And the weiner is.....

Connor, well sort of. That's what he said he really wants for bait in the ring now. Took 3 of Alec's five fingers off during groups!

Anyway, I haven’t much time to go over the events of the recent weekend. Take one day off at the worst time of the year and well, it’ll haunt you for days. I’m so behind I think I’m catching up with myself!

I think that I can officially say that I have not spent a more miserable weekend showing in ages. I can handle rain, even 10 inches in flash flooding, followed by the mud it brings. Give me ice storms, 8” of snow and blizzard conditions. But the heat and humidity this weekend not only got to the dogs but the hoomans alike.

Top it off with Alec feeling horrible. Tweaked his back and he’s got a lot of back to tweak. Then it upset his stomach and he was sick most of the weekend. But I will say this, he sucked it up and showed. Only time he pawned off a dog to me was in breed and he couldn’t stand up right. But he did make it to all his groups.

I do need to thank Sheryl for letting us stay with her for the weekend. Her suggestion too. It was great to see Annie and Phil orders a great take-out pizza! I’m still rolling over her offer in my brain but until the roof is taken care of, I can’t figure out a way to take her up on it.

Saturday was the most brutal. We spent it alternating between the gym with the A/C and the big fans ring side. Joke in the GSD ring was that it was a wet tshirt contest. All the guy handlers abandoned their coats and ties, but still soaked through their shirts. Kent was the only brave one and needless to say all the handler’s clothing was headed to the dry cleaners Monday morning.

Connor managed to take BOV 2 out of 3 days. You can ask me about day 3 later—to say the least, I won’t be showing to that judge unless I have a great class bitch to take to her. Thescelo took BOB all three days and had a great showing in the groups. Charlie was RWD two days and won his class all three days, though the major broke. Editorial note: sick child, dying parent, car accident, broken leg, or dog is ill, that I can use as an excuse for pulling an entry. There have been a lot of entry pulls recently, having left me to consider that losing the day before is also a valid excuse for screwing over others. Therein lies another problem, a few exhibitors are now getting an untrustworth reputation-will they come, will they stay? From my point of view, if you come you come, but I most certainly won't count on you to stay. And as Kim noted, at some point, you're going to reap what you've sown.

Back to the recap. The Ms and Charlie were a good team one day in juniors, the other two we dragged Fred out from under the Chick Chalet, dusted off the wood shavings and they looked good. Seriously, the old dude did good and other then having to be bribed with steak on Sunday, he done good! And yes, we really did bath and groom him. He just preferred that we hadn’t.

Though, I must make another editorial side track. I think the AKC should require that juniors judges have a grasp of all the AKC accepted breeds that might be presented before them. Such as hand stacking of most herding breeds isn’t as correct as a free stacking dog. Or that a cardigan’s feet can turn out slightly and attempting to correct that for the junior on the table is an insult to the junior as well as possibly hurting the dog. Too many recent judges have point blank told the Ms that she would have won the class if she had corrected her dogs feet to be straight!!!!! Give me an F’in break! Three years running, our 4-H showmanship judges have known that a cardigan can have a slight turn out and they aren't AKC juniors judges! Email sent to judge’s ed for the CWCCA to send information to a handful of juniors judges.

Since I’m on a roll, attitudes ring side and ring etiquette seem to be extremely lacking. I’ve ranted on this a dozen or two times. If your dog doesn’t win, don’t have a hissy about it and then wander around muttering about crappy judges, crappy dogs and crappy people. I hate losing as much as the next person, but I know my dog isn’t perfect and like the judge on Friday told us, he liked things about each boy, Michael and Charlie, but different thing so he had to weigh what he didn’t like. Am I upset that I lost, nope. Did I throw a hissy, nope. Did I berate other’s, nope. Now getting beat by a dog with distinct structural faults, that’s so different. Wide fronts, train wreck rears, crappy movement, those irritate me.

Man, a few editorial side bars today?

As I am waiting for a photo from Rhonda, the only other happening this last weekend is that the Ms spent the weekend socializing the most adorable and outgoing and delicious rotten red puppy. She got to play in the fun match with Stormy, spent her own money to by her a new toy and well, signed on the dotted line. Photo will explain it all and no, it's not living at my house....yet.

So now it’s time off until our local show. I’m rolling up my sleeves for the final prep. Eye Clinic, herding instinct tests, fun match, ugh. I’m getting excited though. Nothing to show this year, so that makes it a little easier on us all. No week old pups to deal with, much easier. I’m looking forward to going home in the evening, doing chores and then sitting around the campfire with toasted marshmallows, then dropping off to sleep in my own bed.

later gators....
C