Well it’s been an eventful few weeks. In the end we missed LKA because the dogs were poorly – I was really looking forward to it so I was rather upset, but obviously the dogs come first. Solei decided that he was especially poorly and soo much worse than any of the others; most of them were better in 3-4 days, it took him 3-4 weeks!

On the 15th December I’d entered Sarah and Solei in an open show, for once there were no Papillon classes so they were in AVNSC (Any Variety Not Separately Classified) Toy. Solei was no where near well enough to go but thanks to my Solei-Bitch-Alerter ( 😆 ) I was expecting Sarah to be in season before the next show on the 30th, which meant it could have been two months before she showed again which was just too long considering she’d only just started showing well, so I decided to leave Solei behind and take her anyway.
She showed well and got a 3rd, behind a nice Lowchen and an Italian Greyhound which I must confess I thought was a Whippet when it came into the ring and wondered what it was doing in with the toys! :blush:

After that came Christmas, which was definitely lacking in something this year. Nice enough day, the dogs dined on turkey soup and had their presents! Vale & Solei’s were all edible, Sarah had a new rubber bone and a squeaky ball.

Then on Friday night I turned Sarah over because according to Solei I was expecting her in season somewhere around the 26th/27th (this being the 28th) and saw she’d started bleeding. I would never normally show an in season bitch but as the show was Sunday, less than 48 hours away, and on Sunday morning Solei still wasn’t interested in her I decided to take her as she was so near the beginning and shouldn’t be interesting yet. It just meant a bit of extra preparation, which actually benefitted her – she usually messes her trousers when she wees, but it’s never too bad so I usually just brush them out, but as she was bleeding a bit as well I cleaned her up properly with wet wipes, self-rinse shampoo and baby powder – and she looked fantastic 😆

She showed with her usual attitude, but on the move decided the floor was really, really interesting. Honestly, you’ve never seen such an interesting floor, look at this and that an- oooh over here! As she’s still a puppy (and was particularly bad about walking on the lead until I put in so much work with her) the lead can’t be held tight, so she can get her head down much more easily. Ah well, she is still a baby. Got a 2nd there.

Solei looked lovely as ever and won his class (Graduate) of 2. Went back in for BOB, against the 6mth old puppy that had won Sarah’s class and the adult that won Open…and of course Solei was chucked. Puppy got BOB (and obviously BPIB) and the Open winner got RBOB.

I got a bit depressed briefly after that, to be honest. I’ve got this gorgeous dog who is never appreciated because he’s got the wrong ears and now I’ve got a Papillon puppy who doesn’t have the ear bias and is really nice, and I *still* can’t do any winning!

I mean don’t get me wrong, I love my Sol to pieces and I wouldn’t trade him for the world, and I show because I love showing not because I want to win everything in sight – obviously everytime I enter the ring I want to win, but I don’t care if I don’t as long as the results are fair. Half the time even if the results aren’t fair (which is actually most of the time with Solei 😆 ) it doesn’t bother me much because I know it’s because he’s a Phalene and you come to expect it. But every so often a result will get to me – never lasts long but it upsets me for half an hour or so!

I know Solei isn’t perfect – no dog is. He has his faults and I’m not blind to that, but he IS a nice dog. To watch him move is poetry in motion – he flows round the ring with the most breathtaking movement. He’s done the Phalene class at the club shows since he was 7 months old, and except for that once at South Wales in October he’s *never* been anything other than 1st or 2nd – and has been Best Phalene in Show three times; the South Wales Pap Club in 2006 and for the last two years at the South of England Pap Club. So that shows when he’s on an even playing field (in terms of ears) he’s nice 😉  On all (four!) the occasions he was 2nd (mostly as a pup) he’s beaten the dogs that beat him multiple times since.

In a way it was made worse by the fact S & T went to a show yesterday that I wasn’t able to go to because it was too far. I knew the judge (breed specialist) liked Phalenes and I knew she liked Solei, which is typical. It was a large entry for an open show with some very nice dogs….and Tara, Solei’s cousin, got BOB! It was a different judge for the group, there were only five dogs in there (four placings) and he didn’t even look at Tara. It was the same judge that judged Solei on the 22nd December when he placed him behind the three puppies, so he definitely doesn’t like Phalenes! But the fact Tara got BOB over the entry that was there was frustrating, when Solei can’t even win a class – he’s only ever won two classes at normal open shows; both times it was an entry of two and both times the other dog showed so badly it would’ve been incredible if he hadn’t won it! It would just be nice for him to place where he should once in a while.

I’d been keeping Sarah here for as long as possible – when she gets further into her season she’ll go to T, because of Solei – but they wanted to borrow her so on Monday afternoon S came and picked her up, then dropped her back on Tuesday evening. Well, on Monday Solei hadn’t been in the least bit interested….but obviously Sarah disappearing for just over 24 hours was too much! He was all over her when she got back and we had an awful night. Luckily once the novelty had worn off he seems to have settled down again, touch wood.

I wouldn’t have bothered to have her back until her season was over, but obviously the longer I can keep her the better for T and also S & T are taking Solei up to Boston on Friday. It’s the last qualifying show for this years Crufts, so he’ll be going over on Thursday afternoon to spend the night as otherwise we’d be dropping him off at three in the morning! So if we could get through Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday morning I could keep Sarah until Solei comes back on Friday night, which is better for T and also makes being without Solei easier for me.

So fingers crossed for Solei at Boston! Positive thoughts appreciated 😀