The Superstars....

Well....maybe not stars but they were VERY good. Today I took Jill and Steel to an AKC obedience competition clinic west of Jackson. I wasn't so concerned about the clinic (although the instructor is a judge so it was very helpful to have her point out common and very avoidable errors that people tend to make when competing).  My primary goal was to work Steel and Jill in that kind of environment since it is very foreign to them. The training, like many trials, was indoor in a crowded space with people who are not particularly careful about their dogs invading the space of other dogs. It always amazes me when people stand around talking, oblivious to the fact that their dog is "throwing gang signs" at all the other dogs around them. I didn't see much of that today, thank heavens, because even though he loves his momma Steel is not above reminding others that he IS a police dog, should the need arise. However his only interest today was heeling and heeling and more heeling. Jill the worrier threw concerned looks at a few dogs and then realized that even though we were not in the training yard, we were doing OBEDIENCE - yippee! yahoo! She got many compliments for her attentiveness as well as being "smiley". My only real goals today were for the dogs to be in drive, as high as they are at home, and for them to choose to work and be interested in me rather than the environment. I was very pleased to get both from each dog (I left the loudmouth home, he would be one of those dogs flashing gang signs....) and their skills weren't half bad either!