Archive for category nash
There they grow again
Today I needed to bathe all three dogs and blow out an INCREDIBLE amount of hair from two in particular (I’m looking at you, boys!). I decided to save my back for once and wash them on the table in the backyard…hallelujah. I got soaked from head to toe but it was so much easier! Especially doing all of them. As usual on bath day, I felt inspired to break out the camera. I didn’t get any good side shots of Nash as he was being a TURD on the table (umm, guess we’d better start working on that again, eh?), but did get this cute face picture of the boy:
Nash at one year - isn't he handsome?
And would you believe this, but in two days is BRADY’S 12th BIRTHDAY! I can hardly believe that he’s that old. I was thinking about it the other day…that means Carolyn and Mandy have been putting up with me for nearly that long, too, since I got Molly from them when Brady was less than a year old. Brady was bought as and has always been a pet in the best sense of the word, but this boy has taught me so much. Sometimes the things he has taught me are what NOT to do, or what I DON’T enjoy doing, but that’s valuable too. 
I joke that Brady is “Dave’s dog”, because they have always shared a special bond that he and I just don’t have. Despite that, Brady is a clever, outgoing, opinionated, full of life pain-in-the-butt that has always kept our house interesting. Even at 12, he pretty regularly fraps with Nash…he has always loved playing with dogs, as long as they understand that He Owns All The Toys. He is not a big dog (hovering +/- 30 pounds) and is structurally fairly average and light-boned, but Brady has always been a Good Dog who’s distinct personality shines through in everything he does.
So, this dog has been OBSESSED with bunnies ever since we lived in Denver where they abounded in our yard. He (and Zach) caught a baby one back then, but didn’t injure it…just slobbered all over it until I noticed something afoot in the backyard and yelled out “drop it!” at which point Brady opened his mouth and the bunny bolted. So he has spent the past probably 9-10 years of his life hoping and trying to catch another one, and in fact we can’t even say the word bunny or Brady will go nuts whining and running around looking for it. I think a squirrel would suffice too, but they are too smart. SO…Last night when I let the dogs out, I heard a ruckus so went out to see what was going on, and what do I find?? A very proud Brady, carrying a (sadly broken-necked) bunny in his mouth. I told Dave about the incident, who is out of town, and he said “That’s it…his life is complete. He finally caught and killed a damned bunny.”
It's amazing how fast they can go from looking "not that old" to "old".
Do I get cheese for this? (please ignore his old-man long nails)
Nationals Pictures
Kate was kind enough to sludge through the roughly, what, 1500 pictures taken during Nationals week and send me a lot of the ones I cared about. 
The lighting conditions weren’t great without a Very Nice Lens, but should still give you an idea!
Lizzie peeking at me around the grooming apron, getting poofed (as much as we, ahem, could) for the Megan.
Lizard on the table
Jennifer going over her and thinking to herself, "Wow, she looks better with hair."
Nash in Sweeps.
Yes, he's still a bit high in the butt.
Take a moment to pose during Brood Bitch
Our matching outfits. I swear when I asked Garrett to help I did NOT tell him he had to coordinate.
Poop-colored dogs
Nash shows off his gangly teenager body
Junie
"It's on!"
Junie in repose
Nash is a great fetcher (June is too!)
Perhaps a bark at the neighbors?
Junie
So gently "sharing" the toy
June dispenses with the niceities and tackles Nash
June ADORES Charlie.
Nationals report
Whew! Gettysburg is about a 10.5 – 11 hour drive from me, which is just on the outer edge of what it doable in one day. I was exhausted when I got home last night! Thankfully, when driving through Tennessee I was on the outer edge of the storm that went through and caused so much bad flooding in central and southern areas. I barely drove through any rain, thank goodness…my drive up on Monday was nearly all rain, so it was a relief not to have to drive through it again LOL.
I always love seeing so many people that I rarely get a chance to see! And some I’ve never met in person before. We started introducing each other by blog name , so it was very fun to put faces with names and dogs. Tuesday was the Megan…when I entered, I had been very excited to show in the Megan for the first time! But as I mentioned before I left, Lizzie started shedding hand over fist and sadly looked very raggedy by Tuesday evening. 
She didn’t make the cut. I’ve been trying to put weight on her too, ironically my “easy keeper” who has always been a touch fat has started leaning the other direction. We’re going to try a few different things and may have her checked out at the vet. So yes, for future reference, naked and skinny isn’t a good combo.
Wednesday it was the puppies’ turns in sweepstakes! I had Scout’s handler Cheryl Mika groom Nash up for me…it’s amazing what a difference that can make. I don’t think I’m a “bad” groomer but I’m not good at those last steps to make them look really polished. She did a wonderful job and, if I don’t say so myself, I think he looked great! He showed pretty well for me and I was thrilled when he was awarded 3rd in his large sweeps class. Junie went a bit later (different judge, also) and Kate and I decided that I would show her and see how she did with me in the ring. Well, she showed GREAT although she didn’t get a placement, but made the cut in her very large class. I think that Kate’s camera has some nice pictures of them in the ring that I’ll get posted once she sends to me.
Thursday was class dogs. I overslept and hence didn’t get Nash down to Cheryl in time, whoops! Thankfully, due to the work she put in on him the day before, he still looked pretty good so I just fluffed him and went. I showed him in the very large and competitive Bred-By class, he was pulled out for an extra down-and-back but didn’t get a placement. I had several very nice compliments on him though and was just proud to show him off as “mine”!
Friday was the class bitches. Kate and I went back and forth and finally decided that she would show Friday for Joanna, and I would show June (they were in the same class). Junie again showed pretty well for me, but it was Miss Friday who stole the show by getting 2nd in the class! It was a very large class, I know Joanna is thrilled. Later we had brood bitch and Garrett stepped in (color coordinated, even) to help us with Lizzie, June, and Nash. We swapped around handlers a bit to find who showed best with who, and it was fun but no ribbons. I personally think we should have gotten one as the most color-coordinated group in the ring.
I decided not to show Lizzie in Best of Breed because, as raggedy as she looked at the beginning of the week it only got worse and worse each day. Plus after a whole week of showing dogs, talking dogs, and missing my family, the idea of coming home a day early to relax sounded Pretty Darned Good. I watched some of the boys in BOB and then took off for the hellish drive home.
Which brings me to the last announcement:
Hmmmm...3 poop colored dogs...
That would be Miss Junie B, who has come to stay with me for a little while. Nash is BEYOND thrilled, and it has been one giant frap fest at my house all morning. I can’t know for sure whether she remembers this place or not, but she sure has moved in like she does, just happy as a clam. She’s been very sweet with Dave and the kids, properly submitted to Brady, and has generally just been bouncing all over the place. I corralled her long enough this morning to take these:
Little too stretched out, but not bad for first tries
Nice face, Junie.
Part of the reason she’s here is to go to “Grandma’s Fat Camp”…the simple fact is that she just has too many things she can get into at Kate’s house, like chicken feed, goose poop, etc etc. She’s very resourceful when it comes to food and will pretty much eat until stuffed…while she’s here it will be harder for her to find things to eat beyond her dinner bowl. She looks better now and I know Kate took a couple pounds off of her before she got to the Nationals, but she probably still needs to drop 2-3 pounds. I also have her entered in a show in Tennessee in a few weeks that I’m hopeful might pull majors, and either way it has some very good judges.
Nationals – Sweeps news
Happy to say that Nash was 3rd in his 9-12 month sweepstakes class today! In large national entries, any placement is a win in my book LOL. I also showed June for Kate, since she was getting Ella ready for the ring, and she made the cut in her very large class! Hopefully we’ll have some ringside pictures a bit later. June is beautiful, needs to trim down a bit more (the girl spends her whole day thinking about food) but I’m very pleased with her. She’s a total sweetheart too and showed well for me.
2 weeks!
We leave for Nationals in 2 weeks! Eeeeek!! In preparation, Lizzie has started to, yes you guessed it, shed hair by the fistful. *sob* Nash hasn’t joined the party yet but we’ll see if that continues. In her defense, it IS 80 degrees here now pretty regularly, so I can see where she might be ready for summer wear. She also hasn’t quite grown in her belly hair yet, but I don’t think it’s too noticeable anymore unless you flip her over.
Nash is still in the throes of teenager-hood but is starting to show tiny glimmers of a brain and a body. He’s just barely 30 pounds at this point, so I’m very happy with where I think his adult weight will be. I’m trying to give him some showing refreshers over the next couple of weeks…I got lazy after his show debut and he’s getting some bad habits on the table. Like, wiggling when the judge walks up. The babies will be 10 months old in a few days!
Show update, and Vegas!
Nash and I headed to Louisville this weekend for a couple days of shows at the CWCCA supported entry up there. The entry wasn’t quite as large as it has been in years past, but there were still quite a few lovely specials there, and a solid entry of class dogs and bitches to make majors in dogs for all 4 days, and 2 days in girls. Friday and Saturday also had sweepstakes, which I love taking puppies to! I only entered Nash on Friday and Sat, just wanting to get some more experience under his belt before the Nationals and not really pushing for points…he still has a lot of growing up to do, but the Louisville site is great for getting puppies acclimated to large, busy shows.
Friday in sweepstakes Nash won his class and was pulled out by the judge (Emily Fish) for another look with the eventual winner, a very nice puppy owned/bred by Vivian Moran. He was second in his regular class. On Saturday we had a little better luck…he was the only one in his sweeps class (and didn’t get an award past that), but won his regular class and then went on to Reserve Winners Dog under Mary Belloff. Thankfully he showed better on Saturday than he did on Friday…he was very excited to be there, had his tail up which he rarely does, and generally had the attention span of a gnat. By Saturday he had settled down (and worn down) a bit.
Also, I was thrilled today to get some pictures from Joyce of the Vegas-man! No stacked shots, just some cute pictures of his handsome self being a dog. They’re going to dip their toes in the show ring in April!
Nashville takes on…Nashville?
Or, another day at the dog show. I entered Nash only one day this weekend because of my schedule…I entered 2 days next weekend in Louisville, and this was my tradeoff. I didn’t want to enter him TOO much before the Nationals, just on the off chance that he won, and really I just have him out so he can get used to things anyway. So today in Nashville there was a supported entry and sweeps.
No great results for today, Nash was 3rd of 3 in sweeps, and then 2nd of 4 in the regular class. I accidentally entered him in 6-9 month puppy instead of bred-by…I intended to finish him all from bred-by, whoops! Just not used to it yet. 
As it turns out today no big deal since he didn’t win, but he’s also entered incorrectly next weekend in Louisville. Oh well. The winner of his class was a VERY nice puppy who went on to WD/BOW…I don’t ever mind losing to a nice dog.
And thank to Janet, we have videos! I need to work on getting him to freebait a few more millimeters away from my legs, but otherwise I think he’s doing pretty well for a brainless puppy boy.
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.
