What a great week-end we had last week! We entered Gibson and Jewel in the Mattaponi Kennel Club shows in Manassas. Gibson did much better in the ring than his last show in the fall. Saturday's judge, Houston Clark, was very encouraging, telling me Gibson is "a decent enough dog" but he likes to see the temperament and movement of a herding dog. When I told him that Gibson was 100% better than his last show, that his preference then was to collapse in a puddle, especially if the judge was male, Mr Clark said I must be on the right track and to keep working with Gibson. When I took Jewel in the ring, Mr Clark said, "that's more like it"! Jewel was Winners and Best of Winners for her first point!
Sunday's judge was not as fun to show under. Gibson was more relaxed and confident than on Saturday, but was still startled by a sudden movement by the judge shortly after we entered the ring. Gibson gave a quick growl, which of course did not please the judge, but was fine after that. I was thankful he didn't disqualify us, but felt he then had us stack our dogs in Winners in a way that he knew Gibson wouldn't be comfortable. Except for the final stack, Gibson moved so well and showed so much better than the day before that it was almost like the old Gibson was back! Jewel was Winners, Best of Winners and Best of Variety for her second point! She lost her composure during pictures--it was her first time, after all--and the judge grew impatient with us. He didn't act like he enjoyed his assignment at all! I knew he wouldn't give her any consideration in the Group judging, plus my handling skills are not up to that kind of pressure, so we packed up and headed home.
Besides earning points, the best part of showing is catching up with friends and making new friends. We had a fun group back at our house Saturday night for a very informal supper. David cooked chicken on the grill and everyone brought something to go with it. We toasted those who had won that day, especially Michelle's malamute who won his championship on Saturday! Her lucky dogs got a special treat for their accomplishments--a steak! We had our own special treats--sinful desserts from Pastries by Randolph.
As if points, good friends and good food were not enough, Ellen took one look at Sadie and said "of course she's pregnant, look at her"! We had started to think Sadie was expecting as she had expanded a bit and her behavior had changed that week. She had been getting into all the show things, something she had never touched before. She's chewed the tops to almost every spray bottle I have and ate the remnants of a jar of first aide cream that I didn't even know was in her room. Fortunately, she threw that right back up and it's obviously not affected the puppies as she's growing on a daily basis. She found the heat the last couple of days to be unbearable. Poor Sadie, how will she be able to endure another month? We're going to take her to Casanel this afternoon for some pampering and showers of attention, that should perk her up!
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