Not much to report this week of Thanksgiving.

Roxy got it into her head on Wednesday to investigate the recycling bin. Normally, it's behind an unfolded ex-pen, but I had put a couple of bags of junk paper too close to the pen, so she was able to drag her victims through the spaces in the wire and systematically destroy them. It must have taken some time, but it was an amazingly thorough job for one little doggie, as shown at right.

Rather than training dogs, I burned a whole slew of CDs and struggled with trying to get the labels printed. By the time I figured it all out, it was Sunday and my long holiday weekend was gone.

Not much going on training-wise this week, just getting ready for the three-day agility trial this weekend in lovely Kiln, Mississippi.

Wednesday and Thursday morning, I set her up with a couple of jumps in the backyard and we started to do some agility training in earnest. I've not really worked with her that much in the past, but she took to it immediately. We did some jumps with me calling her over, and some where I ran by while she did the jumps. She did a few of the usual thing of running around the jump, not understanding what I wanted. It got better just during our brief training session.

At the trial, Roxy had several breakthroughs:

• She learned to jump up into her crate in the back of the van on her own. It's gotta be a good two ½ feet, so that's a pretty fair leap. Plus, she doesn't much like to go into her crate, so that's a big help to us.
• She and I played our first game of fetch. I let her drag her rope lead, and we tossed a cheap little soft frisbee thing that was in the toy box at the Kiln trial. It didn't take long before she tried to run past me in a game of Keep Away, and it wasn't long after that when she found herself laying on the ground after I stepped on her rope. She is such a good sport about those sorts of things, and doesn't sulk like Annie does. She just kept playing but without trying the Keep Away thing more than twice.
• She learned to leap out of her crate in the van.
  

We also had a lot of fun visiting at the trial. Friday and Saturday, Annie did well, getting her first PIII Snooker leg and her first Performance Grand Prix qualifying score. Meanwhile, people who had not seen Roxy in months were amazed at her full-grown size. We did not get a chance to measure her, but I know she is pushing 18" now. She's a bit taller than Annie.

Another big chunk of the RoxyLog, because again travel plans interfered with training. I was out of town most of week 23.

The month of November began with a trial in town, and even though Roxy was not entered she got to make her usual appearance where she charmed her public. This time, the charmed ones included the Coxes, a family that has been training in agility with us. Erin Cox, the eldest daughter, is a fantastic agility handler who is likely to go far. Her younger sister Jessie is shown here with Roxy.

Roxy also got to spend some time begging food from Diva, a four-year-old who comes to agility trials with her family, David and Monica Wilson.

Both Roxy and Annie got to meet a dancing, singing Animal Muppet doll that someone had brought. This is especially neat because Annie's nickname has been Annie-mal for a long time, since Animal (the drummer in the Muppet band) has been my favorite from back when I used to watch the Muppet Show regularly.

Roxy has been allowed increasing levels of responsibility in the house. During the day, she is confined to the kitchen with baby gates, and she still has the occasional accident. On the linoleum, it's not a huge deal to clean. When we are home, Roxy pretty much gets to wander around, although if we lose sight of her she is likely to make some mischief.

I've been calling her "Ziggy Stardust", because she is kinda loopy, she has a zigzag line of white fur down her back, and she has stars in her eyes.

Then my stepfather came to visit this week and he calls her "Ding-A-Ling", because she rings the bell at the back door when she wants to go out.