The Egg

I'm not big on religious holidays of any persuasion, but today is Easter and yesterday while hiking with Sealy I did come across a large egg-shaped boulder...glacial erratic... if it had only been on the equinox!

Speaking of Sealy, maybe I should blog about her?  (More regular postings for sure!).   Here she is on Bluff Point at the northern tip of Connecticut earlier in the week - the photo looks out eastwardly towards the Long Island Sound.  If it had been a clear day supposedly one can see three states (New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) but this was right around the rain storm that flooded the area, especially Rhode Island, where  I-95 was closed for 2 1/2 days.  Amtrak trains, too.

Aren't photos of black dogs fascinating?  So much facial expression!   (A good thing she has a red collar and red tongue!)

I've entered her in an obedience match later this month, so perhaps I'll document her progress here (which might spur me to train more regularly than once-a-week-in-class!).  

April marks the first time registered mixed-breed dogs ("Canine Partners") have been allowed to compete at sanctioned AKC Agility, Obedience, and Rally events.

I never, ever, dreamed that the AKC would move in this direction back when I was first introduced to obedience training as a sport twenty (?) years ago, first with Leika and then with Suki (who both mixed-breed dogs) so I was pretty shocked - to say the least - when I heard that the AKC had begun seriously discussing the inclusion of mixed-breed dogs in non-conformation activities.  I was stunned last April when it actually adopted that policy.  I was delighted in January, when the word came down that mixed-breed dogs would be allowed to compete in the same ring as the purebred ones, with the purebred ones, and earn the same titles.  (Originally neither was the case, although it seemed to me to be only a matter of time before those "separate-but-equal" distinctions would have to fall by the wayside.)  Kudos to the AKC!   The January decision is what prompted me to enroll Sealy (AKC #MA00246801).