Wednesday in the Park with Hokie

For a few weeks now I've been trying to get some photos of Hokie and Dirtman at their conformation classes. This is where dogs and handlers learn how to behave in the show ring.

Unfortunately, we've determined that, at least for the first several classes, it's best if I'm not there. No matter where I try to hide, Hokie yanks on the leash to follow me. So it's best for me to not even be in the building. I head to Borders across the road.

We try to get as much done in Winchester as possible when we head that way, so there are plenty of photo ops prior to the actual class. This week, for instance, we had to order the trophies for our kennel club's dog show in July. Since the place closes early and the class isn't until 7:30 p.m., we wound up with a huge gap of time on our hands.

So we took Hokie to a local park that has a lovely fishing lake, complete with ducks and geese -- which he decided were not where they should be.


We're not sure where he wanted to herd them to, since he was leashed and we pulled him off. But he was definitely not satisfied with where we left them and he followed Dirtman begrudgingly and in a huff.

Even with the jaunt around the park, we were still early for class. So we sat in the parking lot for awhile while Hokie behaved himself like a good boy, sitting quietly in the back seat and never attempting to come up front with us.



Do you see how hard it is to enforce discipline around here?