park and let him run a little bit, to get the crazies out.
Later int he day I decided to take him to my grand parent's house. We were gathering together to celebrate my grandmother's birthday and I thought it will be good for him to go and work a bit more on stays.
He was very good, he let my niece check him out. He checked her out also. He did a long down at my feet while I was eating and did lots of down stays when I had to go do something. In fact he was so good that he start to loose it again, so I had to take him out and let him run out the crazies again on the front yard, then he could go back inside again and continue to be good.
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