It's officially fall, and the change in time with reverting to Standard Time reminds us how short the days have become.

The way the weather worked out, we had two Basic Home Manners classes this week (a new group in Week 1 and the 'old' group in Week 4) so Roxy got double-duty as the demo dog.

On the advice of friends, I've decided to back off on the sit-stay thing for now and work on a 'leave it' and some self-control instead. Her attention span is just too short for an effective stay.

The heeling is getting better, I think. She still spends a good bit of time off the ground, but it seems to me she is spending more time in heel position than not. Turns are still pretty rough and her automatic sit is not.

The drop on hand signal continues to be rapid, reliable, and too damn cute. She is so proud of herself.

We could do better on house training. She continues to have accidents, even though she has become pretty good at ringing the bell when we do get ready to go out.

For Halloween, we dressed the dogs up in their pumpkin head, as shown here.

Roxy got to be a demo dog in Week 3 of Basic Home Manners Thursday, and demonstrated that I haven't taught her much about stays. We're up to maybe 5 or 10 seconds on a sit-stay. She also needs a lot of work heeling. Is it my imagination, or does she spend more time on the ground than in the air heeling now? We are working a bit on turns while heeling too.

The highlight of the week was Annie's Snooker Master title (see below).

Roxy got to do a lot of visiting at the trial. We attended Saturday only in order to drive back up and run Annie in Utility obedience at the local Jackson show, but somehow our obedience entry got lost.

While Roxy was at the show Saturday, she got to meet lots of new dogs and people and renew some old friendships. Everyone was amazed at how much she had grown. We measured her at 17 5/8 inches so she is creeping up on 18 inches it seems. She played enough that her tongue hung out, and her tongue freckle – which is waaaay back in her mouth most of the time – was showing in one photo, so that's the one we put up here for the RoxyLog.

Not much to report from my end, because I was stuck at work while Rosemary and the girls (Roxy and Annie) all took a road trip to the Australian Cattle Dog Club of America National Specialty in Belton, Texas.

In the short time I got to train her, Roxy's drop on hand signal has become wonderful.

Friday, Oct 10, Roxy and Annie and Rosemary all packed into the van and took off for Texas, leaving me and the boys (Dylan and Kodiak) here to hold down the home fort. As you can see from the second picture, Roxy needs to be yelled at just as much on the road as at home, and Annie makes sure she is the Head Princess at all times.

Once in the room, which was shared with Tracy Smith, Karoo and Isidingo from Boulder, Roxy spent much of her time relaxing on the bed and soaking up praise from her many admirers. According to Rosemary, most of the time the older bitches (Annie and Karoo) would stay up on the bed, watching from on high as the young whippersnappers (Roxy and Isi) played and wandered around the room.

One highlight of the week was getting to see a new, slimmer, Denise Frick (Roxy's breeder) and Roxy's mom, Twist. They qualified both days in herding. Roxy has a lot to live up to. The four littermates who were there (Roxy, Thorn, Red and Tender) also posed for a group picture which I'll post as soon as it's available.

Rosemary and the girls returned Friday, Oct 17 and Saturday seemed like a good day for a family outing and socialization so we went to a local garden fair held at the experimental farm south of Crystal Springs. Lots of people to see, and Annie got to perform tricks (Pop Goes the Weasel, yes; Clever Hans, no) and Roxy got to practice her drop on hand signal in public and extend her circle of admirers. Annie and I paid a brief visit to the office to pick up some messages and scared the stew out of some poor resident who was headed to the library.

Pictures from Belton are here! Click on the link below to see them.

The eggs came this week.

The dogs have loved their "Indestructible Ball" for a long time now, but I saw these eggs (called "Greta Scramblers") at the Ft Worth match that I judged, and I had to get some for the kids. So I ordered 3, two for play and one for me to use in the classroom (you probably don't want to know).

For those who've asked, Greta Scramblers are from Masterpiece Pet Products, 1-800-424-2102, $22 each.

As you can see, the eggs were a big hit.

Monday we all went out to a parking lot in Clinton to train: Annie and I worked on our Utility, and had a great practice, and Roxy worked on her gaiting and stacking getting ready for the National Specialty.

Tuesday was class night – Basic Home Manners graduation, but the dogs didn't get to come.

Wednesday, I installed a bell on the door for the guys to ring. I'm finally frustrated with the house training issues and decided a bell might be a good help. We're working on training them to ring it.

Some progress is being made on the doorbell front, but it's slow. Roxy still has the occasional accident in the house.

Saturday found us in Holly Springs, Mississippi at a USDAA Agility Test. Annie did very well (except for the keeping us up at night part) but did not quite finish "in the money". We had a nice Snooker run, should have been a SuperQ, but it ended with a knocked bar at jump #5. Her Masters Standard run had a refusal in the weaves and was 1.6 seconds off pace; she is tantalizingly close to a Q but still nothing so we are no closer to a MAD than we have been since early this year.

We got Roxy measured on Saturday, just for practice, and came up with 17 3/8 inches. She weighs 38 lbs.