Well Bath Champ Show is notorious for always being wet! Ironic given the place name, or maybe it’s because of the name!

This year they’ve got a fantastic new layout. They’ve adopted the “in out” system where half the ring is covered (along with the benching) and the other half is open, so if it’s nice you can use the whole ring (or just the uncovered part as our judge was doing, though even just that bit was a nice size ring) and if it’s wet or too hot you can go undercover, removing all the problems of if it starts raining very lightly wondering if you should stay outside or go in and whichever you do will be wrong! It’s a big upheaval to move rings in the middle of judging so not a decision to be taken lightly and impossible to keep moving between the two.

The weather actually wasn’t too bad for the first half of the day. It got very warm at one point with incredibly bright sunshine and during Limit & Open dog people waiting to be seen were seeking refuge under the covered area! In the afternoon we had some incredibly heavy showers. I didn’t go with any expectations because this judge has openly said he doesn’t know how to judge Phalenes, and indeed Solei wasn’t placed. The other dogs all were though – Sam won Junior Dog, Jason 4th in Open Dog and Tosca was 3rd in Minor Puppy Bitch.

I’d also entered Solei in the Special Beginners Stakes for the first time (only at champ shows and not all have them) and he got 4th out of 24(!) dogs! He was absolutely nuts whilst we were waiting (obviously a lot of waiting with that many dogs in the class) and started flirting with the Pug next door 😆 (it was toy/terrier and 20 of the dogs were terriers but I managed to get him in between two of the other three toys!) Then he was showing off, playing about…it was hilarious to watch. I was glad the marquee had been put up before it started raining though, because he was crouching down on the grass rubbing his bib and whole underneath over it! If there had been any moisture in it he would’ve been absolutely filthy. She cut the class first and I was absolutely ecstatic to get into the cut never mind place.

The only thing was that in the line up the Smooth Fox Terrier actually went for him…and meant it. Luckily the owner had him on a short lead and Solei was quick and darted under my chair so he didn’t get anything more than hair, and even though Solei is the biggest wus in the world with things like that apparently he’s braver so luckily he bounced back….could’ve been very nasty though. Apparently the SFT had been standing next to another SFT in the class and they’d spent the whole time eyeballing each other so evidently not a nice dog!

Southern Counties next Saturday….now we’re in the main part of the season and it’ll just be bam bam bam for the next few months!