It has been a year and a half since my last dog shows. Between moving to Texas last summer and having 3 litters with Cadence, Jazz, and Libby I haven’t had the time or energy to get to a dog show. Once a year there is a local UKC show here in south Texas and that show happens to occur 10 minutes from my house. They do take day of show entries, so really there was zero excuse for me not to attend. I sent a text to Jingle’s foster mom last Tuesday night to see if she could drop her off on Wednesday for grooming. Janelle was at my door by 9AM so I could get the ball rolling. The only question I had was how would she do at the shows? There are local handling classes held every Wednesday night. My goal was to get her ‘mostly’ groomed, then take her to class to let her see how the game was played. She did fabulous. I simply had to find the motivation to groom Cody and take him as well. Jingle was my priority, but seeing how Cody did in Rally would give me the information I needed to start his AKC performance career. You guys have no idea how glad I am I forced my way past the grooming (I really REALLY hate the grooming aspect) and took my guys to the show. Let’s just say we had an incredible weekend!
Kerry up in Austin brought Jingle’s full sister, Newt, to the show as well. Newt had show in Louisiana a month prior, so she had a competition win already under her belt. The goal was to get one of the sisters finished this weekend and I honestly didn’t care which. They are both nice girls… but they are both under a year, so anything could happen. Some judges simply will not put up a puppy and UKC Judges always ask their age.
Day 1:
Conformation show 1: 5 Standard Poodles entered. Jingle won Best Female, Best of Breed, and a Group 2. My little girly who had never been to a show walked in a rocked it! Very proud of how she showed like a pro and was steady for the entire event. Puppy Power!!
I swear Jingle is a physical clone of her mom, Jazz, but with a better tail set!
Rally show 1: The first conformation show I pulled Cody directly out of the crate and into the ring. There was very little walk and a ton of BOUNCE! I decided to take him outside for some ‘boot camp’ and attention work before Rally. Well, it paid off. When we hit the ring he was SPOT ON. Scored a perfect 100 and took home High in Trial. It was pretty, he was right with me the entire run. I felt he deserved that score.
Conformation show 2: 5 Standard Poodles entered. Newt won Best Female, and Cody won Best of Breed and a Group 2. Kerry was starting to doubt her dog, so this gave her a huge boost. This gave Newt another competition win and Cody a Grand Champion pass because he beat the other Champion and Grand Champion.
Rally show 2: I didn’t realize the reversed the run order. Cody was first dog in the ring. I had to pull him right out of the crate and into the ring. We managed a 98 out of 100 and I felt great about that. I lost his focus a time or two. Second place and one big happy Poodle.
Day 2:
Conformation show 1: 6 Standard Poodles entered. Newt won Best Female, Cody won Best of Breed and a Group 2. Newt finished her Championship! Cody gained another Grand Champion pass by beating the other Champion and 2 Grand Champions.
Kerry with Newt. She is a really pretty girl and much bigger than little Jingle.
Rally show 1: Again, I prepped Cody and had him mostly on point. However, someone stacked their crates right next to the rally ring wall and something was distracting the dogs. Cody wasn’t with me mentally going around the far wall cones. He was lagging a bit, but the judge didn’t see it I suppose. I would have docked him a point for that sloppiness, but Rally folks are not like us old school obedience people. She gave us a perfect 100. Here is his rally run for you to see. Watch his heeling on the first set of cone. He wasn’t with me and the leash did get tight several times. He was awarded High in Trial again. As all the dogs were equally distracted over there, it was a fair call. This gave Cody his RO1 title in Rally.
Conformation show 2: 6 Standard Poodles entered. We moved Newt up to the champion class. It was a hard call. I could leave her down in the regular class for competition for Jingle OR move her up to make the champion class 3 dogs. This would insure a grand champion pass for a dog who might not win best of breed against the grand champions. To get a grand championship pass (win), the dog must beat at least 3 champions or a combination of champions and grand champions. I had this gut feeling Newt needed to be in the champion class. I had shown Cody to the last judge once prior in Alabama when he was a 6 month old puppy. He wasn’t a big fan and I didn’t think Cody would take breed again under that judge. It was the right call. Jingle won best female, best of winners, Cody won best champion, but he put up another Grand Champion girly as his breed winner. That Poodle was shown by a super sweet junior handler who started to cry when she won. It was her first show and so WORTH seeing her win. Such a sweet girl. We need more folks doing dog sports, and maybe this will spur her to show more.
Rally show 2: I dropped the ball and went out to lunch before moving Cody up into Rally level 2. So, we stuck around for Rally 1 and got a bonus leg. You only need 3 wins to gain a title. Again Cody was mildly distracted by the far wall. I didn’t have great focus with him and he had one seriously crooked sit. The judge docked him a point and I felt that was very fair. There was an Aussie who ran a stunning run and that dog needed to be the only perfect score. Cody gained second place and again had a great time. After we were done with our weekend, the judge came over and told me she loved watching Cody work. Told me to not squash his joy and keep up the good training!
All in all we had an amazing weekend! Cody gained 3 of 5 Grand Champion passes, two group 2nds, his Rally 1 title, two High in Trials for Rally, 3 Total Dog awards for winning in both conformation and rally on the same day/ same show. Newt gained her UKC Championship. Jingle won Best of Breed and a group 2, one competition win, and some points towards her championship.
I was coughing my head off last night, hacking up goo due to my asthma and allergies kicked in from a weekend locked in a building full of shedding dogs and rainy weather. However, I am so glad I went. I made some new friends, hugged a lot of sweet pups, and created a lot of wonderful memories! Oh and my kids won half the raffle items! Kenzie has this magic touch when it comes to raffles. I gave her $20.00 to buy tickets and she managed to win about $60 dollars worth of things. The $25 dollar gift card to Olive Garden gives us a great victory dinner!
~Becky