he came to me, you would fully understand why I am going to make this brag in public.

Last evening I went to the local conservation commission to describe some of my plans for the remodel of the mill. The meetings are in a public building, with no food served, so I took Chico with me. He did a very good down-stay for the whole time (oops, he did go on a small walkabout while I was talking to the group instead of monitoring him, but came back at a soft call of his name and resumed his position next to me on a hand signal). When I left I called him to go and the secretary of the meeting looked up and said, “There’s a dog here? I didn’t even know he was here. What’s his name? I will put it in the minutes as an attendee.”

How many ways is this wonderful for us? My formerly pushy, barky dog went un-noticed in a meeting where people came in after us (That’s often a trigger. “They were not here before, they do not belong now. Look out! Danger!). His name is now in the public record as attending a town commission meeting. And our friend Chelle Miller bragged to her fellow commissioners that Chico has one of the commissions’s Hikin’ Herons patches.

I attribute this developed self control to our agility work. Compared to having me walk away from him on the crowded start line at the trial the other day, lying quietly beside me at a meeting is a piece of cake.