In case I wasn't paying attention to Stitch's regular caloric intake last weekend, we have a horrific trip involving airplanes, lost luggage, missed connections, and an unexpected overnight in a hotel. Stitch performs brilliantly. Her gaiting is correct, her leash is loose, her attention to other people is minimal (she does find the loudspeaker at the airport interesting). There's a well-behaved but rowdy child sitting next to us in the waiting area for several hours and Stitch lies quietly at my feet throughout. She picks up everything I drop, she's unobtrusive, and she manages to appear mildly amused but somewhat bored while the stewardess makes continued coochy-coo noises at her.

It's the end of the second flight of the day when things start to go downhill. We started the day at 5 AM with a very light breakfast. By 3 PM we should have finished a 2-hour bus trip, been picked up and been enjoying second breakfast, but my suitcase fails to arrive, and they can't take it across the border when they do find it, so I elect to stay in a hotel overnight and take the bus the next day - hopefully with my suitcase. By the time we get to the hotel, Stitch is all but comatose. I ask her to pick up her leash and all she can think of is to lie down on it and put her head between her paws. I get settled as quickly as I can and we go down the block for fish and chips. We're the only ones in the restaurant, everyone's ignoring us, and I give her half. By the time we get back to the hotel, she's starting to wake up. I'm concerned about being in a (quite fancy) hotel with a dog who's eating strange food, but apparently she has a cast-iron bowel and suffers no ill effects.

I order a room service breakfast of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and a bagel. I get all the orange juice and one egg. She's feeling much better and finishes the trip willing and awake.

At our destination, there are four other Portuguese Water Dogs. How fun and interesting to watch Stitch's incredible language skills as she meets the other dogs - one old lady who needs respect and gentleness, one middle-aged dominant bitch who demands respect and needs some cajoling and kowtowing, one testosterone-poisoned lad who needs teeth snapping in his face on a regular basis, and one teenager who's eager to share a good long race around a huge yard.

Home again, I leave the front door open with the dogs in the front hall as I unload the car. It takes a while. Finally Stitch makes a dash for the cats. I say "Are you out of your MIND?" and she aborts and returns to the front hall. It wasn't her previous ee hah mad dash, more like a question: "Hey, ma, I'm chasing the cats. Are you watching? Are you going to say anything?" and when I did say something, she nodded her head and returned. She spent the rest of the time sitting on the front step where she could see me better - technically wrong but actually really great because it's MUCH easier for her to resist temptation from inside the house than from the step. We're obviously making progress.

Sunday there are two CARO Rally trials. Stitch and Scuba are both in Novice B. The trial secretary has kindly put Scuba near the head of the line and Stitch at the end, so I have plenty of time between them and I get to do the first run with Scuba, which means I don't have to think TOO much about the dog and can concentrate on doing the course. I screw up Scuba several times, but manage to pull through for a 197 out of 200 - which tells me she could pull off a perfect score if her handler knew anything about Rally.

I'm a bit nervous about Stitch having drifted off yesterday afternoon so I don't give her any breakfast, thinking she'll be working for it during the day and she'll be sharper if she's a bit hungry. Another mistake. She appears to be a low-bloodsugar dog, as she's still laggy and seems to have difficulty concentrating on what we're doing. She gives it an excellent try, though, and pulls in a surprising 194. My friend confirms my opinion that she appears tired and distracted, so in the couple of hours between runs, I give her breakfast and then just sit in various places around the building working quietly on watching me and getting faster and more confident.

Scuba's second run is EXCELLENT. I have high hopes for it. I can't imagine how it could have been better. I don't make any mistakes, I have slowed down and I have time to read each sign to make sure I know exactly what we're supposed to do at each station, and Scuba is bang on, eager, sharp, enthusiastic, precise, and pretty. And yes, she gets a 200. The run was my real reward, though, it was one of those times when you feel that it couldn't have been better and you were privileged to have been in attendance.

Stitch is feeling MUCH better but not yet super. As my friend puts it, she's doing everything, but you get the feeling that it's hard work. She's trying too hard to pay attention and stay with the program. So I'm not happy with that yet. Still, I remember to reward her frequently, read the signs, give her a decent time, and get everything done. With a superb sense of the dramatic, the secretary leaves her score until last - and she's pulled off a 200 as well!

Dang, this is one hot little dog. It makes my fingers tingle just thinking about how easy it would be to mess her up!

Saturday we attend an advanced Rally clinic. I thought I'd give Stitch a bit of Heeling practise, and then use Scuba the rest of the day, but I'm thrilled to see that Stitch can handle almost everything. She has some trouble with the moving drop - she understands the cue, but the pull of staying with me is too strong for her to do more than hit the ground and pop back up to my side. Good pup! She's trying really hard. She peters out about 3 PM, and, as my friend points out, "when she's gone, she's GONE". I stand in line waiting for our turn at a mini course, thinking "she's had it, I should go sit down" and "Nah, she can do one more short set" and at that point I learn that when she's gone, she's GONE and there's no point in trying to pretend she's not. She still did everything, but she was lagging and just looked out of it.

We have a full weekend. Friday we drive 4 hours, then take a private agility lesson. I think I want to work on ways to speed me up so I'm not always late on my cues on course, but the expert has us working on directional cues, cued turns, and object discrimination. It occurs to me that if I wasn't paying attention, I could easily decide that the lesson was useless since she didn't APPEAR to address my concerns about slowness at all, when in fact she has given me EXACTLY the tools I need to be a handler good enough to drive this little racecar. We have a lot of work to do this summer!

I've been mucking out the guest room/fibre storage/junk room. I have four huge bags of garbage to burn. I go to the front door, wrestle it open, and go out on the stoop. It occurs to me that it's a beautiful day and Stitch is feeling better so I could go back to hunting her down as she runs around the yard, so I leave the door open. She comes to the door. I ask her to Sit. I give her our Zen cue - No! - and then ask her to Stay. I wrestle two garbage bags out to the burning barrel, light them, and go back into the house. Stitch remains Sitting, relaxed, cheerful. We have a HUGE party, running around the house, getting schnoogies. I take the second load of bags out and again she Stays until I come back. Holy cow!