A really awesome CCI workshop

Despite the somewhat scatological start, the CCI graduate workshop today was quite good.

The workshop was at a Lutheran church in Maryland -- the first outside New York -- which I have been asking for for years, so it was cool.

Mom and Dad just dropped me off, and I wanted to make sure the bathrooms met my definition of accessible. If they didn't, I could call Mom and Dad back to get me.

Mom and I agreed inaccessible bathrooms were unlikely, "egregious," Mom said. But as I pointed out, we have seen egregious before.

So when I got there I asked the woman who greeted me where the bathrooms were.

"Wherever you want," she responded.

"Damn," I thought. "I always figured Lutherans were stodgy Lake Wobegoners, but now they're advocating dropping trou at will. What would Martin Luther think?"

Then I realized she was just talking about toileting the dogs, and she pointed me toward the person bathrooms, which were perfectly accessible. Oh well.

The workshop was just refreshing stuff we had learned in team training years ago -- how dogs learn and how to teach them stuff. I could hear the trainers fine -- they are all good speakers. Being New Yorkers does not hurt, I imagine.

But when the other grads started asking questions, I was pretty lost. That stunk. I would have liked to share my experiences with folks but was not always sure what we were talking about.

Claren got to show off how crazy hairy she is. One of the trainers was demonstrating the Furminator. She asked to borrow Claren and brushed off a pile of hair from one small spot, even though we had brushed her with the Furminator last night.

When she borrowed another dog, that dog was so excited to see the trainer and hung around her regardless of whether she held the leash. Not my Claren, though. Once the trainer dropped the leash, Claren started wandering around and sniffing. She makes me so proud.

Just being there was fun, though. I saw people I had not seen in years and got to catch up with folks. And well, CCI is so freaking awesome, I'd go to support them almost anywhere.