Eugene Dog Show Day 2

I don't have any exciting news about Bess doing anything at the show today. I thought that she showed better today than yesterday and looked more up. Her breeder really does a great job of getting her head up and elongating her neck. Bess did win her class. Which is something. She got first ahead of the bitch that went Reserve Winners Bitch yesterday. Tomorrow and Sunday we have the highest number of bitches enetered. I think that I'll try to remember to bring my camera tomorrow and record the breed ring so that I can post it since I don't have a whole lot of other stuff going on.

Last night was all about juggling dogs. My cousin Dylan is down from Ft. Lewis for the holiday weekend. He spent yesterday at our house. I suckered him in to helping me take all three dogs for a long walk and some romping in a soccer field. Boy was that interesting! Violet was raring to go! Dylan was a little sore so I gave him Violet to walk while I walked Heffner and Bess. Heffner is pretty much always walked by me regardless of who would be walking him. He's reactive enough, especially when he's getting barked at by another dog, that I really don't want anyone else handling him in case something went wrong. And Bess has a high prey drive, so I need to make sure that she doesn't go after one of the neighborhood cats or something.

So we were off on our merry way and we tromped through the little park that's a block from my house. There were plenty of people in the park and Dylan couldn't WAIT to hear the comments that people were going to make. "Unfortunately" the majority of people in the park at that point were hispanic and if they made a comment about the dogs, then I didn't understand it. However, on our way down the next street to the soccer fields, one of the neighbors said "look at the reindeer!" I have NEVER had that one before! Just when I think I've heard all the really random comments that are out there (Heffner has been called a bear and a goat), this one's a new one!

Once we got to the soccer fields, which are totally fenced in, we let Bess and Violet off leash. I kept Heffner on leash to do a lap around the field (it's actually a soccer field with baseball fields on either end, so it's pretty large). Yesterday was the first official day that I was allowed to do some light jogging as long as it was on a soft surface. I figured that the grass was definitely soft. Bess and Violet had plenty of fun sniffing and running around. And Violet loved tearing after Heffner and I to try and keep up. After I did my inaugural lap, we leashed the dogs back up and took them off to a fenced off area near the fairgrounds. Bess and Violet again got let off the leash to run around some more.

After that it was starting to get dark so we headed back to the house. The big dogs got to chill, but Violet got to accompany me into the bathroom for some practice with the dremmel and the clippers! She's not a fan of either. Since I've got her for the next few days, I'm taking it slow, but going to work with her on both of them each day. She needs to get more used to having her nails done and I'm horrible with clippers, so she's getting used to the dremmel. I'm only doing one paw at a time with lots of praise and treats after each toe nail. The clippers she also wasn't terribly fond of. Because she's going to be shown, she needs to get used to having her facial whiskers clipped. I'm only going to do little bits at a time, so her face is a little funny looking with part of one side done. I'm hoping that she'll slowly get more receptive to this. And I'm also hoping that my husband will let her stay with us for another two weeks until the next dog show we have up in Shelton, WA. We'll see!

Here are some of the pictures that I was trying to upload yesterday that Blogger wasn't letting me. I missed a week grooming the dogs and in that two week time span, Heffner decided to really blow coat! Here's how much hair I was able to get off of him with the Zoom Groom:

And the pictures that I ordered from the photo shoot with Andie Petkus came a little while ago and I got them scanned and uploaded!










I have more pictures to share from the last agility trial that I took Bess to, but I'll save that for tomorrow!;o)