dog show

Counting down the last two weeks

October 11, 2009 by kathi

It seems like Axel just got home from his last road trip and now we’re getting ready to send him back out again. He’s been home since March 16, but it sure doesn’t seem like seven months have gone by.

Since he’s still current on his immunizations and licenses and hasn’t changed handlers, my list of things to do to get ready isn’t that long. I picked up his health record at the vet on Saturday when Freya went in for her nail trim and medicine refills, and I’ve already put it in an envelope with photocopies of his registration, pedigree, microchip information, license, and emergency and non-emergency contact information. I hope I remember the envelope. Not too much shopping to do either: enough food and topical flea preventative for a couple of months, and a couple of new toys that will take a couple of months to destroy.

This may sound silly, but we always practice a few things just before a trip. They normally have warm water and sometimes miscellaneous goodies mixed in with their kibble. I make sure they’re ok with eating it plain and dry, and not just in the kitchen, but in their crates, in the van, or in their crates in the van. They normally have the run of the back yard for potty breaks. Just before a trip, they get some of the potty breaks on leash, and get rewarded for speedier output. After standing in bitter cold with one of “those” females who thinks they can only potty in their yard in their special place while no one is looking, I will never again underestimate the value of teaching a dog to go on command.

Julia will spend a week or two on a show training “refresher course” before Axe’s first time back in the ring. And I have these last two weeks to make sure he’s learned all of the AKC Rally Novice exercises well enough to get through any trials that might be available at the shows he is going to.

Even with the relatively short list of things to do, this will probably still turn out to be a busy couple of weeks!

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 11 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 233 of 274)

Gratuitous dog promotion

June 29, 2009 by kathi

Maybe even slightly pointless dog promotion, because Axe is currently on “summer vacation” and won’t be back strutting his stuff and playing the showdog game until fall. So I will be promoting him again right before he goes out on the road.

For now, though, I am still going to make you look at my wonderful dog’s latest advertisement which will be running in Issue 2 of The Total Rottweiler Magazine, due out sometime in July. Behold the beauty that is Axe!

click image for full-sized PDF version

I said last week that I would have more to say on show dogs and handlers, after the awful incident in which seven show dogs died due to what I would consider criminally negligent actions on the part of their handler.

Axel’s handler, Julia Foster, is a total professional. Axel adores her and thinks she is family, not “just” someone who is paid to show him (please do not let him read this and spoil his illusions). I trust her with not only his career, but his life. I could not imagine her ever putting client dogs in an awful situation like the one we talked about last week.

I would love to be able to show my own dog, but this is not an area in which I have any talent or skills. I have almost tripped over my own dog in the obedience ring. God knows what would happen in the conformation ring where I’d have to actually run with a dog. Competition in Rottweilers is serious enough that even a good and deserving dog won’t win with a clueless person like myself on the other end of the lead.

So in the fall, Axel will be heading back out to the shows with Julia, and hopefully he will come back quickly as an American champion. Yes, it was a big decision to send him out with a handler, and yes, I still believe it is the right one for us.

(NaBloPoMo | June ’09: 29 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 156 of 274)

Just a bunch of stuff (12 of 31/47 of 274)

March 12, 2009 by kathi

After all of our best efforts to get Axel down to Louisville, someone else broke the major for dogs. I hope karma doesn’t take too long to come around on this one. We are all very proud of Axel, though. He reportedly looked good today, and we have hopes that he might get something done this weekend, even though he wasn’t really supposed to have a chance, or even be there. In a strange coincidence, Axel’s substitute handler is also Freya’s “grandma” – she bred and owned Freya’s sire. Cross your fingers for Axel’s team! There are three more days and three more possibilities to win!

I got a nice surprise today: Axel actually has 6 points, not 5. We miscalculated the points for the Belle-City show on February 28. We originally thought he got 1 point as Winners Dog and Best of Winners. Dogs were 1 point that day, but bitches were 2 points. I think that both Julia and I were reading the wrong point schedule. As Best of Winners, he crossed over to get the same number of points as the Winners Bitch – 2 points instead of 1 that day. So we’re just a tiny bit closer than I thought yesterday!

Oh, and here is Axel’s new minivan:

Well. My minivan, or more correctly, my company’s minivan. This 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan replaces the 1998 Dodge Caravan that was a great vehicle for us (meaning me, my company, and the past and present vom Viersen Rottweilers) for so long. Only dog people or parents could get excited about a new minivan, and you know which one I am.

I usually try to gas up at a station near Freya’s obedience class, because gas is so much cheaper outside of the city of Chicago and Cook County. When I’m not able to time my fill-up properly, I go to the Mobil station between home and the expressway. This sign’s huge and blatant misspelling has been bugging me for about two years now:

Nothing much to say tonight (11 of 31/46 of 274)

March 11, 2009 by kathi

I dropped Axel off this morning for what I hope is his last road trip for a while. He is traveling with his “grandma” Denise and at the show will be in the care of his handler Julia. He is in the best of hands. I heard from Denise earlier this evening, and all is well.

It has been so quiet here, though! Freya has been moping around, looking for her little brother. She gets so annoyed with him when he is here, but she hates it when he is gone. I guess that’s a pretty typical sibling relationship.

I really have nothing else of interest to report, at least nothing that I will be able to stay awake long enough to write about. Not that the topics are boring enough to put me… or you… to sleep. I’m just that tired. See you tomorrow!

On the road again (10 of 31/45 of 274)

March 10, 2009 by kathi

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.