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Animals have a mind of their own. They can do exactly what you want them to do , and then one day, they won't. That happened to Mackenna with Chaos during Dog Obedience yesterday. Two things the dog has done perfectly in the past just didn't happen during the competition at Fair. They were big things, together worth 70 points. The same thing happened at the Leader Show back in June.
I've told Mackenna that when you compete with an animal you can't count on anything. They have minds of their own. All she can do is her best and hope the dog does hers, too. But Chaos wasn't going to do anything she didn't want to yesterday, including Stand for Exam (she wanted the judge to give her love instead) or the Long Sit (who knows why she decided to get up when she did and walk to Mackenna.)
A bummer, yes, but not totally unexpected. Norwegian Elkhounds are very intelligent and can also be stubborn. Chaos isn't a very obedient dog to begin with and this part of the training/practicing/competing has always been a struggle.
The silver lining to all this was Mackenna's reaction to what happened in the ring. She was very disappointed. Her dreams of attending State Fair are pretty much over due to the score she received, but she didn't get upset. There were no tears (something common at Fair ) or point blame at the dog. She handed me the score sheet with the white ribbon and shrugged it off. She showed humility and class with her sportsmanship. I was proud of her.
