I’ve been given a day off. It’s not because I was a star, it’s more because I was a bit of a nightmare for the first hour and a half so my shifts have been cut. I’ve been put on garden leave with Grandpa while my Mistress goes to man the stand without me. We walked all the way round the outside to enter as near to our stand as possible and that would have gone better if a) I hadn’t stopped twice and refused to walk any further and b) if I hadn’t got so excited on the last couple of hundred yards anyway. I was wired when I got to the stand. Then Annie had a bit of a go at me and Basil and I got into a shouting match. It took ages and a lot of treats for me to start to settle down. Several times just as someone leant down to stroke me I barked very loudly in their ears. Once I was on my own on the stand and my Mistress had established a few ground rules then things were much better. I knew if I barked I would be put in the pen and if I didn’t I could stay sitting outside the pen close to her. The threat worked well, particularly accompanied by lots of treats when I was good. 
Anyway the upshot was it was impossible for my Mistress to take me anywhere other than the stand and she discussed how tomorrow would work without me.
It did mean we missed the excitement. Basil won his class and went on to win reserve best dog in the Import Working Dog category. The judge was very impressed and asked his human if he was an import. He was surprised he had been born in England, so well done Shadow. We’re really sorry you couldn’t be there to see him do so well. You’d have been very proud of him.
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com