The Hand-Wash Nazi

I continue to be utterly shocked at the number of people that do not wash their hands after using the restroom.  And being the 'bold' person that I am, I never fail to say something when I see it happening.  One lady we see pretty regularly said "I have hand sanitizer at my crate" when I mentioned that she didn't wash.  "Well that's great for you, but you are putting your potty hands on the door handle as you leave and the rest of us have to touch it."  (actually, I used more vulgar language than potty hands... which really wasn't very nice of me so I won't repeat it verbatim).   She shrugged and left.
A few weeks ago we were at a trial that had both obedience and agility and the lady in the next stall had explosive diarrhea.  When she left without washing, and I 'reminded' her, she said "Oh, I can't wash my hands- I'm competing in Utility."*   I said "so you don't care if your articles are covered in bacteria?" and she said again, "I can't wash my hands..."  I think my last comment was"wow.. e coli... that should make for a zesty weekend!"  I could not help but think it was no wonder that she had diarrhea.
But at a recent show, someone mentioned that they were in the ladies room when they overheard someone say "I wouldn't normally wash my hands, but I got my butt chewed out the last time, so now I HAVE to"
I'm thinking that was me responsible for the butt chewing.  And at least one less pair of bacteria-riddled hands touching all the stuff at the show site.  You can high-five me later.  But first, make sure you wash your hands.

*Utility is the obedience event where the dog has to find the item that his handler touched.  Her excuse is that if she washes her hands, it will wash all the smell of 'her' off of her hands and she will not leave enough of her smell on the item for the dog to find it. 

Positive Thinking

We've been pretty busy the last few weeks with trials and other stuff.  Okay 99.9% trials and a little other stuff. 
Ever since we saw Maggie's name in the top 5 for Invitationals*, we've gotten a little crazy.  There is another dog nipping at our heels (pardon the pun) and they bump us off the list every so often, and we get all crazy entering shows and cranking out the points.  We missed three weeks in a row in March and it ate me up thinking I was losing our foothold.  Then I get a momentary jolt back to reality and think... whatever... it isn't like we would really GO to Florida in December if we made it to Invitationals... right?  Wait, let me check the mileage... I'll be right back.

Hmmm... maybe we would after all.  Here is a map of where we've been for trials and the light blue is for planned trials.  Colorado is for USDAA Nationals in September, Wisconsin is the Border Collie Nationals in October.  And like I've learned in all the positive thinking seminars, I've colored in Florida, too.  Just in case.  It's not THAT far, right?


*The top 5 scoring dogs of every breed are invited to compete in the AKC Invitational tournament held in Florida each December.  The point tally is from July 1 to June 30.   It is quite prestigious to make it to the top 5 for any breed, but in the super-competitive world of Border Collies, it is pretty unbelievable.  Especially for a rescue dog and a handler with troll legs.