Aberrant Prose

Paris turned 5 today

Not only did Paris turn five today, so did Chris’ dog, Seven.

Having a five-year-old dog is very nice—so settled, so obedient—no wild and crazy, no getting into stuff all the time. When we leave shoes on the floor she totally ignores them. This is so different than her younger days—grabbing stray shoes and running around the house egging us on with her “catch me if you can” look.

I really discovered how nice it is to have a mature, obedient dog when I signed Paris up for rally class. I had to take her out of agility (temporarily) because my physical therapist told me not to do any running for at least two months. So, I decided to put her in rally this session. Turns out all that agility training (3 years’ worth) has made her an excellent rally dog. The very first course we ran the teacher said, “Oh my goodness! Paris is ready for competition!” Paris made it look so easy; she even did better than the one advanced dog in the class! Of course it helped I have had Dakota in rally (three sessions now) so I am pretty familiar with rally stations.

Up until Paris’ debut, I thought Dakota was doing really well considering she is only two (and the teacher agreed). Now after seeing how Paris has taken to rally Dakota seems very newbie to me.

I plan to enter Paris in a trial in Petaluma in March. By then I should be physically ready. By then I should be able to remember to follow the rally signs correctly i.e., to NOT turn left when directed to turn right. One thing for sure, if we don’t qualify it won’t be because Paris didn’t do it right!

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