Where does the time go! Although little progress has been made with the moving in bit Solei and I are much more settled now, I’ve adapted to having him around and I’m now less paranoid and consequently enjoying him more!

The weekend (5th) after my last entry I took him to another companion show, as I mentioned I was going to. Again I put him in AV Non-Sporting and Most Handsome Dog. I thought about Best Condition but it was an incredibly hot day so I thought just the two would be enough.

When we arrived…well, it was on a field which obviously hasn’t been cut in weeks. It was so long you couldn’t actually see his legs and he kept having to hop over particularly big clumps! And the rings were no better.

I was grooming him over in the shade of the car because there was no shade on the field at all; no trees or anything. So I couldn’t see the rings, when mum comes running up and tells me to hurry up because they’re on the class before and there aren’t many in it. So I panic and finish grooming him in a rush, run over dropping everything in my haste…..only to find they’re only on puppy and they’ve still got the whole of sporting to do before non-sporting…at least it gave me time to calm down 🙄

Still, eventually it *is* our class, there are about 10-15 dogs in it. And my little star only went and won it! I’ve never been more proud in my life, especially considering the ground conditions were so bad for little dogs (his movement is his best aspect too!) and it was so hot. He still wouldn’t keep his tail up but you can’t have everything 😉 We’re working on it!
Then we had to go back in and challenge for BIS, but nothing there.

Meanwhile they’d decided to halt the novelty classes until the pedigree had finished because the next two were most handsome dog and prettiest bitch and some of the dogs were entered in both (both a pedigree and a novelty I mean, not both the dog and bitch classes….) and so it wouldn’t be fair to them.

So Solei and I come out of the ring after BIS to go straight into the other one for Most Handsome Dog. There were 24 in the class and he got 2nd!

Oh and did I mention his breeders were there watching? No pressure then 😉 I think that’s why I almost messed up his first class – I forgot to put him on the table whilst the dog in front was moving so then I had to do it when the judge was ready and thus didn’t have time to set him up and it was a minor disaster! Something else happened too but I can’t remember what, evidently I’ve blanked it from my memory already 😆 It was the first time they’ve seen me handling him too (in any context, never mind a proper show)

There was a little fun agility course there (weave poles, a few jumps, tunnel, one of those tiny baby/toddler’s slides (which he climbed up – eventually – and then slid down :lol:) and a hoop that was only about an inch off the ground) so we did that before we came home and he was really good 🙂 I want to try agility with him anyway and based on that he definitely has potential!

So yes; came home with a fun rosette for the agility, a 1st, a 2nd and two goody bags! I was absolutely floating for days 🙂

I took him to ringcraft the Tuesday after my last entry (2nd) and except for the age old problem of his tail he was good 🙂 It was nice to be able to show him off! He hasn’t been since but he’ll go again this Tuesday because I want to get some practice in before our first open show next Saturday. But I’ve still been going and it’s been great fun because we’ve had all the puppies out! The two babies (5 months on 21st August) have been a few times now and they’re both doing really well. All being well their first show will be on 22nd September when they’ll be 6mths 1 day (you can’t show before 6 months) so that’ll be an experience for them! Mickey has also been coming, he’s about 6 months and I’ve been able to handle him. Fauna came one week (think she’s about 8 months) and we’ve also had Tara (almost 15mths) and the week before last Mac (nearly 17mths now) came as well so it’s been…interesting. Usually involves swapping dogs between the three of us frequently which is fun to confuse everyone else!

Other than that the Monday just gone was Bournemouth Championship Show. Way back in about March I was going to go, but then I got Solei and the entries had already closed so I wouldn’t have been able to take him with me unless I wanted to leave him in the unentered dogs tent and there’s no way I’d do that all day (especially as he currently has some separation issues we’re working on) so I wasn’t going to go. However then some friends offered me a spare pass so that I could bring him and so we ended up going after all!

After spending the night not sleeping I was up at five and we’d left the house before 5:30am. The journey was wonderful – nothing beats travelling through the New Forest at 7am. There were so few cars about and we saw the ponies and even some highland cattle! We only got lost once, when we went into the centre of Ringwood by mistake, and it only cost us about 5 minutes so very impressive for us – we usually end up getting hopelessly lost 😆 We were aiming for about 7:30am because that’s when the show opened and we eventually arrived at about 7:35am (would’ve been perfect timing if we hadn’t had that minor detour ;)) to find the others had not long arrived too and were standing in the car park! So we all went in together, claimed our spot by the Papillon ring and set up camp 🙂 After everything was set up and we’d all had some breakfast and recovered from the journey the dogs came out to take them round the ring before the judging started (which wasn’t until ten). So I took Solei round and let him have a sniff, then we did a mock round – I put him on the table, did a triangle, down and back and then took him back to the end of the “line”. He was *fantastic*. Kept his tail up the whole time and I’ve never seen him go better – I was SO pleased with him 😀 I think if he’d been entered and shown like that he would’ve held his own.

However I don’t think it was even 9am by this point and although he’s never kept his tail up as well as he did there he is usually better in the mornings – as the day goes on he gets tireder and thus lazier. So after the judging had finished I took him round again. It was probably about 3-4pm and it wasn’t quite as good as the morning but his tail was still upish, just not quite as good as it should be. Still a great improvement on how he usually holds it!

So, as I mentioned we have our first proper show together next weekend. I’m not sure how he’ll react – it’s been years since he’s been in an enclosed area with loads of different breeds around him – but hopefully we’ll be okay 🙂 I’m excited about it as well as terrified!

Oh and my wardrobe is now built but the small one needs attaching to the big one and the shelves need to be put in so I *still* can’t use it *lol*