Dog Show: Terry-All, 2014

Gunnar and I had our 5th Show Weekend last weekend.

All of the equipment in one load

The Terry-All Shows are local and they were participating in the AKC National Owner-Handled Series, so I decided to sign up.  I had learned from Gunnar's First Best of Breed win in Denver that we definitely need practice in the Group Ring.

Set up in our Grooming Stall the evening before

Tibetan Mastiff is last in the alphabet for Working Dogs, so there can be a lot of waiting around in the ring.  Denver is a big show with nearly all of the breeds present, so it had been almost an hour by the time it was our turn to be judged and Gunnar was bored.

View from our grooming stall at the height of the activity

I knew Terry-All would be a small show for Tibetan Mastiffs, so I thought there would be a good chance for us to go to the Owner-Handled group competition and get some less-formal Group experience.

Waiting for a ring time

Only one other TM was entered this weekend... a class (non-champion) female who ended up not showing.

Performing well in the Breed Ring

With no points available toward Gunnar's Championship, not knowing if the AKC Judge is obligated to award the Best of Breed, having seen alpaca judges award 2nd place in a class of one, and Gunnar on the verge of blowing his coat, I felt it was important that he performed well.  Which he did.

Finished Grooming.   You can see a big area
of fluffy puppy fur still hanging on tight over his hip.

He won Winner's Dog (WD), Best of Winners (BOW), Owner-Handler Best of Breed (OH) and Best of Breed (BOB) both days.  The OH wins sent us to the informal working group and the BOB wins sent us to the formal Working Group.  So we were able to have four group experiences this weekend.  :-)

A good shot of his mane, post grooming

Along with the Group Ring experience, this weekend was about waiting patiently, hanging out in his crate when I was there and not there, and timing potty breaks to maximize his grooming and ring performance.... probably even more of a learning experience for me than for him.  ;-)

Resting between ring times

Saturday our Breed Ring Time was 8:30am.  Since the venue was an hour's drive I went down the night before to set up our grooming space.  It's a good thing I did.  It took me a little bit to find the building and with the venue being a Fair Grounds, there were lots of interesting smells for the Giant Fluffy Puppy in the morning.

Watching the Non-Sporting Group

On Saturday, I was up at 4:30am so we could leave at 6am in order to be at the venue with enough time to sniff and pee on everything and groom him.  The nice part is that the ring was just one aisle over from our grooming space so I could see what was going on and better time our arrival.

View from our Grooming Stall after most have gone home

The Working Group Competition didn't start until nearly 4pm which means we both had an incredibly long day.

Since the weather was terrible, we were allowed
to bring the truck inside for loading

It rained Saturday night and snowed all day Sunday, so while our Breed Ring Time was a much more reasonable 12:30pm, I had the challenge of keeping a light-colored-dog mud-free and dry on dirt floors.  I saw a lot of people carrying their dogs, even the bigger ones.  Of course, I'm not strong enough to pick up, let alone, carry The Giant Fluffy Puppy anymore.  ;-)  So on the short walk to the Group Ring building his feet, feathers and underside were soaked and muddy.  It was a good thing I brought all of our rags.... I used every last one of them this weekend.

My improvised way to keep the equipment dry for the ride home

We practiced hanging out in the crate. He napped and enjoyed the fan. It was nice that the grooming area was rather quiet even tho there was a lot of grooming and 2 rings in the room.

Working on getting muddy

And as always, he's happy to be back on his farm and playing in the mud.  I'm incredibly proud of our progress and looking forward to our next show at the end of May.

Coming over for a big smooch