So, the day finally arrived! I was up far too early after dozing on and off throughout the night. We got to Exeter without getting lost (I should hope so seeing as it’s straight down the motorway and we’ve been there hundreds of times before!) and actually found the Livestock Centre without getting lost either, though that was more by luck than judgement as we realised afterwards we’d actually taken a wrong turning but all it did was add an extra loop to the journey. The motorway was horrendous for 7:30 in the morning – heading towards Devon on a bank holiday weekend isn’t a good idea!

Entries weren’t that large by our standards, there were 8 in Solei’s class. And he showed *beautifully* I couldn’t have asked for better. Stood perfectly on the table and didn’t try to snatch the food from my hand (thus ruining his stand) which he never does at home but likes trying to do at ringcraft, and kept his tail up by himself the whole time whilst he was on the table! Moved well as always and then kept his tail up when he was standing on the floor as well 🙂 It wasn’t brilliant but he was standing for a very long time and everytime I saw it start to drop I just moved him slightly and it went back up, which it would never have done before without moving him halfway across the ring! And he got fourth 🙂 It was a strong class and the other thing about Phalenes is even the judges that will place a Phalene don’t like to over do it and Tara (phalene bitch) had won the class before Solei’s, so there was no way he’d have given it to another Phalene. Shouldn’t be like that but it is 😉 Afterwards someone told me they thought if he’d been in before Tara he’d have quite possibly won it which was encouraging. I certainly couldn’t have asked for more from Solei so I was happy enough anyway! And I was so glad I wasn’t 5th – they were only placing 1st-4th but the judge obviously wasn’t aware of that and kept pulling 5 dogs out anyway which meant one person thought they’d been placed then had to leave without anything! Not being placed is one thing but to think you have and then get it, in effect, taken away would’ve been awful.

Though I was nervous already, not helped by the fact the only way I could groom him was with my back to the ring so I couldn’t see what was going on and I hadn’t quite finished when the other class ended. So I finished him in a bit of a panic and dashed across to the ring, got into the line and realised I’d forgotten my food! So, highly embarrassed I had to rush out of the ring, grab it and run back – luckily judge was still drinking his coffee 😆

So there was my first experience of showing Solei in a “proper” show!

Then, last Thursday, we had our second show. This time we went up to Monmouth, it was an agricultural show so there was lots going on besides the dog show. I was so glad I’d entered this one because I was so nervous at his first show after I had to finish grooming him in a rush thus forgetting my bait and had to dash out of the ring to grab it and after that I was just really flustered and unsettled! After that I needed a good experience before tackling the terror of Richmond.

First was his breed class and he got 2nd 🙂 There was just the one Papillon class there and 1st/BOB was a bitch so he actually technically got BOS as well but they weren’t recognising it at this particular show. Shame 😉 Then, after a long wait I took him back in for Graduate Any Variety Toy and he got Reserve there! Despite being a little brat – he wouldn’t stand because he wanted to play with the other dogs, put him on the table and he wouldn’t stay stacked because there was an interesting smell on the carpet he was standing on. Put him down to do his triangle and kept having to yank his head up because of there were so many interesting smells down there as well! So yes, he was hard work 😆 I actually wonder if someone had had an in season bitch in there because he’s not usually that bad But when I came out of the ring I was stopped by a man who complimented me on my handling which made my day 🙂

Tomorrow is the big one – Richmond! Up at 4am and hopefully Solei will be on his best behaviour and show his socks off! Going to bath him ready in about an hour. Fingers crossed….