Don't Eat Paste (Agility Class: Day 1)

Last night we had our first agility class. Here's how it played out...

Bored with work and anxious to avoid traffic, I left WAY too early to get to Shoreline. Since yesterday's risotto cakes at lunch weren't holding me over, and since my stomach was rumbling, I decided to get a chocolate shake at the Burger King. I caved in and got some fries with that. After sitting in line for 5+ minutes not moving, I noticed the veggie burger option, backed up, tried to add that to my order, and was told to tell the first window. Ok. More waiting. Then, the woman in the civic in front of me missed the first window. She tried to back up to it, but kept hitting the curb. Finally, she got out of her car to pay. It was a rough night for all of us, I guess. I still had to wait forever at the second window for my veggie burger. (I still can't get over how abysmally slow drive-throughs are in Washington. In comparison, the drive-throughs of South Dakota are run with German clockwork efficiency.)

I pulled into the parking lot of the school with my shake, fries, and veggie burger around 7:10. Class began at 7:50. Ate. Then I took Grete for a walk. She did her business. 7:35. People started to arrive.

Now, here's where we get into the technical communication details. The email from the instructor read like so: "We'll talk about how class actually starts out in the parking lot..."

I, foolishly, thought this meant that we would meet in the parking lot. Thus, since I was with 2 other classmates outside, it never occurred to me that we would be late. By the time we got back to our cars, it was 7:55. I hate being late.

We put our dogs our respective cars, and bring our crates in to find the instructor already inside. DAMN IT. I quickly set up my crate and since everyone else sits down, I sit down, thinking, "I hope we don't leave the dogs in the car long." (I have a black dog and black car and black interior.)

Unfortunately, I think it was 30 minutes later when we finally were allowed to retrieve our dogs. Grete was panting and upset. (Although she's gotten a lot better since being a drool-filled puppy in the car, she still doesn't think it's a great place to be. Especially since I didn't have time to roll down all the windows.)

Great beginning to class, eh?

Then, at the end of class, I put Grete into a stay while I took down her crate. One of the owners ran by with her leash-aggressive dog on leash, and I told Grete "aah no" so that she wouldn't follow and get her face bit. Of course, since this was an all positive class, I got a ding from the instructor for correcting my dog. She suggested that I take Grete out to the car before taking apart my crate in the future. Car time was already a silent sore subject for me, and I tried to take the criticism as best as I could. I finished packing up and we left without being social.

*sigh*

Also, as I was discussing the evening with my office mate, I bemoaned the fact that we've already been through a lot of the basic stuff like how to "charge the clicker" and many of the other topics covered.

Me: I feel like we're stuck in kindergarten
Aaron: You've already learned 'don't eat paste'.

I really hope things go better next week.