Nashville takes on Atlanta
(yes his name is sometimes Nashville. Mostly when he’s in trouble.)
So, Nash’s ring debut yesterday can pretty much be summed up with the following thoughts from him:
“Look, there’s dogs!! Want to play? Playplayplayplay?”
“MOM!! There’s FOOD ON THE FLOOR!”
“Did you hear me?? FOOD. On the FLOOR.”
The worst was on the down and back when he just straight up refused to move because about halfway down there was a hotdog within eyesight. He just stood there and STARED at it, and me giving him a leash pop (or twelve) had no effect whatsoever. I think he was lucky to get 2nd of 3 in the bred-by class.
Sooooo, Saturday evening after BIS there was a free handling class, so we went and basically worked hard on “leave it”. Got a couple of other good suggestions too. Must have worked, because he was much better today! Not on the table, but that’s a different story…judge made a funny sound to get expression and Nash took that as a cue to try to jump on his shoulders. Whoops. Never did get him to stand still after that but luckily the judge was understanding. He also asked me how old he was (since he was in bred-by) and replied with “Aha!”when I told him. LOL And I was thrilled when he won Winners Dog for a 4 POINT MAJOR! During pictures the judge was quite chatty and told me several times what a “pretty boy” he is, he just loved his expression and movement.
So yay! Good boy Nash…sort of. 
We have lots of work to do, but at very least he did definitely have fun!
And we’re off!
Well, tomorrow morning that is. Tomorrow is Nash’s debut show in Atlanta, and yes I think I’ll show Lizzie too, naked belly and all. Naturally, it has been raining for about 3 days so the yard is a mud pit…I’m washing and drying dogs knowing full well that they will get filthy again before tomorrow. Sigh. We leave at about 7 am and show around 2:30ish Eastern time.
Wish us luck! If nothing else, I want Nash to have a good experience. I’m not too worried as he pretty much thinks life is a party thrown just for him, but you never know when something weird will happen to a puppy! And Atlanta is indoors, noisy and usually crowded. These first shows are so important for building that great show attitude for later, so I will be trying my best to keep it lighthearted and fun.
In which I question the wisdom…
…of creating a litter full of very smart, eat-anything-not-nailed-down puppies.
I received a lovely report from Harmony’s people the other day. Apparently she has figured out how to open drawers (!!)…she just grabs on and pulls while walking backwards. Cindi and Patti are missing a few items (whoops) and will be investing in child locks soon. Ha! It’s so very naughty…but I have to laugh, too. 
On the wonderful side, Harmony just graduated from intermediate obedience class and will be heading to an advanced class soon. Patti is doing a lovely job training her and they have started attending a class for service dogs together. They are hoping that by the time she’s a year old she’ll be ready to take her CGC and Delta Society therapy dog tests, and get her certification as Patti’s service dog. And I’ll tell you what…as proud as I am of the show dogs from the litter and their owners, I am JUST as proud of this family! I know that Pilot’s owners will be thrilled also…grandma Alice, in addition to helping propagate the trashund genes, seems to have contributed a few more desirable traits also. She’s also a Delta Society therapy dog. I’m glad that Harmony can use her evil powers for good, also.
Another entry fee down the drain…
When I entered Nash in Atlanta, I brashly decided last-minute to enter Lizzie too, in BOB. I looked down at her lovely shiny coat, good weight, happy demeanor and said “aww why not, I’m going to the show anyway.” I conveniently, ahem, forgot one little thing…oh, remember that abdominal surgery? Not too awfully long ago (little over a month)? Oh yeah, that’s right…her BELLY IS SHAVED. *doh*
Today was bath day so after drying her I decided to snap a few pictures to see if maybe it didn’t look “that bad” on the table. Uh huh. Damn shame too, because I think she looks awesome otherwise!
A very angry Jack-in-the-box
I was in the kitchen when I heard Jack calling for “help, I need help….MAMA!”
Eeek!
Well, I entered the Atlanta shows knowing that sometimes they pull pretty large entries. In fact, when Lizzie was a baby she made her debut at those shows and it was a 5 point major in bitches. *blink* (she was reserve both days) Now it’s her son Nash’s turn to dip his toe into the show world, and the entry was posted today…yep, a 5 point major in boys. Can I admit that I got a little tingly/excited when I made the entry for him? It was my first time to ever enter in Bred-By, and somehow that’s just really cool.
If you’ve missed it on Carolyn’s blog or Facebook, sister Lucy has done really well on HER debut weekend in Portland. Reserve Winner’s Bitch twice to majors! I’m thrilled! Many friends and family are showing tomorrow and Sunday still, so good luck to everyone!
Morning romp
Nash and Brady have gotten to be really good play partners. Nash is still easily submissive, which appeases Brady’s inflated sense of self-worth. So every morning after breakfast they have a good long play session. I whipped out the video camera to try to catch them in action, but naturally as soon as I had the camera on them they changed the game. It’s still cute to see Brady play so much even though he’ll turn 12 this year. Lizzie is sometimes in on the game also, but generally she lays at my feet while the boys act like idiots. However, if Brady starts to get out of hand and is “too mean” to Nash, Lizzie is RIGHT THERE in his face. She puts her body between them and grumbles at Brady to knock it off…he always seems to back off like “ok ok, sorry!”. It’s kind of cute to see her protecting her son like that, and it’s been really interesting to watch how the pack dynamics have changed since Lizzie had the puppies and Nash joined the family.
Here is Nash-the-dork showing you his chewie:
Brady and Nash playing a bit:
Almost 7 months
I just got finished entering Nash in his first show, to be in Atlanta the first weekend of February. I can’t wait, it should be fun! This show sometimes pulls large majors, so who knows.
Sister Piper had her “debut” this past weekend in Palm Springs, where Traci finished Chancey-pants (huge congrats again, Traci!). Traci reported that miss Piper had a great time and behaved fairly well, which is truly the most important thing to me.
The boy needed a bath anyway, so I snapped a couple pictures of him. We’re still working on table stacking, but overall I think he probably won’t make a fool of me at his first show. He’s even learning to free bait on the ground, somewhat. He has a GORGEOUS coat right now, here’s hoping he still has some of it at Nationals! LOL
Random product recs
Anyone who has ever been around my house for dinnertime is always AMAZED at how quickly my dogs eat. Molly-the-Moose would regularly eat her meal so fast that it would come back up, upon which she would…yes…eat it again. Yum! *IF* no other dog is in the house, Brady eats relatively leisurely…taking maybe a full minute to eat kibble. But if other dogs are present, even separating them all to crates or their own area doesn’t work…they still all wolf it down. Dinnertime here lasts approximately 13 seconds total.
I’ve always been concerned about bloat because of this, and even more than that it just doesn’t seem HEALTHY to eat that fast. I soak their kibble for a few minutes before feeding (worst minutes of their lives, just ask them), but still worry. And with our recent digestive, ahem, issues I am more sensitive than ever to what and how my dogs eat. So, I stumbled somewhere across a link to these dog bowls that promised to “prevent your dog from bolting his food”.
They arrived today, and sure do work! I’ve heard before about putting a rock in your dog’s bowl to keep them from eating so fast…this is even better IMO. They are a bit spendy but, well, so are gastro problems that require vet visits. Dinner tonite took nearly 2 whole minutes. http://www.brake-fast.net/
Also, I don’t know about you other show people but I tend to have several different fancy “show” shampoos, but always found myself lacking a good, solid basic “everyday” dog shampoo. Obviously my dogs don’t get washed every day, but when they just plain old need a bath I want something that smells good, isn’t harsh on the coat, and rinses quickly and cleanly. I bought a gallon jug of this stuff a while back off of Amazon:
It’s called “Buddy Wash” (yes, ridiculous name) and is made by Cloud Star. Natural ingredients, herbal scent (I got lavender and mint), soap-free (so can be used with flea treatments), and can be used on puppies. I love that it’s thick and easy to put on, lathers well, and rinses easily. And I think it smells great!
Stuff n stuff
Happy Holidays! Not much going on here…we’re all just vegging out in a post-Christmas haze. My mom flew down on Christmas Day and Charlie has been doing her best to keep her busy. I think the kids had a great Christmas…it was refreshing this year because now that Charlie has hit age 5, she has gotten over some of the overstimulation that the holidays bring and instead has just been a ton of fun. Jack, on the other hand…well, at least he’s cute. We’re heading off later today to see the Princess and the Frog.
Waiting at the top of the stairs on Christmas Day, anxious to see what Santa brought! (Mommy had to stay there to make sure Jack stayed!)
It occurred to me the other day that I need to start training my puppy! He’s doing ok with some things, not so much with others, but his first show is a bit over a month away and it would be nice if he wasn’t a total idiot. And I can’t wait for some of the other babies to hit the ring! January should bring “first show” experiences for June, Piper, Echo (maybe, seems like she’ll be the slowest to mature so may be held out), Maddie, and Lucy. Not sure about Vegas but I’m sure when their shows start up again Joyce will be getting him out and about also. Out of curiousity I weighed Nash the other day…he’s a solid boy at 26.2 pounds, but that should put him at a quite respectable adult weight between 34-36 pounds.
I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings!