Eugene Dog Show Day 1

Today was day 1 of a four day dog show down in Eugene, OR. I didn't get around to posting yesterday because I was exercising the dogs, who then got freaking filthy! Then I had to do both of their toe nails, and clip and bathe Bess. Pretty much filled up my evening after work. I was up at 4am to get the dogs taken care of and get out the door to meet a person in Wilsonville, who's ridgeback I was transporting down to Eugene for Bess' breeder, Georgia, to show. Georgia showed Bess today and she did well in the ring, but took second in her class. No points today! But there is some tough competition this weekend! Some very nice bitches! You really can't complain when you get beat by a bitch that you think is also quite lovely!

And in other news, Violet is staying with us for the weekend!! She is just such a doll! I really wish that my husbadn was ready for a third dane, because we would so snatch her up in a second! She's currently sleeping on the floor of the office while I write this (hence the picture at the top of the post).:o) She's gotten to play mostly with Bess so far. A little bit of hanging out with Heffner, but he is VERY put out with me ditching him today, so I don't want to take a chance that he'll get grumpy with the puppy. He shredded a bag of feminine hygiene pads that I had left out on the counter (I know it sounds kidn of gross, but I use them for Bess' panties and having them in the kitchen is just convenient). Thankfully just the bag that was holding all the pads. My husband found it on a quick trip home for lunch and I REALLY wish that he had snapped a picture because that would have been sort of funny! At any rate that's always a sign that he's feeling left out and in need of mommy time.

At the moment, the upcoming dane project that I've been hinting at has been derailed. I'm not sure if it's derailed for good, or if there are options that will end up working out. I kind of think that they won't, but I'm going to give it a shot tonight. And I'll stop being vague and just tell you what this "little project" is. I was going to be a co-owner of Violet along with her breeder and another woman who would be Violet's primary owner. A lot of people who haven't done a co-ownership before always ask me what it is. First of all it's nothing bad. The dog is still yours, it's just something that is usually done with a show prospect. The breeder retains primary breeding rights and basically controls when and if that dog gets bred. Sort of an insurance policy for the breeder. A co-ownership can work in MANY different ways, but basically the terms are discussed between the parties involved as to what they expect out of the partnership. We co-own Bess with Georgia. Our agreement is basically that Georgia has the final say so in anything breeding related. Everything else we cover and take care of.

The co-ownership with Violet was going to be a three party deal because the woman interested wasn't interested in showing, but Violet is a show prospect puppy and Georgia wants her shown. This is where I would have come in! The woman lives relatively close to me. So I was going to do the training, transporting, and showing of Violet, but she would live with the primary owner who would also cover all of her other expenses. In talking to the woman about what I was willing to do, I also offered up my services with regards to performance events when Violet got old enough. She really liked the sound of that and I was going to do the training and showing for those events as well. Not a bad deal for me that I get a puppy to play with, train, and show when I needed her and someone else took care of the cost of raising her and all the mundane day-to-day things (which I love, but I'll make it sounds like work!). All-in-all, it was going to be a GREAT partnership all around!

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's going to work out financially for the woman. All three of us are sad and disappointed, but I've got one last idea/option to talk to her about and see if it would work. So who knows! Until then, we've got Violet staying with us this weekend and she'll be going with Bess and I to the shows this weekend because that would mean leaving her alone for too long otherwise.

And since I've been an awful slacker on posts in general and pictures as a whole, I have some random pictures and videos that I've been taking!!

Some videos of Heffner swimming and the dogs in general out at the lake:

Blogger is not letting me upload any more pictures at the moment, so I'll just have to post them later. At least I was able to add the videos!