Well…I’ve had an amazing couple of weeks!

On Wednesday 29th July we went to Dunster Country Fair…yes, we are completely mad! It was raining when we left and got heavier as the journey progressed….It was pouring by the time we arrived. Cue quick dash to the marquee! We’d arrived nice andearly so the groundinto the showground wasn’t too churned up and we got in without any problems and then we got a nice spot in the marquee, right in front of our ring…except it wasn’t! I was convinced we were in ring one so we set up there andit wasn’t until it was too late to move I realised that actually we were in ring three! Oh well, we managed. I had Darwin & Storm entered with Solei coming along to supervise! Both boys were 2nd in their classes and then Darwin was Best Puppy in Breed and Puppy Group 4! The PG4 was nice because he was BPIB by default (the only Pap puppy there) so when that happens it’s always nice to beat some dogs in the group and then you feel they’ve “earned” it! It poured with rain all day and getting out was decidedly dodgy (the whole place was mud soup) but actually we managed without too much difficulty.

Sunday was the South of England Papillon Club’s very first championship show, in Tidworth (Wiltshire/Hampshire). I’d been looking forward to it for ages cos I hadn’t seen everyone since Bath at the end of May! I’d entered Darwin & Solei and was also going to show a couple of other dogs.

We had a fantastic entry (I’d need to check my catalogue but I think it was 266 dogs making nearly 300 entries) and so all the classes were large – biggest was Limit Dog with 25 entries so I was glad I’d just opted for Phalene Dog for Solei! (That would usually be his class)

The Club had really gone all out with cash prizes & food for the winners of each class and the major awards (BIS, RBIS, BPIS..etc) as well as sashes for BIS/BPIS and gorgeous rosettes for just about everything you can think of 😆 There were also lovely rosettes for 1st-5th in every class as well as a lovely medal in a box thing and they published a gorgeous catalogue with 3 generation pedigrees of every single dog entered. Oh and there was lots of (free) cake.

My day kicked off with Puppy Bitch showing Pixie (don’t know if any of you remember but I had her living with me with her sister for a few weeks back in Jan/Feb this year), who has just turned 10 months old but was actually attending her first ever show having just finished a season. She now belongs to friends.

You can imagine it was quite a responsibility showing someone else’s (who was sitting watching to boot!) dog at their very first show 😆 But I was so pleased with her, she went really well and got a 4th in a good class – icing on the cake she beat her sister (who S was showing) who has won very well including two Best Puppy in Breeds at champ shows! Shame she only just missed qualifying for Crufts by one place but never mind, not bad for your debut 🙂 Think that was the highlight of my day!

Then I moved on to Junior Dog with Darwin. He’s actually still a puppy having turned 11 months at the end of July, but he’s not a small dog and Tyler was in Puppy so I thought I’d give him a go in Junior. He was the youngest in the class (which again was a good size) by a couple of months so I was delighted to be short listed with him and then go on to be placed 5th! He also beat some dogs which have been doing a nice amount of winning 😀 I’d also put him in Novice Dog where he was 3rd, again beating some nice dogs and losing out to two much more mature (Novice is a win restricted class so open to any age as long as you haven’t won too much) than himself.

I then showed Topsy in Phalene Bitch where she won the class 😀 Beating Tosca, her sister, who has done a lot of winning.

Finally there was Solei who pulled all the stops out for me and absolutely showed his socks off (delighted with him, he hasn’t shown that well since the beginning of May :)) to be placed 2nd in Phalene Dog behind an Irish Champion who went on to Best Phalene in Show. I actually think he should have had the class which would have also been a nice end to his last show but c’est la vie! His tail didn’t drop *ONCE*, even on the table where he would usually drop it whilst being gone over (like most of them do) it didn’t drop because he was too busy wagging it 😀

To round off the day in the “fun” classes Solei was 5th in Best Fringes…he never does anything in there, everytime I swear I’m going to stand there and hold his ears up (he has better fringing than 99% of dogs in this country (as shown when I hold his ears up!) but because his ears are down it doesn’t look impressive like curtain fringing on a Papillon) but I can never bring myself to do it! She only gave him a 5th because she had 3 Phalenes in there and he was the best of the Phalenes and she thought she ought to place one of them 😛

On Tuesday I went down to Paignton Champ Show as a spectator. Was horrible being without a dog 😆 I felt like I’d had my right arm cut off! Had a lovely time though and would have been very rich if I’d had £1 every time someone made a comment about me being there on the wrong day! (Gundog/Utility). It rained *all* day.

The double irony was Wednesday *was* Toy Day and I wasn’t going 😆 I’d thought about it and in the end opted for North Devon Open Show instead as I could take Solei and show both Storm and Darwin there, if I’d gone to Paignton I’d have had to leave Solei behind and might well not having anything to show either. Though as we were on our way there I was struck by the irony that we were actually travelling further to this open show than it would’ve been to a champ show…

Driving down it actually *gasp* wasn’t raining! The weather was lovely all day (100% of judging outside) and it was just a shame that it had rained all day on Tuesday because otherwise the ground would have been ok too. As it was people were being towed in more or less from the start and we were very fortunate to make it in under our own steam (just). We were one of the last cars to do so. They delayed judging for half an hour because it was taking so long for everyone to get in – we were queueing outside for a good 30-45 minutes *and* I’d made sure we’d got there early!

Darwin won his Junior class….which was no great shocker as he was the only one entered! Though I was terrified the judge would withhold. Storm won his Open class (with competition). To my surprise DARWIN was then Best of Breed with Storm Reserve Best of Breed and so Darwin was then also automatically Best Puppy in Breed.

Darwin was then Toy Group 4 and Toy Puppy Group 1!!! Totally shocked and absolutely over the moon…was going round with a stupid great big grin on my face all day. Not sure which I’m happier about…the fact he placed in a strong, good sized toy group full of adults at only 11 months or the fact he won the puppy group!

Then today I’ve just picked my puppies up 😀 😀 So excited to have them home, I’ve waited nearly two years for this…can’t quite believe it! My house feels complete again now.

Everybody knows the saga of Solei’s tooth…well Solei and Darwin don’t have the best relationship, so I’ve been keeping Darwin in a puppy pen most of the time, which I now needed for Elton & Lacey! So after Sunday (knowing that it’s fights that primarily pull teeth out I wanted to wait until after the Pap Club) I started letting them run together more. This morning they had a minor fight…nothing major because I was right there and yelled at them as soon as I heard the warning signs 😆 but enough to pull Solei’s tooth out! I’m upset it’s finally out but pleased I was right to keep them apart – they’ve been properly loose together for barely more than a day!

The timing is very interesting though…it was no more than half an hour before I went to pick up Solei’s son & daughter. End of one era, start of the next?