Show Boat

It's mid morning on a Sunday and I feel like I've been put through the wringer. Dog show weekends are exhausting. You stand on concrete for hours, you get up for early ring times, if you have a house guest the dogs and cats are unsettled and no one gets a good night's sleep.

Karma has improved ten-fold in her ring behaviour - she will never love it but does not obviously hate it now. Yesterday she won Winners Bitch and added to her Championship point count. Today she played up in the ring, didn't show as well and was last ... dog shows are so weird! In all it was a good weekend, low stress, good Ridgeback people to chat with and generally a good time despite the early hours!

There was another Ridgeback there named Red, really nice boy, who doesn't much like the ring either. He is a lovely dog who's biggest problem at the shows, like Karma, is in his head. He won Best of Breed yesterday and it was a nice boost for his owners who were getting discouraged and have not had the best of experiences with shows and breeding. I'm really hoping they stick with it despite some of the bad attitudes they've encountered.

It's important to remember that not all dog show people are the same but sadly it only takes one bad apple to ruin the experience for novices and experienced people alike. In fact, that's often the reason people quit going to shows. Sure we all come to win, any one who says "We're just here for fun" is a straight up liar. Winning is fun. Losing is not.

When I show Leeloo I certainly don't expect to win but I don't want to lose either. We will do as well as we do at the same time I am ensuring she is having a positive experience. Will I be happy if she does win? Sure. Will I be angry and storm around if she loses? Well, no because her puppy months are not for Championship pointing, they are for teaching her to like showing, enjoy spending time with me and having a laugh. If she gets points great but if not ... what's the damn hurry?

So slow the hell down, relax, let them be puppies, let them have fun, teach dogs like Karma and Red it's okay to enjoy themselves in the ring despite rough starts. Because a puppy who learns to hate it ... hates it for life.