Yesterday’s show was a minor disaster. I was very nervous in advance (not helped along by all sorts of bad omens ;P), because last time we had had this judge Ringo had been such a monster towards me that she had been concerned she had to report him for aggression. Still, she really liked his type, and I wanted to see what she’d think now that he appears to have grown out of the few faults she pointed out last time. Given how nicely he behaved last weekend, I thought we stood a good chance of a fine performance.

Hah.

We have now been at home for a few hours (watching harness racing on and off) after getting up at 6 am in order to be comfortably early at the boxer show arranged by the regional boxer club. During the summer, each region within the country-wide boxer club arranges their own show for just boxers, and these are generally the most prestigious shows for boxer owners. So far, throughout the last two years, we’ve had mixed results, with the best being a victory in his group when he was a junior and a reserve (fifth, basically) placement in the young dog group at the Swedish boxer championships last year. No CKs (championship quality) at boxer shows so far, though, and I would certainly love to get one this year. But, it does take finding a judge that likes Ringo’s type, as I’d say he’s pretty good, but not stellar enough to wow just any judge regardless of their preferences.

I knew the judge for today probably preferred a somewhat different boxer judging by the dogs he had liked at previous shows in Sweden (there’s a database on-line where its possible to check the results for any official Swedish show), so my hopes were for good behaviour from Ringo and a red ribbon (for quality 1) in the individual evaluation. And that is pretty much what I got. In fact, Ringo surprised me by being both very well behaved and alert, which is something we don’t always manage to get at the same time. He bounced up once when the judge held up a pen to check alertness, and did one little jump when we started running, but otherwise he had his feet on the ground all the time and stood quite well too. I felt pretty confident that we’d get our red ribbon, and we did. However, when the time came for the comparative evaluation, we were the second pair to be sent out of the ring. The critique, however, sounds pretty good from what I have been able to make out of it (its in German, and hand-written):

Medium-sized, red-golden brindle. Good head and a suitable nose. Brown eyes, somewhat small incisors. Very good neck. Deep chest. The angulation is good in the front and very good in the back. Free movements.

The winner of Ringo’s class (the open class, which is where all males over 2 years go unless they go into the working dog group or the champion group) was a dog from the same litter that we had actually considered a dog from before settling on Ringo. They’ve had an informal rivalry ever since facing off at the first ever show for both of them when they were puppies (Ringo won that time), though we’ve ended up showing Ringo rather more. Kingston, as he is called,  is a bit taller and lighter than Ringo, and I had suspected that he would do well for this judge as a litter mate of his had done well for him. So, he won, with a CK, and then he ended up missing out on best male very narrowly, placing second in that class after a lengthy deliberation by the judge.

We’ll have to tell Ringo he now has some catching up to do, to see if it might spur him to be a little extra pretty for the other boxer shows this year. ;) We’re hoping for at least two, possibly three more, though it really is no fun to get up at 3 or 4 am, so we’ll see. Either way, he was a very good dog today, and that sort of progress matters the most.

The time had come today for the first show of the summer season. Not of the year, though, since we had the two indoor shows in January. But that was a good while ago, so of course I was nervous that Ringo would act up. Unfortunately, he did not disappoint. ;P

It has been a while since the last Ringo update, mostly because I only manage to get myself to post after shows and there haven’t been any of those since September. We have, however, been training weekly up at the local working dog club, and some improvements have occurred. Though, some things have gotten worse, too, like Ringo’s attitude about other male dogs. Its definitely turning into a little bit of an issue, and I had my hands full at the MyDog show in Gothenburg on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

On the first day, Ringo was a little hellion. Not as bad as last year on the first day, but bad enough that the rather strict British judge gave us a 2 even though he also gave him a pretty good critique. Properly speaking, I don’t think it was quite proper to have him get a 2, since it seemed to be based rather heavily on the judge feeling he wasn’t handled well. However, it is pretty common to get a 2 for that even though the rules technically don’t leave room for it.

The critique was: Very well made square brindle. Well balanced in outline. Good mover. Head is typie, just a touch over done. Handler must learn to show and move him better for the judge.

On the second day, Ringo behaved a lot better overall, and especially in the ring. He posed nicely in the first lineup, ran well with the rest, ran well on his own and posed fairly well on his own too. We got a 1, and then we ended up placed 4th. Dogs 1 through 3 got CKs, and I think the judge may have considered Ringo for one as he gave him a close look before deciding the placements. Then again, he seemed pretty set on 1 through 3.

The critique this time was: Correct size. Typical head. Correct topline, deep chest, correct front angulation. Good coat. Good movement.

There won’t be any more shows for a while again, I expect (not until the outdoor ones start, most likely), but we are looking at signing up for a class to prepare for working dog competitions. Its not going to be easy to start with him at this age, but maybe we can manage to compete in a year or so and perhaps have his working dog merits by next summer. For now, though, he just needs more training to be less hyper-active.

Yesterday we were at a show at a working dog club not too far away from here, for Ringos début in the open class since he is now past 2 years of age. Boxers were, for once, not the first breed to be judged in their ring, so we only had to get up at 7 am to be there at 9 am. Quite a difference from getting up at 3 am for the last show.

Ringo started the morning by being very lively. He clearly knows that early mornings with the whole family getting ready means a dog show. Didn’t help my nerves, of course, that he decided to be pretty feisty. The judge for the show would be one that previously had given him a 2 for quality, in large parts because he really misbehaved. So, I was not expecting more than a 1 today and that only if he managed to behave.

After an agonizingly long wait (okay, two and a half weeks, but it felt like years ;P) we finally got Ringo’s X-ray results today. And he’s got excellent hips and knees, whee!

Today Ringo finally had his knees and his hips x-rayed (a bit late, as its usually done between 12 and 18 months, but we wanted to make sure he’d finished developing). This is a standard procedure for boxers, as the breed has some minor issues with their knees and some more major issues with their hips (hip dysplasia). Knees without any negative remarks and hips of at least type A or B are required for any dog used for breeding. You also need the same result to be allowed to get the title of KORAD which is given to dogs who pass a mental evaluation and a conformation evaluation done between the ages of two and four.

So, now we’re in for a nervous couple of weeks as we wait for the results (the x-rays are sent off to be analysed by the Swedish Kennel Club), though the vet who did the x-rays seemed to think it looked pretty good. That is, she first did a set she wasn’t happy with (the positioning of the dog is very important, and small deviations can change the final result), but when they redid them she seemed to think they came out fine. However, that’s far from a guarantee of anything, so I am telling myself not to take anything for granted.

Today is Ringo’s 2nd birthday. We got him some ice-cream cake (well, he didn’t get the whole to himself) and a new toy. The cake was served at the kitchen table (he loves sitting on the chair there) and he managed to eat off a plate without making too much of a mess. The new toy, a long-legged turtle with two squeaky and two rattly legs, proved an instant success. Which, of course, meant it wasn’t likely to be long-lived. In fact, he tore up one leg and cracked open one rattle within about 5-10 minutes. Hopefully, the little monster didn’t swallow too many of the tiny little steel balls in the rattle.

I think I am going to start a business making boxer-proof toys. From kevlar. That might do it.

But he sure had fun, at least.

After a few days of resting my arms and hands, I am finally up to writing a report about our trip to this years Swedish Boxer Championships. Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of an exagerration, but I did get quite worn out by handling Ringo for a whole day around a lot of people and a lot of dogs.

It began with a very early start (we left at about 3.30 ... am), and while we didn’t stay for the whole thing we were still away until about 5 pm. By which time I was quite knackered. The weather was rather cold and windy for most of the day, and Ringo was not as well-behaved as he has been for most shows this year. Outside of the ring, he was pretty stress-free (but he was very excited to meet his brother again, and his brother’s ‘girlfriend’, aka the breeder’s gorgeous new puppy girl from Italy), but inside he was a bit of a handful. Not as bad as he has been in the past, but enough to up my heart rate quite a bit.

Today we had our first show in a couple of months. Since we haven’t had much chance to train Ringo with a lot of dogs around him during the summer, I was expecting him to be rather charged up. He also started the morning off by being a little hellion already at home, so I was expecting a very bad day in the ring. It wasn’t even very warm, which might have helped to tire him out. ;P

When we got to the show (this one was quite close by, at least), he was his usual whirling dervish self for the first 30 minutes. But then he mostly came back down on the ground. Still, I was quite nervous when it was time to get into the ring. Unfortunately, we weren’t alone either. ;) Still, Ringo surprised me by not pulling too much at all as we ran the first lap, even though he was behind the other dog. He then waited mostly patiently while the other dog was evaluated.

Once it was time for our individual evaluation, he was lively (as usual) when the judge (a very nice fellow) checked his teeth, his head and made sure he still had two testicles. But then he actually didn’t act up on the individual run either. Well, he made one move to do so, but I managed to curb it. The judge looked him over some more, and then wanted us to run again. That’s unusual, so I figured there was something he wasn’t quite happy with, even though I thought Ringo had done pretty well (and I had tried to keep in mind some of the tips from the handlar class we did in spring).

We did get our 1 for quality, but when we were called back in with the other dog, he decided pretty quickly on that one after asking us to run to more laps. He preferred his muzzle (said Ringo’s was a little too short and also too narrow) and preferred his gaits (he thought Ringo’s were a little unsteady, even though he had good propulsion). The other dog was a rather English boxer, and that type is preferred by many judges here. His slightly longer muzzle is, as far as I can tell, typical of that type. So, not much to be done about that. The gaits ... well, we’ll need to try to work on getting him to concentrate more, so he runs mroe steadily.

Though I doubt we can work any miracles until next weekend, when we probably will be heading off to the Swedish boxer championships. Provided we don’t back out of doing the 4-hour-drive each way. ;P

Medium-sized, powerfully built. Good proportions. Masculine head, good eyes and ears. Somewhat short muzzle that is somewhat narrow. Adequate withers, firm back, big-boned. Fairly well-balanced, ground-covering strides, good propulsion. Good temper, eager to work.

After a few weeks of no shows, we had another one today. This was the same show that last year went very poorly, as the raspy speaker system spooked Ringo. He ended up with a 2 then, so I was definitely hoping to do better than that today. Of course, the last show (the boxer special last month) also resulted in a 2, though we have since heard that the judge there was so tough and so keen on handing out 2s that more blue ribbons had to be prepared. Still, he’s a little too round right now, since the heat has meant we can’t exercise him as much as we usually do, and his muscle tone is not as good as it was a month ago. With this in mind, I tried to keep my expectations realistic.

After looking over what I wrote about Ringo’s mental evaluation test a few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to write up a more thorough description of what it was like. Especially since we were so nervous in advance that we didn’t bother to get a hold of a video camera like most everyone else does these days, and the regular camera hadn’t been charged up so we ran out of batteries halfways in. Oops. ;P For those who aren’t familiar with this sort of test it might also give a better idea of what its like. One important thing to keep in mind is that although the scale is 1-5 for each test, the numbers don’t mean the same each time. Sometimes you want a 1, sometimes you want a 5 and sometimes something in-between. It also depends on the breed what you want, since they’re bred to do different things in certain situations.

We’ve finally added a bunch of new pictures of Ringo. There’s one addition to the 2007 gallery, the rest are in the newly added 2008 gallery. They’re mainly from the last show, the boxerspecial on the 11th of May, and from his MH test on the 17th of May. I am also working on a more thorough description of what happened during his testing, which may be up in a day or two.

Today, the time had come for Ringo’s ‘MH’ test, which is an evaluation of his mentality. In general, it is done between 12 and 18 months of age, but we felt Ringo was too immature this autumn and then it took until now before the local boxer club arranged another one. Given that he has shown a fear of fireworks as well as reacted to gun shots, I was very nervous about taking the test (the last part of the test is four gun shots). In fact, I almost changed my mind about doing it today, as late as when we were out there and ready to start. But we decided to go ahead anyway, and given the end result I am very glad that we did it. Instead of scraping by on the shots, Ringo passed with the best possible score. Whew!

Now, mind you, I am pretty certain it had a lot to do with him being dead tired at that stage, because he had been so keyed up earlier and managed to get himself quite worn out from lots of pulling and from his usual sensitivity to warmth. However, even taking that into account, his reaction was miles better than I had expected. He also surprised us (less positively so) by not doing so great when it came to gripping things and when it came to curiosity. At home, he’s ferocious when it comes to grabbing and holding onto things, and tug of war his a favourite game. He also tends to be pretty curious. But today, he was actually quite reserved. I think he becomes a bit more passive when he has a lot to process, basically. It seems to be either going totally bonkers because his brain overheats, or becoming very pensive.

He also showed some very interesting reactions to people. If the helpers initiated contact with him, he went wild with joy, jumping up in their faces. If they did nothing, he just sniffed them and ignored them. To some degree, I think this is because of his age; he’s started to learn that if someone doesn’t show interest in him, he’s supposed to ignore them. In any case, we were thrilled with him passing with such a good result on the shooting, and it was interesting to see how he reacted to the other parts of the test.

We sure had a busy weekend. First a kennelclub show on Saturday and then the boxerspecial on Sunday. The common denominator for both was hot weather and a very well-behaved Ringo.