My Obedient Dog

Sure, she looks like an angel when she is sleeping. . .

But those of us who know pocket know that she is anything but! Pocket is a little spit fire - and that is the nice way of putting it! She is naughty in every sense of the word. She only does what she wants when she wants. She will only listen to you if you have really great treats, and only if she feels like it. She has bitten more then one person just because they were making her do something she didn't want to do.

But pocket isn't a bad dog. She isn't the typical biting chihuahua. She isn't afraid of people - not even strange and creepy men. She doesn't turn away from bouncing children. She doesn't get snarfy with other dogs. She isn't even a barker. Pocket is actually a really good dog - as long as she is doing what she wants to do.

Which is why she totally surprised me last weekend at an AKC obedience match. Obedience has very strict guidelines. There is a designated course that you and your dog must follow including heel, sit, sit stay, down, down stay, stand for exam, and recall. This may sound easy but everything must be executed according to the rules and guidelines set forth by the AKC. Many people can do some of these things with their dogs, but not many people can do it in a distracted setting with other dogs and judges. People who do AKC obedience train for a long time before their dogs get even the basic CD.

Why in the world would I ever think that I could walk into a ring with my non-obedient dog (not exactly disobedient) and do half of these things? Because I was doing it with little miss pocket. And you know what? She was flawless. . .almost! She had a perfect heel. Beautiful automatic sits. Her right turns, about turns, and left turns were smoother then mine. She did a wonderful stand for exam for a strange woman with a scary cane. She did an excellent stay - too good of a stay. She never recalled off the stay. . .yep. . .that's my dog! I was starting to wonder what happened to her to make her behave so well. I was almost relieved when she made me look like a fool. But eventhough I looked silly at the end, we didn't look half as silly as some of the people out there. And we somehow managed to still have fun through it all.

So I guess this means that we are doing obedience and agility now. . .

Seriously??????????