Better Late than Never

Okay, so I'm a little late posting this, but I'm still excited about it. :-)

On Sunday, Magnum made his ring debut in Keene, NH, at the tender age of 6 months, 2 weeks. Ian was entered as well; I wasn't anticipating much of an entry and figured that way I'd create my own single point. As it turned out, we ended up with a 3-point major in dogs.

The trip over was about 4 hours. Picture if you will: a Scion xB with a 300 and a 400 size crate, 3 people, 3 dogs, ex-pen, grooming table, lunch coolers, grooming bag, 6 x 8 mat, hair dryer, and three chairs. Dude, I should totally be featured in one of their vehicle brochures. You really can cram a LOT of crap into an xB. The park has lots of shade, so I was able to park and set up grooming in the shade right outside the car. No carting items to a grooming tent. So I got set up and went to work.

Now, I had purchased an inverter for my car so that I could (theoretically) run the Air Force dryer, which makes froofing the dogs for the show ring a lot easier. I turned the car on, plugged in the dryer, and... Yeah, not so much. The inverter itself works, but the dryer apparently sucks up more electricity than the inverter can handle. So, no hair dryer. Rats. I did what grooming I could without one. Thank doG for the "Superman cape" I bought Ian at the National this year; it did a great job laying his curls down. Magnum is more wash and wear, so he was easier.

Once we went into the ring, Magnum did better on the table than I expected -- he accepted the judge looking at his teeth quite well, and only wiggled a little bit. He was a little sillier on the ground than I thought he'd be. (Not totally unheard of in the 6-9 puppy class.) I think we managed to get at least a few good steps in there for the judge to look at. He accepted the judge looking at his teeth quite well, and only wiggled a little. He was the only one in his class, so he got his automatic blue ribbon.

There was one other dog in the Open class with Ian. As I expected, he ended up in second place. There is one other set of shows in October that I will enter him in, and then he's off to the vet for the Big Snip, whether he's finished or not. Sorry, Ian. Oh well. At least I didn't have to hand someone off for Winners.

So into Winners I went with Magnum. Magnum focused on me despite the other dogs in the ring, and it was going well until I realized that the other dogs had gone around the ring while I was standing there focusing on getting my puppy to self-stack. Jeez. The judge very nicely had me take him around the ring rather than just booting my non-attention-paying arse to the end of the line. Magnum again had some of the puppy sillies going on, but the judge must have seen enough that he liked, because he awarded Magnum Winner's Dog for the major!!

Now, I really like my puppy and see lots of potential, but I honestly wasn't expecting him to win under that judge, especially once I had my monumental ADD moment. So, way to go, Little Blue Man!!! Right now you're batting 1.000!

Next set of shows for the Mag man is the 28th and 29th in Springfield. Fingers crossed that lightning will strike twice!