Sept 25-26. A fairly awful week at work was followed by a not-great agility trial, but it was better than staying at home moping.

Roxy and Dylan got to run their first Pairs Relay together. While it wasn't a Q, because of Roxy's messhuganah behavior, it was fun just to get them running together. There were some half-not-bad standard runs, and a couple of seriously awful games runs as well. Roxy did take off after a border collie who was just leaving the ring, but she came back to me when called which was lucky for both of us. It was a frustrating weekend for all of us. Annie missed out on adding any Snooker legs to her Snooker Championship (has 8, needs 2 more) and ran a clean PIII Jumpers course but didn't quite make time, which was disappointing.

Sept 10. Roxy's first obedience match was not a roaring success, but we did all right and I can see a lot of areas that need improvement. For example, I realized when we got to the match site Friday night that I had never taught Roxy a proper "finish". Inexplicably, her off-lead heeling was much better than her on-lead. The chain collar (a new experience for her) may have been a distraction. As I expected, her stand for exam needs lots of work. She actually held the stand better than I thought she would during the actual exam, but she got squirrelly when I returned to her. We had signed up for two sets of stays. The first set was not bad; she wanted to come to me rather than visit the other dogs, but it was her first time doing stays with a lineup of other dogs. The second set of stays was just too much. She started acting silly about 10 seconds into it, so I simply picked her up and hauled her out of the building. All in all, I think we're on track for a December debut – if I can find some people to practice stays with me.

Unfortunately, we forgot the digital camera (Rosemary did videotape) so no pictures for the RoxyLog.

Sept 3-6. We took a trip over the Labor Day weekend to attend the Buetow-Branson Nuptials at beautiful Homer Lake just southeast of Urbana, Illinois.

As we suspected, Roxy is no longer in season. She did well with the other dogs, and none of the boys seemed to show a particular interest in her.

We drove up Friday. On Saturday, we went to a farmer's market in Urbana and got to spend some quality time with John and Janell's daughter Hazel who is now 3. Last time we saw her she was just a year old. Later that afternoon, we went out to the lake so that Annie and Dylan could get some swim time in. Dylan killed two Cool Kongs so it was a good day for him. Roxy was deemed untrustworthy for off-lead work, so she had to cool her pasterns in the van while everyone else got to go have fun. She did get a good bit of playtime in with Gideon, the Thomas-Wommack's puppy.

Saturday evening found us at Reindeer Ranch, a truly unique experience. I brought Roxy out to watch the bubbles streaming off the automatic bubble machine. Unfortunately, the owner's cat took a dislike to Roxy and decided to go on the offensive. Roxy has little cat experience, and as far as I know, this was her first time within 2 feet of a cat. She was more mystified than anything else. We went and got lost inside the corn maze, and then had a great dinner with the remainder of the wedding guests.

Sunday was wedding day, so Roxy and the other dogs had to wait in the van while we attended the wedding, did the usual wedding reception stuff, and had lots of fun. Monday we drove back home.

On the way back, it dawned on me that I have to go down to Mobile for Roxy's first obedience C match in just four days. I don't think she's at all ready, but you never know until you take it on the road and see, so off we will go.

Another realization when we got home and found the entries for Roxy's first USDAA trial in our email inboxes. Roxy turns 18 months on Sept 23 and so she will be ready for USDAA after that. We plan to take her to Huntsville, Alabama for a trial there. Roxy and Dylan will get to run pairs together, which will be exciting no matter what.

Sept 1. It appears that Roxy is having a "split heat". She just quit bleeding a couple of weeks ago and she is no longer so attractive to the boys. Who knows if she will go back in; if she does, it will most likely be at an inconvenient time.