It was Sarah and Sam’s 1st birthday on Friday! We celebrated with extra treats and then they both got a lovely birthday bath – it was the best birthday present they’d ever had 😆 – for the show yesterday. They grow up so fast, I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since S emailed me to say Sally had given birth.

First show since Crufts yesterday! I hadn’t entered Solei because none of us knew the judges name, and as a general rule if none of us know who they are they’re not going to know a Phalene 😆 So I didn’t bother as he’s showing on Monday. We had Winston, Tosca and Topsy doing their first show, as well as Sam, Sarah, Mac and Jason.
Sam, Sarah and Winston were in Yearling which was a large class of 10. Sarah hasn’t shown for a month so she was really happy to be showing again! She wasn’t going as well as she can – she was silly on the table and I had to move part of her triangle on a mat which is one of the mats she really loves and I couldn’t get her head up off it! The judge was wearing a very dark purple top and a long dark skirt as well so an awful lot of the dogs really didn’t like her. I had Sarah standing beautifully but as soon as the judge came and made a noise to get her attention the tail dropped faster than the stockmarket of late! For the same reason I couldn’t get her standing with her tail up at the end of the triangle either. She was absolutely fine with tail right up the rest of the time, it was just when the judge was near.

Anyway, she still got a 4th and Sam won the class! Winston didn’t place but at only 6 months old and at his first show against dogs up to 24mths…not really surprising!

Next was Graduate which had Mac and Tosca entered. They know how much Mac loves me so I got to show him 🙂 He’s a lovely dog to show actually, and so easy after Solei and Sarah. This was a smaller class of 5 or 6 and Tosca got a 4th, and Mac won it! He wasn’t keen on the judge either, but went for the backing away approach rather than putting his tail down.

Jason got a 3rd in Open, then Sam and Mac went back in for Best of Breed. We thought it would go to the Open winner so it was a great surprise when Sam got it! Then later he went on to get Group 2! Not bad for 1 day out of puppy 😆 The judge said she wanted to give him Group 1 but he was flagging at the end (he wasn’t, he was just a bit distracted, but still…)

Tosca also did the AV Minor Puppy class and I think got a 4th again, and Topsy did AV Puppy but didn’t place.

Had a fantastic day, it was so nice to be back at a show again. No rest for the wicked though – Solei has to be bathed today and Sarah needs her trousers dunked, then we’re back at a show again tomorrow!

I’ve missed all this so much, really happy to be back 🙂  It’ll be a mad week this week, Wallace is coming back from America with Karen on the 28th, then we’re splitting up on the 29th and they’re going up to UK Toy with Winston, Sam, Wallace, Tosca, Tara and Tammy (Sarah is entered but at the moment isn’t going)  and I’m going to an open show with Solei, Storm, Topsy and hopefully Tarna as well.

After that follows a hectic week and then we’ve entered an open show on the 6th, which at the moment S & T aren’t planning to go to now. If they don’t I’ll still go down with 2 or 3 of the dogs. The next day is then the South Wales Papillon Club open show, which I’m really looking forward to – I love the club shows even though they’re usually utter madness cos we take so many dogs! I’d need to check my schedule to be sure but I think we’ve entered about 12 dogs!

The weekend after that is the Papillon Club championship show, then a weekend off and then it’s the first championship show since Crufts, WELKS. I’m really looking forward to that as well because other than Crufts (which doesn’t really count because it’s unlike any other) my last general champ show was 7th September so it’ll have been almost 8 months(!) since I’ve last been to one.