Monday, June 28, 2010

The Wizard of Oz

In Canning we had a reasonably good weekend despite a rough start Friday night fighting with the air mattress. I managed to time my arrival at the show grounds so that my tent and mattress assembly occurred in the dark, something I highly recommend if you want things to go badly. My dad and I spent the better part of half an hour trying to pump air into the mattress to no avail … the air kept leaking out. I was contemplating sleeping on the dog beds in the truck when my Dad had the bright idea to read the instructions properly. Turns out we were trying to pump air into a mattress that had a large hole in it … the hole the air is designed to leak out of when you are done using the bed. So, with that hole plugged the mattress was a success.

After a night of restless sleep with the dogs stomping all over the place and me waking up to swear at them every couple hours, we started the show with Esme, Parker, Dixie and Esme’s sire Holmes. At 6 months and 2 days old Esme showed like a seasoned pro. She had people at ringside completely mesmerized and open mouthed. She was a superstar and to prove it she won Winners bitch and Best of Winners for her first 2 points. This over two adult Pulis with proper cords instead of fluff! Holmes won breed of course and then proceeded to win a second in group. Now, try to keep up: because the Sheltie that placed third in group was a puppy, Esme was the only puppy undefeated as yet by a puppy in the Herding group. This meant that only Esme and the Sheltie were required to go into the Puppy group competition. I took little Esme in expecting the Sheltie to win but Esme showed her little heart out and won the puppy group! What a great start to little Esme’s show career … and with scratched out coat to boot!

Raimi didn’t have as good a weekend as Esme. He won Best of Opposite in both shows on Saturday and on Sunday he didn’t even get that! That morning he didn’t behave very well (whereupon the judge did a terrible job of hiding how annoyed she was) and in the afternoon he was *so hot* he just would not show. He is also quite different from the dogs he is competing against – if you have ever met Raimi you may simply remember that he is ‘a lot of dog’; probably a bit too much dog to be correct, particularly in these parts. I was chatting with my mom at ringside and saying that if I was not The Boy’s owner and only an impartial observer, I too would probably put the bitch up over him as the more correct Ridgeback (this comment got me in ‘trouble’ later but that is a story for another day). As much as I love my most handsome Boy I suspect a show career is not in the cards … we are going to concentrate on tracking – something that doesn’t care what he or I look like!

Esme, on the other hand, did well again on Sunday although I could tell she was very tired in the ring. This has been a big weekend for her. She took Winners Bitch again but not Best of Winners so she is now on 3 whole points her first weekend out. We didn’t get to go into the puppy group ring because a Sheltie puppy placed ahead of the Puli so we sat on the sidelines. It was a great weekend for Esme, and maybe a not so great weekend for Raimi; however, any weekend spent with my dogs, regardless of results, is a pot of gold at the end of a perfect rainbow. (Photo taken June 27, 2010 just outsideWindsor NS - a perfect rainbow) 


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