Dog Show
I don't usually post about my dog show hobby, because frankly, it stresses me out and when I am through with a show, I want to just leave it behind. However, I have recently attended a very special show that I am pleased to report about.
I have occasionally attended an Afghan Hound Club of America National Specialty show.... maybe about once every 10 years or so... The location varies.. East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and is rarely close enough for me to manage. This year it was in the St Louis area, so a reasonable distance and I could afford it.
This show is the Ultimate for Afghan Hound fanciers, and the show here in the USA attracts people from all over the world who love to see the beautiful hounds. Most people are interested in what we call "the Breed Ring", which is where the dogs are groomed to perfection and evaluated on their appearance. I have never exhibited in this aspect, but prefer the "performance" events.
In the past I have had my dogs entered in the Field Trials (for Afghan Hounds, our field trial is Lure Coursing) as well as Obedience. This year, my boy was prepared for Agility, Obedience and Rally, so that is what we entered. I knew he is a bit of a one-trick pony, but entered him in several events on the same days, anyway... there was no option! Agility was on one day, and both Rally and Obedience were another, but then that is reasonable for judging, if not for the dogs. I was taking a risk, but decided to give it our best shot... if the club doesn't get entries, they want to eliminate classes, and that is what the few of us performance people want to prevent! So we enter, anyway.
Archie went with us on the trip and was a pretty good boy. Going in and out of hotels for 4 days was hard for the little guy (and me!) but we did better than I expected.
El is always good, but I really don't remember taking him on a hotel-staying trip before. We usually just go to shows close to home, or maybe stay with family. He was an excellent traveler and a good watcher. These photos were taken at our Hotel 'The Wildwood'. It was lovely!
Agility was a fairly good day. Our classes were at the end so we got to just hang out (and get a bit nervous) all day until our turns came. El did well in Standard (the obstacle course part) and not only qualified, but was the only one to do so, so cleaned house with the ribbons and trophies! This also complete is title so now you may refer to him as:
Ch. Utchati Jailhouse Rock CD, RE, JC, NA, RATI, RATN (hidden within the RE are 2 lower titles so altogether he has 9 titles!)
Jumpers with Weaves was a different story... we joined the quite popular Non-Qualifying group of Afghans and Handlers after that run...oh, well.... I was thrilled to win the one class! All in, there were only 2 Afghan Hounds with Qualifying Runs all day, and we were one of those two! Yea!
The next day was Obedience and Rally. We were first in the ring at 8:00 am, and the only ones to enter this more advanced class... Open Obedience. El has been trained and can do all of the exercises perfectly... when he wants to. Unfortunately, he is not too crazy about this and chooses one or more exercises to 'decline' to do well. This day was no exception. Just before we went into the ring, I got to thinking about El's breeder and how thrilled she would be to know we were competing and got all tear-y eyed. Not a good thing! But on we went.... El must have picked up that I was upset. His heeling was quite awful, but it would have passed... just barely. His Drop on Recall was quite good and I was encouraged... Next were the retrieve exercises. He did the Retrieve on Flat quite well, but the Retrieve over Jump is his nemesis... he has decided to jump going out, but after retrieving the dumbbell, he prefers to return AROUND the jump instead of over it... NOT acceptable... The last working exercise is the broad jump. He needed an extra command... but did jump and complete the rest of the exercise correctly... that extra command flunked us, though. For the Sit and Down exercises, we knew we had not Qualified, but went through the motions anyway. Since he was the only dog entered, he was the lone dog in the ring... 3 minute sit with Mama out of sight, (he decided to lie down after 2.5 minutes), and then the 5 minute down with Mama gone, too... but that was not as tiring. No, he did not Qualify, but considering the fiasco the last time we tried this class, I was well pleased. The judge was so sorry he couldn't pass us, but I told him what an improvement this was, and that I was just fine with his performance that day.
About 30 minutes later, we moved on to the Rally classes, and did much better. I think his scores were 92 and 95 out of 100% (we were entered in Advanced and Excellent Levels, working towards his combined RAE title) and made the top 4 placements in each. That felt much better. Here we are with his Green Qualifying ribbons for those two classes, and his Excellent 4th (white) and his Advanced 3rd (yellow) Placement ribbons. And medals... don't forget the medals.
We had a really good time hanging out with all the other 'performance' Afghan Hound people. They are a great group and very encouraging to each other. We know we have a challenging breed to train, but we do it with dedication and a strong sense of humor!
Due to some misunderstandings and miscommunications, all of the prizes and ribbons were not available. Thank goodness that the gal in charge of the Agility Trial is a good friend! She went to bat for me and got our Agility trophy, but alas, the ribbons were not ordered! So WHEN I get all of my ribbons, I will give El a good brush-up and pose him with all of his hard-earned prizes and add a photo! For now, this one with our very nice Obedience and Rally judge will do just fine.
I have occasionally attended an Afghan Hound Club of America National Specialty show.... maybe about once every 10 years or so... The location varies.. East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and is rarely close enough for me to manage. This year it was in the St Louis area, so a reasonable distance and I could afford it.
This show is the Ultimate for Afghan Hound fanciers, and the show here in the USA attracts people from all over the world who love to see the beautiful hounds. Most people are interested in what we call "the Breed Ring", which is where the dogs are groomed to perfection and evaluated on their appearance. I have never exhibited in this aspect, but prefer the "performance" events.
In the past I have had my dogs entered in the Field Trials (for Afghan Hounds, our field trial is Lure Coursing) as well as Obedience. This year, my boy was prepared for Agility, Obedience and Rally, so that is what we entered. I knew he is a bit of a one-trick pony, but entered him in several events on the same days, anyway... there was no option! Agility was on one day, and both Rally and Obedience were another, but then that is reasonable for judging, if not for the dogs. I was taking a risk, but decided to give it our best shot... if the club doesn't get entries, they want to eliminate classes, and that is what the few of us performance people want to prevent! So we enter, anyway.
Archie went with us on the trip and was a pretty good boy. Going in and out of hotels for 4 days was hard for the little guy (and me!) but we did better than I expected.
El is always good, but I really don't remember taking him on a hotel-staying trip before. We usually just go to shows close to home, or maybe stay with family. He was an excellent traveler and a good watcher. These photos were taken at our Hotel 'The Wildwood'. It was lovely!
Agility was a fairly good day. Our classes were at the end so we got to just hang out (and get a bit nervous) all day until our turns came. El did well in Standard (the obstacle course part) and not only qualified, but was the only one to do so, so cleaned house with the ribbons and trophies! This also complete is title so now you may refer to him as:
Ch. Utchati Jailhouse Rock CD, RE, JC, NA, RATI, RATN (hidden within the RE are 2 lower titles so altogether he has 9 titles!)
Jumpers with Weaves was a different story... we joined the quite popular Non-Qualifying group of Afghans and Handlers after that run...oh, well.... I was thrilled to win the one class! All in, there were only 2 Afghan Hounds with Qualifying Runs all day, and we were one of those two! Yea!
The next day was Obedience and Rally. We were first in the ring at 8:00 am, and the only ones to enter this more advanced class... Open Obedience. El has been trained and can do all of the exercises perfectly... when he wants to. Unfortunately, he is not too crazy about this and chooses one or more exercises to 'decline' to do well. This day was no exception. Just before we went into the ring, I got to thinking about El's breeder and how thrilled she would be to know we were competing and got all tear-y eyed. Not a good thing! But on we went.... El must have picked up that I was upset. His heeling was quite awful, but it would have passed... just barely. His Drop on Recall was quite good and I was encouraged... Next were the retrieve exercises. He did the Retrieve on Flat quite well, but the Retrieve over Jump is his nemesis... he has decided to jump going out, but after retrieving the dumbbell, he prefers to return AROUND the jump instead of over it... NOT acceptable... The last working exercise is the broad jump. He needed an extra command... but did jump and complete the rest of the exercise correctly... that extra command flunked us, though. For the Sit and Down exercises, we knew we had not Qualified, but went through the motions anyway. Since he was the only dog entered, he was the lone dog in the ring... 3 minute sit with Mama out of sight, (he decided to lie down after 2.5 minutes), and then the 5 minute down with Mama gone, too... but that was not as tiring. No, he did not Qualify, but considering the fiasco the last time we tried this class, I was well pleased. The judge was so sorry he couldn't pass us, but I told him what an improvement this was, and that I was just fine with his performance that day.
About 30 minutes later, we moved on to the Rally classes, and did much better. I think his scores were 92 and 95 out of 100% (we were entered in Advanced and Excellent Levels, working towards his combined RAE title) and made the top 4 placements in each. That felt much better. Here we are with his Green Qualifying ribbons for those two classes, and his Excellent 4th (white) and his Advanced 3rd (yellow) Placement ribbons. And medals... don't forget the medals.
We had a really good time hanging out with all the other 'performance' Afghan Hound people. They are a great group and very encouraging to each other. We know we have a challenging breed to train, but we do it with dedication and a strong sense of humor!
Due to some misunderstandings and miscommunications, all of the prizes and ribbons were not available. Thank goodness that the gal in charge of the Agility Trial is a good friend! She went to bat for me and got our Agility trophy, but alas, the ribbons were not ordered! So WHEN I get all of my ribbons, I will give El a good brush-up and pose him with all of his hard-earned prizes and add a photo! For now, this one with our very nice Obedience and Rally judge will do just fine.
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