Travelling with friends in other breeds to shows means adjusting times of arrival and departure to suit all. Well worth it for the company! Yesterday we set off to Darlington Ch Show, but not in Darlington, I'm sure you are following this trend by now. (Wait till next week, I'm at Birmingham National - in Stafford!!) Mrs Sat Nav said it would be 3 hrs 20 mins to Ripon, considering we could hit traffic we set off at 4am to make sure we made it there in good time. Sat nav was on the money and we were there by 7.20am and that after a 10 min stop at Cheshire services. Getting home was not so easy, we were prepared for Friday afternoon traffic, but maybe not prepared to sit in Cheshire services whilst a broken down lorry blocked the exit and caused chaos in the services and on the motorway! Ah well, everything is better with company.
Callan and Siska both won their minor puppy classes and Orin stood alone in Junior, so three firsts places, but honestly this was among the worst judging I have seen in my life. It was beyond laughable. The old man was there, he took all his quivering dogs into the ring before handing them over to a relative to handle. He has to make sure the judge knows whose dogs they are. To see such fear in the dogs eyes, to see them cower from their owner is truly heartbreaking. Of course they won, and if they didn't then the face at the end of the other leads did. So how did we win? Well, maybe because we didn't have a "Face" in the classes with us? The inconsistency of the judging was laughable, I've said before one type has to be correct, it can not be possible to consider both types to be correct. They are a world apart, and yesterday they stood next to each other in the line-up, total extremes and something in the middle. I will never go under the judge again, not even if he was judging in Caernarfon, he was truly awful, a very valuable lesson learned.
The top photo is of Callan standing for his critique at the end of his class, the second dog behind him. The second photo is of Siska standing with her ears half-mast, also for her critique. I cropped the judge and the second place bitch out, I do not want to be accused of any wrong doing. The third photo is of Orin working hard to win his class. haha. Let's hope it's not as sunny next Friday! (If you see what I mean) Seriously, let's hope it's not as hot as for the fair skinned and their dogs it was unbearable at times yesterday!
