Dog Shows: The highlights and the hardships

 

You know, I’ve been trying to write this blog post for roughly a month now. I have started it, re-read, stopped, erased, and started over far more than I would like to admit. So what is the topic? Why so much back and forth? I’ll tell you…

So, I’ve decided that my first piece will be on dog shows.

With Westminster last month and Cruft’s just around the corner, it seemed to be a rather timely topic.

I love this poster because I'm waiting for a dachshund to actually WIN at the Garden.

This should be an easy topic, right? Pshhhh. Dream on.  People show dogs for SO many different reasons and as this is my blog, I finally decided that instead of writing just another piece on dog shows, I am opening up about the good and the bad, the highlights, the hardships, the competitions and the comradery we have experienced. We are of course still novices as we only started showing dogs in 2011 and only seriously started in 2013, but that is also the purpose of a blog-to catch a moment in time.

Maybe a little crude, but the message is spot on!

How did we get into showing dogs? Well, I can honestly and fully blame Markku and Salla. Once they helped us get Freddie, they took us under their wing and showed us the full potential of our little brown dog. Whether it was inviting us to group trainings in the Hochrhein dackel group (where we eventually became members), laying blood traces and teaching us how to do it for ourselves, and, of course, going with us to our first dog show. In fact, that is where I first met those two… at a dog show. Now our lives are very much entwined and I couldn’t imagine our life abroad without the fond memories and invaluable information we have received from them. Our first “show adventure” was actually on a trip to Croatia. We were all together on holiday in France and Markku mentioned that he had asked Simon if we wanted to take Freddie to a set of shows with them…in Croatia. Me, being an overenthusiastic travel junky, first ran to Simon to ask why I hadn’t heard of this, before saying heck ya! That was it, 4 months later we were in sunny and stormy Croatia, braving the rain and having a blast at the 4 Summer Nights show. Our goal was to get Freddie a Junior Champion title and although that didn’t happen, we couldn’t be too angry about 2x Very good and 2x Excellent with 1x junior winner/Junior BOB. Though it was very clear that Freddie was not a show dog. Although he is a very obedient dog, he didn’t want to stack and was more than happy to head out of the ring. Besides that, his large size (Freddie weighs in now at 11 kg) hindered him in the show ring in Germany and Switzerland that, until this past year, did not allow Excellent ratings for dogs over 9.9 kg. With that set of shows, though, I was hooked and I knew I wanted our next dog to be showable.

If only you could say this to a judge from time to time.

Fast-forward almost 1 year later and the arrival of our new little boy “Barbwired Better than the Rest.” This little dog had a lot to live up to, not only in name, but in pedigree, as his mom “Taxette’s Isla Margarita” has so many titles, I stopped counting and his dad “Apollo della Val Vezzeno” is a Bundessieger, World Winner WUT, Klubsieger and multi-Champion. I guessed that our work with Freddie paid off, because Markku trusted us with such a promising puppy. In taking this little guy, we had a kind of unspoken agreement that he would be shown as well as worked in the field. Since Simon and I were busy with the last legs of our PhDs, we didn’t show the small one as often as we could, but rather chose ~1 show weekend a month that was within 2 hours driving distance. The first shows had a steep learning curve. I had been practicing with Bax at home to get him to stack, but Simon, as a handler, decided to “just wing it” and practice ring walking only at the show grounds. Ugh… My gosh what a disaster! The first judge was extremely forgiving with his novice handling and told him to slow down a bit so the happy puppy could walk instead of run! This all got better with time, but sometimes I think Baxter’s idea of the show ring is a place to take a leisurely stroll. 

Sometimes this is one of the MOST difficult lessons to remember

We had the good fortune of being the only young male for our first few shows in the ring, so there was a lot of time to practice and assess what to do better for the next show. As Simon got more comfortable with handling, Baxter showed better and they were a great team in the ring. My most memorable show from this season wasn’t when Baxter went BOB, though I will ALWAYS remember the screams of joy and surprise from my friends and colleagues in the next ring, but winning Best Junior Male in Luxembourg. I signed us up for the Luxembourg dog show mainly because it was over Easter weekend and we had very good friends that lived about 20 minutes from the show grounds. I figured that it would be a great opportunity to have a “show-cation” and see more of beautiful, little, Luxembourg. When the statistics came out, I saw that we were up against two other males. This was of course nerve wrecking, as it was our first time with competition. It also proved to be a LONG day as our judge was going to judge ALL standard dachshunds-75+ dogs.  This would also be the first show we went to where we wouldn’t know anyone, which was a bit intimidating. When we got to the show and checked out the catalog, we noticed that our competition had grown from 2 other males to 4 males (2 late entries) and Baxter was the youngest of the bunch. Simon and Baxter went out and did their best and in the end, on the final go around, the judge pointed to Simon. Simon stopped dead, shook the judge’s hand, and looked on cloud nine! He ignored the handshakes of his fellow exhibitors, though not on purpose, picked up Baxter and ran out of the ring to say… Did you see that?!? We won!! The cool thing about Luxembourg is that with 1 best junior certificate, the dog earns a Junior Championship. This means that 2 Junior championships per sex can be given per breed and per year and in 2013, Baxter was one of them. How neat is that? 

Yup, this was our Luxembourg

 

That gives me a good lead in to why do we show our dog. I mean, we have both the junior and adult ratings that say he is an excellent dog, why continue? To me, champion titles are a record of your dog. They leave a legacy and a memory; long after the animal is gone. Shows are so much more than titles though. They give us the opportunity to show our boy to other owners and potential breeders. Maybe they will like him, maybe they won’t, but his results are a kind of advertisement, not only for us, but for his breeders. At almost every show that we have gone to, we have had people come up and ask us: Are we breeders? Where is our dog from? and Will he be fathering puppies? Often they then ask for a business card (which as scientist in academia we don’t have…) or website to contact and “check-in” for puppy news. Needless to say, I think Bax’s breeders should be quite honored by the attention the handsome little dog has attracted.

We have met many breeders and owners at shows and some have become quite good friends. It is always nice to see a familiar face, especially at a big show or in an unfamiliar area. Until this point, we have not had to directly compete against our friend’s dogs, but I hope that win or lose, this won’t affect our friendship.

Furthermore, shows give me time to practice my knowledge of the breed. My favorite activity at shows is to judge the dogs and make my picks to see if what I like is in agreement with the judge. Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong, but each and every time I’m learning, if not about the dogs, then about the preferences of a judge. Who knows what will happen in the next 5, 10, 15 years? Maybe I’ll look into breeding or judging and then all the time I have had studying pictures, pedigrees, and watching dogs will finally make sense.

Decisions, decisions...

If you are showing dogs for the fame and glory, then you better have a once-in-a-lifetime animal and a LOT of money. Showing dogs isn’t cheap and it isn’t for the faint of heart. You have to realize that your pet that you love very much won’t win 100% of the time. The first time it happens it hurts…bad. For us, it was in Saarbrücken. I thought that we had this in the bag. We were the only junior male, Bax was showing well, and we were just coming off a BOB win in St Gallen. The evaluation that we got was completely sparkling with Excellents all over the place, except where it counted. Baxter is a late bloomer and at that point his movement in the back was very wiggly (this is continuously getting better), but with a 13 month old junior dog, we didn’t think we had to worry. Well, the judge thought otherwise and wanted the absolute whole package. I didn’t agree at the time because it is junior class and the dogs are still growing. Some lines just aren’t ready at that age and Baxter was one of them. It was our first SG and it wasn’t the last. It felt like a personal affront at the time and I was heartbroken. His German Junior champ title slipped away from us and that was that. We had only signed up for 1 of the 2 shows as we were sure we were going to win. NEVER think that just because you are the only dog in your class that a win is a sure thing. Would I show to that particular judge again once my dog is mature and his movement has solidified? Absolutely. His evaluation was beautiful and his judgement fair, our dog just needed more time to be his best.

...and this was my feeling in Saarbrücken

When you show you have to develop thick skin and an attitude that “we’ll do better next time.” We’ve had streaks where we lost and that sucks. Not only the losing aspect and how that affects your pride, but the time put into driving to and from a show and the money for entry fees, food, and potential lodging. I, though, have thought of our “year 1” as a learning experience. As we begin our second show season, we are no longer Greenhorns. We know the drill and even though the Nordic rules differ from those down south, the idea is the same.

Now with my adult dog and a more competitive show scene, I am having to pull back the reigns and learn when to show and when to stay at home. In the Nordic countries, only 1 dog and 1 bitch receive the CAC, so you really have to shine in the ring. I also have to learn about the judges up here, since previously I had mainly acquainted myself with the German and Swiss judges. I firmly believe that all judges deserve to be shown to once, but with that being said, we now have started compiling a DNS list. I am not willing to throw away money on people that can’t make decisions and march dogs in the ring FOREVER or judges set on only picking their friend’s dogs. I’ll sit out on those days or maybe join as a spectator, but not an exhibitor.

When all is said and done, I always take the best dog home. He is my companion and often my shadow. My life is better for having him in it… Win or lose.

Bax & I after my first time handling him in Lithuania. He was V1, CAC, Best Male-Winner, Best Opposite Sex losing only to his mom. :)

 

** I want to give a shout out and big thank you to Kabuki Cartoons for such great dog show comics (They are used throughout this post). She really does a great job in capturing just what it is to be an exhibitor!**