Archive for category dog shows
Baby’s first win pic
OK so it’s not great, but it’s better than I thought it would be. 
God, he looks scrawny. His coat flattens out quickly…I need something to keep him foofy.
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.
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!
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
Today’s Results
The weather today was so beautiful that I almost hated to spend it indoors at a dog show in a dusty horse barn! Normally it’s either cold, rainy, or both at this cluster, but we were gifted with drop-dead gorgeous weather today. Clear, sunny, and in the 70’s, with fall leaves abounding everywhere. I don’t intend to go to the show tomorrow…a compromise with my husband who really wanted to play golf instead of babysit the kiddos again…so maybe we can get out and enjoy the weather then.
Lizzie was Best of Opposite today, winning over the very lovely Scout. I find myself conflicted about that because there’s no doubt that Scout is very pretty, in fabulous coat and condition, and shown very well by her handler, and usually I’m cheering for her. But we’ll take the ribbon anyway!
After BIS there was a puppy B match so naturally I entered Nash. I even did a little mini-grooming job on him, to get him used to the idea of being groomed at a show, but he thought that rolling in barn dust was the best way to get noticed by the judge. What do you know, turns out he was right! We were the only Cardigan entered, but he won a puppy herding group 1. And most importantly, seemed to have a great time! But is one. tired. puppy…we didn’t get home until nearly 9 pm!
It’s a match!
Nash and I headed up to Chattanooga yesterday to socialize, have fun, and so the little whelp could see what dog shows were all about. I had completely and totally forgotten that there was also a puppy match! Which is boo on me, because I would have taken Lucy too. 
I had decided not to take her because I was showing Leslie’s happy red girl Candy for her, and didn’t think I could deal with one adult AND two puppies (who I had to carry most of the time).
So, we hung around in the show building for a couple of groups, and Best in Show, and then I finally got a chance to take my barely lead-trained, definitely not table trained, happy-but-clueless puppy into the ring. It was a hoot, but he handled everything pretty much in stride. No, ears aren’t up yet…I had to take the tape off for the match, and he had both up for probably about a half hour before they *flopped* back down. Kaye’s pretty blue girl took best puppy (no fair, she’s trained! LOL). Ignore the 30 seconds or so of the judge searching for his, ahem, boy parts…yes they are there, but he IS kinda little still!
Balance
I actually did the lines on these photos the other day but forgot to post them. Carolyn reminded me!
Leo is a great example of a dog with overall less ideal angulation, but who is balanced. That (along with personality) is why he could move like a freight train. I had to run to keep up with Leo, because as many times as I tried to teach him to move slower, that just wasn’t his thing. LOL He has flying drive and likes to go as fast as his little legs can take him.
Brady fits into this camp also, by the way. He’s straighter in both front and rear, but very balanced and has good movement and wonderful stamina. He truly is a dog that could work all day long.
Moving on…
Following Carolyn’s lead. I tried to draw the lines, hopefully I did it correctly. They are at least fairly close, I think. Her upper arm is shorter to me in real life than it looks with the lines. But you can clearly see her lack of layback in the shoulder. However, she has good placement of the shoulder, which is what keeps her from looking like one of those dogs with shoulders coming straight down from their head. I have an example that I’m thinking of, that I’ve seen on a website, but since it’s not my dog I won’t post it LOL.
If I have time later I’ll post my other dogs.
Westminster
For those who don’t know, be sure to look for my friend Janet’s pretty red girl Scout at Westminster! She and Laura Prosser are in New York now to watch the big show, pay too much for food, and much more. Hope they have a great time!