Its been a while since last, but today it was time for the second to last of this years shows. It was also time for my dad to take over the handling, to see if Ringo might behave a little better and to get some practice in because they’ll be taking him to the last show for the year in Stockholm.
This was also the first time for Ringo in the 15-24 month class, since he turned 15 months three days ago. This meant his odds were pretty poor, since he’d likely be the least developed dog in his class. It also meant that more entries were likely, since more people show in this class than in the junior class. So, instead of being alone, he was up against three other dogs. And though he did get his first price for quality (as he has gotten at all but one show so far), he ended up placing last of the four.
His behaviour was better than with me (he jumps up on my father too, but stops when told to do so, at least for a while before trying again), though he was hard to get interested in posing well or running with a bit more interest as he was very easily distracted by just about anything. I think he probably would have needed to be worked with more before the class started, but my dad is a bit more laid-back than me. ;) In the meantime, I was extremely nervous, more so than when handling him myself. ;P
Overall, the judge wasn’t too happy with the behaviour of any of the dogs. None of them got a CK and he told all the handlers that they needed to get them to behave better. The critique .... well, it sounds very positive, but either it wasn’t quite enough anyway or he didn’t really consider the order too carefully. It did seem like he was in a hurry to get the troublemakers out of there. ;)
Masculine male. Dark eyes, good expression, good width and depth of muzzle. Noble neck. Square, substantial body. Good angles, suitable bone structure. Good coat and brindling. Moves well when he wants to. Very lively.
That about sums up today’s dog show. Ringo has been a bit on the feisty side this week, and I had my concerns, especially as he did turn out to be very lively as we got to the show. However, he settled down after a while, and I actually thought it might work out okay.
Hah.
I am not entirely coherent at the moment, due to having started the day at 3 am in the morning to attend the Swedish Boxer Championships. It was a 3.5 hour drive there and a 3.5 hour drive back, plus lots of tense waiting around at the show area. So, I am feeling kind of mushy. It was worth the effort, though. It was quite something special to see all those lovely boxers and, of course, to get a chance to meet Ringo’s breeders, his brother (Riddles Rod Stewart), his mother (Riddles Paula Abdul) and his aunt (Riddles Petula Clark).
The actual show went pretty well. For once, Ringo behaved pretty darn well (though the judge didn’t quite think it was enough), though I made some silly mistakes and got some good tips on how to improve things in the future. The competition was very tough, however. There were at least 15 males in the junior class, about twice the size of any other we’ve entered. The breeder helped lower my expectations by saying that it was entirely possible that both Ringo and his brother would get 2’s at this stage, since they need more development. So, when Ringo actually got a 1, I was pretty pleased. He didn’t, however, place among the top 5. Whether he was close or not, I don’t know. The judge didn’t seem to care too much for dogs of his type, though, since his brother only got a 2 (very strange, since they’re really similar). The critique was one of those without anything negative (save for the show training bit) but also without that something extra:
Medium-sized, good bone. Masculine. Correct topline and chest, good angels. Typical head expression, correct muzzle, dark eyes. Moves well but needs more show training.
Today it was time for another much too early morning. And this time we only had to drive about 30 minutes away, so imagine how early we’ll need to get up for the next one (that’s the Swedish Boxer Championships, so its worth the extra effort) that is closer to 4 hours away. Anyway, today was a smaller affair. An official show for working dogs, with 10 boxers signed up. One of them being our little ... handful (that sounds nicer than hellion, I think).
A few pictures from the show last Sunday have been added to the Ringo 2007 gallery. Next time, I think we’ll see if we can’t get a bit of filming done as well (and hopefully he won’t act like a rabid little monster just then).
On Saturday, we set on our annual summer trip to our house in the area of Sundsvall. This year, however, we didn’t do the whole 700+ km drive in one go. Instead, we did about half on Saturday, then stayed the night at a tiny camping place in the middle of nowhere. On Sunday morning, we got up way too early to get ready ... for a boxer show. Somehow, we had decided it would be a good idea to go to a dog show along the way. So, at around 8 am on Sunday morning, we arrived at a cosy little dog club, also in the middle of nowhere, to join a pretty large gathering of (mostly) happy, tail-wagging boxers and their owners.
So, today we had another show. A big, national all-breed show about an hour away from where we live. Despite the size of the show, however, with some 1200 dogs both Saturday and Sunday, there were only 5 boxers entered. We knew this in advance, and we also knew that boxers were going first in their ring and Ringo was going first of the boxers. So, it could be either a very short day or a fairly long one. As it turned out, it ended up being a long one, but not for the right reasons. Which, in this too darned hot weather (I am burned to a crisp in places, despite putting on lots of sunlotion and trying to stay in the shade) wasn’t all that welcome.
The things you do when you’re into dogs (and horses, too). Like getting up at 6 am on a Sunday morning to head off to a dog show. Of course, not just any dog show, but Ringo’s first official dog show. He turned 9 months 6 days ago, making him eligible for the Junior class (for dogs 9 to 15 months old) at the official all-boxer show for the boxer club in the area where we live.
Since it is May 1st today, I didn’t have a riding lesson (we’re all good old socialists here, after all), but what I did have was a dog show. After the last one, I was persuaded to handle the dog at the next one, so I’ve tried to practice a little on and off over the last month. Of course, he’s just recently had a bit of a stomach upset, so it was touch and go if we could make it. But the last 2-3 days he’s been his usual crazy self, so we decided to give it a try.
Dog show time, that is. We only got back some hours ago from taking our dog to his first ever dog show. Which he found immensely entertaining since there were so many people and so many dogs to say hello to. We did not find it quite so entertaining to try to control him. Boxers are ... lively, and this one is extra energetic. At 7 months, he easily drives us all crazy on a regular basis.
I am not sure how the judge managed to get a good look at him, since he was either acting like a whirling dervish or lying down on his back (yes, in the show ring ;P), but somehow he did and he ended up placing him first of the boxer puppies. Of course, there was only one other entry, but the critique he got was pretty good. So, no doubt we’ll try a show or two more in the future. And I really need to get moving on making a dog blog, or at least on giving Ringo a little page of his own.
