Three Counties

My morning drive to Malven went well, with only a few showers, google maps found a new route for the last 6 miles, well that was interesting when I was on my own!

I caught up with friends straight away, Sarah and family immediately giving me the support I needed.

Meerah was last and looked totally out of place, she looked huge among puppy bitches of her own age. Beti was also last of 3, still out of coat, but I have faith that Beti will come back into coat and do me proud again someday soon. Siska was 2nd and gave one of her best performances yet, the judge gave a super verbal critique but surprised us all by not calling her back to challenge for the RCC and giving it to the puppy over a lovely open class winner. My opinion on that, however lovely the puppy, is well documented! 

Some tears on the way home, but I had 150 miles to talk to myself and get my head in order. I was not upset because I thought Meerah should have won, or even been placed higher. I've been playing this game long enough to see what is in the ring with me and realise, well today, mine is just not good enough, and she's not. I'm honestly devastated, what we hope to do is improve through the generations, but here I feel I've taken 2 steps back with Meerah. You know Orin is an improvement on Sammi, and Beti is an improvement on him, but Meerah is not as correct as either of her parents. We throw the best ingredients we can into the cooking pot, but sometimes the results are not what we hoped for are they.  I'm not one of those people who can pass her on and start again, but numbers here need to be considered. My plan now is to show Meerah at the three shows she's entered her at, then, for the time being anyway, I won't be wasting any more money on her. Siska looks fabulous, Beti will soon be back in top form ... so I'll show both of them. Yeah, that is the plan, subject to change on a judge that may not be suitable for one or another of course! 

Sadly not many photos from the show, I gave the camera to a friend and forgot to tell her to zoom. I've cropped the photos, but they are blurred if I try to use them any larger than this. 

So now it's back to the drawing board for Blanik and my first choice of a stud dog for Siska has already been dismissed thanks to valuable information provided by 2 breeders who have already used him .... I have time to look and learn and once again try my best to get it right!