Thursday, July 26, 2007

Can't stop smiling!

Well I guess the crossed fingers worked!

The show last weekend was in Houston. We drove down pretty late Thursday evening, and our show time was first thing Friday morning. Keeper's foot was still bandaged - we left it on to protect the pad. Half an hour before we were due to show, we were taking the bandage off and cleaning the tape residue off his leg.

Or trying to - thank Goodness he's a stripey boy and the stripes hide a LOT of stuff!! Like, specifically, tape residue.

This was Keeper's first show since February - he was going through a growth spurt and just needed to mature a little. WE thought he was ready to show now, and ready to do well but, then... we're predjudiced.

Guess what?

He WON!! His foot was fine, he absolutely floated around the ring! And got not only Winner's Dog but also Best of Winners - which gave him his first Major! (In the AKC, dogs need at least 2 wins at Major shows - which are 3 to 5 points each depending on how many dogs are exhibited - with a total of 15 points to become a Champion. Smaller shows might award just one or two points.)

And then the next day he won again!! Didn't get Best of Winners that time, so he "only" got 2 points.

But 5 points for 2 days!! Woooooo-hoooooooo!! Hooray Keeper!

And we didn't have to pay for his owner's hotel room after all :-P

PS: Here's the win photo:

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Bad Timing

Keeper was entered in a show the last weekend in June. Just as his owner, K., was packing up to leave for the show she let him out one more time. When he came back in, there was blood ALL OVER THE FLOOR.

He had badly cut his foot on something.

Which knocked him out of showing not only those 3 days, but 4 days of shows the following weekend - including our home club specialty.

SEVEN DAYS of entries - some of which were not only entries in conformation classes, but also obedience classes since she is MUCH MUCH better than I have been lately about getting to classes and really working with her dog.

It wasn't a life-threatening injury, or even a career threatening one... Keeper will be fine.

But boy did his timing suck! Those were the first shows he's been entered in for MONTHS since he's had a lot of growing to do. It just means it's one of the most expensive pad cuts I've ever heard of!

To make matters worse, then he started taking the bandage off while she was at work and licking the foot, which hinders the healing. So we decided to keep him here for a few weeks since either Ronnie or I can usually manage to be home to keep an eye on him. He's entered in 3 more days of shows this weekend, and we all would REALLY like for him not to miss those too!

But we knew K would miss the big goober! However we had a great plan...
Keeper would do fine here with all the other dogs - he's been here before and they all get along. But Teddy, who has always had a tendency to be a bit clingy, was getting worse (sometimes destructive when both Ronnie and I leave the house) and needed to go stay with someone else for a while. So he could get a refresher that the big, wide world is NOT a scary place, and that he'll be fine no matter who he is with.

So we traded. Keeper came here, and Teddy went there.

It's worked out great - Keeper has kept his bandage on, the foot is healing well and he enjoys playing with his sister Topper:



And Teddy has done just fine at Auntie K's house.

The tricky part will be if Keeper's foot is, indeed, well enough healed for him to show this weekend. It's looking good but he is one BIG dog and we don't want it to tear open or anything while he's trotting along in the ring.

I told her tonight on the phone that he'd be fine and we were good to go (crossing my fingers all the while). She's already paid the entry fees, those are gone whether he shows or not. But this is an out-of-town show so there isn't any point in her paying for a hotel room if she can't show her dog.


After I hung up, I turned to my husband and said "We may be paying for her hotel room!" If Keeper isn't sound enough to show despite my optimism that he will be fine, that's the least we can do to make it up to her.

Keep those fingers crossed...