A dog show weekend
My local kennel club joined forces with another kennel club and we put on a 4 day show Thursday thru Sunday this past weekend. I had to work Thursday and Friday so only got to attend Saturday and Sunday. I typically steward for obedience when I can. This year was slightly different as instead of regular obedience I also helped cover Rally. I'm glad I've been doing Rally on my own or I would have been seriously lost! I have been stewarding for about 10 years now which is ironic as I only started seriously participating in obedience showing this last year. Stewarding is a great way to learn about the nuances before getting into the ring yourself. This is what greeted us saturday morning thanks to Earl:
Not a fabulous photo but it was raining. (& the only photo I took on Saturday) All things considered it could have been much worse. No tents blew down and there was no flooding. Not bad for the tail end of a hurricane. Thankfully as soon as the show actually started it cleared off. Here are some photos from Sunday. (The photos are not in the best order as blogger isn't as user friendly as it used to be.) I took about 150 shots to try to get a bunch for our clubs facebook page. (which now won't co-operate and let me upload them Grrr) I couldn't get many obedience pics as I was just to busy trying to pay attention to the stopwatch or wait for the judges direction. These are just a few random photos from the day.
A Saluki in the Rally ring. She actually did quite well. I personally love seeing non-traditional breeds in the obedience rings.
And I always love seeing happy dogs at work too.
Hmmm familiar yet so different.
Speaking of akitas, I got a pleasant surprise when a woman stopped by that adopted a deaf akita a few years ago. I had given her some advice about training him and she brought Kami to see me again. He is now a registered therapy dog and has his CGC. Yay! He looks great. I wish I had thought to take a photo of him to share. It's always great to get happy updates. (I never did get into showing like my past post mentions. I wish they had alter classes like Canada so I could dabble in it without having to own an intact dog. A topic for a future blog post perhaps.) 
Did you know Saluki's also come in a smooth coated variety? Funny how I had never seen even one in person or at past shows. Suddenly they were everywhere!
Does this guy look familiar to anyone? He was on the cover of DownEast magazine (see link for story) and went to Westminster. He was very cute in the fur and super sweet.
Sorry Joanna, I didn't realize I had taken a pic of your boy (well Dawn's boy now) until I was looking through them afterwards. I would have tried to get a better shot had I been paying attention. I was literally running through the grounds snapping as many pics as possible at the time. I will smack myself with a wet noodle the next time one is available as my punishment.
I know this one is blurry but I had to share. His name is Stuart Little and he gave me frenchie kisses. He made me think of our Moo. He is 11 months old and I talked his poor owners ear off.
These were the winners of the groups: Borzoi, Doberman, Springer Spaniel, Australian Shepherd (which is an American breed for you trivia buffs) Keeshond, and Havanese. Best in show on Sunday was the Springer Spaniel. (Saturday it went to the Borzoi.)
Not a fabulous photo but it was raining. (& the only photo I took on Saturday) All things considered it could have been much worse. No tents blew down and there was no flooding. Not bad for the tail end of a hurricane. Thankfully as soon as the show actually started it cleared off. Here are some photos from Sunday. (The photos are not in the best order as blogger isn't as user friendly as it used to be.) I took about 150 shots to try to get a bunch for our clubs facebook page. (which now won't co-operate and let me upload them Grrr) I couldn't get many obedience pics as I was just to busy trying to pay attention to the stopwatch or wait for the judges direction. These are just a few random photos from the day.
A Saluki in the Rally ring. She actually did quite well. I personally love seeing non-traditional breeds in the obedience rings. 
And I always love seeing happy dogs at work too. 
Hmmm familiar yet so different.
Speaking of akitas, I got a pleasant surprise when a woman stopped by that adopted a deaf akita a few years ago. I had given her some advice about training him and she brought Kami to see me again. He is now a registered therapy dog and has his CGC. Yay! He looks great. I wish I had thought to take a photo of him to share. It's always great to get happy updates. (I never did get into showing like my past post mentions. I wish they had alter classes like Canada so I could dabble in it without having to own an intact dog. A topic for a future blog post perhaps.)
Did you know Saluki's also come in a smooth coated variety? Funny how I had never seen even one in person or at past shows. Suddenly they were everywhere!
Does this guy look familiar to anyone? He was on the cover of DownEast magazine (see link for story) and went to Westminster. He was very cute in the fur and super sweet. 
Sorry Joanna, I didn't realize I had taken a pic of your boy (well Dawn's boy now) until I was looking through them afterwards. I would have tried to get a better shot had I been paying attention. I was literally running through the grounds snapping as many pics as possible at the time. I will smack myself with a wet noodle the next time one is available as my punishment. 
I know this one is blurry but I had to share. His name is Stuart Little and he gave me frenchie kisses. He made me think of our Moo. He is 11 months old and I talked his poor owners ear off. 
These were the winners of the groups: Borzoi, Doberman, Springer Spaniel, Australian Shepherd (which is an American breed for you trivia buffs) Keeshond, and Havanese. Best in show on Sunday was the Springer Spaniel. (Saturday it went to the Borzoi.) All in all it was a great show. I spent today recouperating and getting my brain back since I had the day off from work due to the holiday. I am also very excited to have scored a new 1/4 inch leather leash from Hogan Leather that is FABULOUS. I have been looking for a new leash since the demise of my last favorite leash. I hate to say it but this one is is even better than my previous leash. It is already soft and supple and has the braided end features. I'll probably buy another one since this one is only 4 feet long. The vendor didn't have a 6 footer but I wasn't about to let that stop me from getting it. I knew I would have kicked myself later had I passed it up. We can't have that!
I hope everyone else had a great holiday weekend too!
