Not me, just Axel. And really, he will be home after the weekend. Really!
Huh? You thought he was home for a while after last weekend, and so did I. Imagine my surprise to see a judging program and entry confirmation for the Kentuckiana shows coming up this weekend. Axel wasn’t supposed to be entered, but he was. Honest mistake, no problem.
Oh, wait. After looking at the entry counts… big problem. There are enough male Rottweilers entered each day to make these shows 3-point majors. On three of the four days of the cluster, there are exactly enough male Rottweilers for the 3-point major. If even one dog is absent, the major breaks.
If you are not a psycho dog person, this probably means nothing to you. The short version is that for a dog to earn an AKC championship, he or she must earn points from at least two shows that are major points (3, 4 or 5 points) among the 15 total points required. Especially in this troubled economy, finding a show with enough dogs entered for major points is tough enough. It is a disappointment to go to a show and find that dogs are absent and the points are less than expected. It is even worse to find that a show that was supposed to be a major isn’t, because dogs are absent.
After a lot of phone calls between me, handler, breeder, and assorted friends and colleagues, things are all set for Axel to go on this road trip. He may not win anything (although he might, stranger things have happened) but at least our team won’t be responsible for breaking the major.
After all this, it’s possible that someone else may break the major. That’s ok. Well, no, not really. I’ll want to hurt the one who breaks it after we went through all this ermmm… fun… today to make things happen for us. But it is ok that it won’t have been us that broke it.