Another winner

Last night was "its a Knockout" at Ring craft. The short tale is that every dog gets a no and is then paired with another and judged against each other on movement, and form and behaviour. One is knocked out and the loser's handler judges the next pair. The winner from the former pair waits until all the pairs have been and the same starts again until there is only one pair left. Yoda and i have never got beyond the first round until last night.
Last night we got through i think 3 or 4 rounds until we were in the last pairing. Very nerve wracking as we were up against one of the clubs experienced handlers with his dog and the handler is also an experienced judges so has a distinct advantage. My heart leapt in my mouth and i expected to get no-where but thought i would use it as good experience and tried not to show my inexperience, especially as the man judging was also experienced as a handler.



You see correctly, to my huge surprise we were declared the winners!!!! A big round or applause and a huge well done from people and it sank in. I won the night. To make matters even more exciting the gentleman who hand declared us the winners was the 2008 Best in show winner at Crufts with his champion dog.
Can you believe it, this hugely experienced man who has shown at the most prestigious and famous dog show event in the world judged me a winner!!!!!

Yes i'm still very excited at that. This is another reason i was nervous, my friend had told me at the beginning of the evening who he was, and then i have him standing in front of me. now i'm not someone who gets starry eyed at someone famous, but this person i know has worked so hard to get that title, and i'm so impressed that he thought my Baby was good enough to recognise the work we've done. I really can't put into words what it means, but it makes me more determined to push forward and get that qualification for Crufts next year.

In other good news, Son took Max along for the first time and they did well. Max walked round the ring, showed his movement nicely and has given us a good idea on where we need to start working on his behaviour while out and about. He is amazing with other dogs and wasn't at all fazed by the amount of animals there. When not needing to be doing anything he sat or layed down quite happily and went to sleep. Son did so well and came away excited.

A good evening all round.
Cx

New family addition

We have a new family addition. After our sad loss of Buddy the gorgeous cat, son was not doing very well. He was missing someone to talk to. So we decided to rescue another animal, this time we have Max.

 In the picture we also have a gorgeous Shelby. Max is a Shitzu and we were told he's 18 months. Having checked him out with breeder friends of mine she's thinking he's around 2-3. He has been moved around bless him.
We took him off a gentleman's hands as he was scared for his children, he had only had him 4 days and had cut mats out of him and cleaned him up. Had had done so to a degree, we had to sort him out some more after a bath and clip the mats out of his tail.

From what we understand the gentleman bought him as a companion to his female form a lady who was very timid and couldn't control him. I'm not sure what that meant since we have had no trouble so far. Yes he's a little possessive over his toy- but then you can tell its playful- he's wagging his tail the whole time and jumps away, showing you he wants you to chase him.
he's not keen on being groomed- but again, considering the matting in his fur, its no surprise.
And then we come to his feet. He has dew claws on his back paws and they are growing into his paws!! Yes its that bad. Whoever had him either didn't realise he had them on the back, or the lady was so timid that she never went near his feet. From what the gentleman was saying Max was in a state when he got him so i'm guessing the woman didn't really bother trying with him once he started to answer back.

Pretty much everyone knows that with all dogs you have to show who's the boss, if you don't they will rule you and you will have no control at all.

We don't back down to him, use a firm voice and my son is doing really well with handling him. He was a little jumpy at first when Max growled and snapped at him, but then having had the attack from a friends dog that's no surprise. Now they have bonded he is much stronger with him and cuddle together on the sofa and at night.

 More updates on the life of Max as he settles in with us as a family.

Cx