Showing in the Southwest
There are pros and cons about showing in the Southwest. The cons are mostly the travel time and distance. Miss Leslie moved to Alabama and she likes to rub in the fact that she sleeps in her own bed most show weekends, I mostly tell her to shut up :-).
Travel time is normally 4 or more hours away for a show. The closest one to me is held in Alamogordo, NM which is an hour away. Those shows are the 1st weekend in October and typically I have to miss them for one reason or another. This year I’ll miss them because I’m going to be the Chief Ring Steward for the Toller Nationals in Claremont, CA. So I miss the “local” shows and when my own club has their show in El Paso I’ll miss that one too because I’ll be working it, that means my next closest shows are in Albuquerque, NM which is 4.5 hours away.
The Pros about showing in the Southwest is that our weather is normally OK, the fall shows are typically outdoors and nice. The biggest Pro about showing in the Southwest is the Cardigan folks. We have a great group of people who have really nice dogs and it is a pleasure to spend time in their company. Since the dogs are of quality, wins are passed around, everyone has a chance. We spend a lot of time hanging out with each other learning and sharing. We help each other out and I know that if I can’t win I’m happy when one of my SW group wins. We have Cardi Parties at showsites, we try and park together and just generally have a really good time. We have yahoo group that we use to share, plan and just goof around.
Isn’t that why we do this, to have a really good time?
So here is a shout out to all the SW Cardigan folks, I’m glad to spend my weekends with y’all!
Coronado Kennel Club, Sunday
We got home late last night and I went to bed so I didn’t get the report blogged.
Another fun day but no points but we moved forward. Lindy was 2nd in the class of 7 and was awarded RWB i.e. Best of the Losers. I guess it is better than a sharp stick in the eye :-). I was really proud of Lindy she was having so much fun at the dog show. She was thrilled to be there and having a blast, she showed great and I think it was her happy attitude and pretty side go that moved her up both days. We had the highest armband number so started at the end of the line both days. Saturday we went from 6th to 5th and then up to 3rd. Sunday we went from 6th to 4th to 2nd.
Henry was not the judges favorite. He went 2nd in the open class and the judge then awarded RWD to other dog in the winners class without even having him come back in the ring. I reminded her that we were there and I knew she wasn’t going to look at him but I still wanted his time in the ring. Can’t say we didn’t try.
PJ wasn’t entered today and he was really mad to be left in the motorhome when we went ring side.
I’m really happy dog show season has begun! My next show is the VVKC show in Los Lunas, NM the weekend of October 11 & 12. Maybe we will finish PJ’s Rally title and we will see how the points stack up. It will be fun no matter what.
Puppies a coming…..
Update: Puppy photos posted on www.arylan.com
Update: Finally a girl! Count which we believe is the final is 6 puppies, 5 boys, 1 girl. 5 Blues and 1 Tri (a boy).
Update: Another Blue Boy has arrived
Wham’s puppies are arriving. Harry reports so far there are 4 boys, 3 blues and a tri. Updates as I know or check out the Arylan website http://www.arylan.com/Puppies.htm.
Coronado Kennel Club Dog Show, Saturday
Rally Q ribbons
PJ got his 1st Rally leg today with a 3rd place, he might have even done better if I hadn’t messed him up by doing a sign wrong. He was a good boy the the Cardi folks came over to the Rally ring to cheer for us, they made a big noise so we took a bow 🙂
Our trip into the breed ring wasn’t as successful. We had just on the nose a major in girls. Judge didn’t like Henry today and Lindy was 3rd of 6 in the open class. Diva won the points and finished her championship. Jennifer’s Cassidy won the breed.
Jennifer and Cassidy in group
We hung out at the dog show all day. My poor sad dogs, they live a hard life at the dog shows.
Hanging out in the RV
Ginger
cardi parti hosts
The Waiting Game
We are now in a holding pattern at Solstice. It is Puppy watch time. We are waiting to hear from Harry at Arylan that Wham’s puppies are coming. We are waiting for Pippin to show signs of pending puppies (we should know something by the end of the month) and now we are waiting for Lindy to come in season. It has been 6 months since her last season so it could be any time.
It has been 6 years since we had puppies here at Solstice so I’m hoping for a home bred litter this winter. Stay tuned and wait for news along with me.
A guessing game
http://www.arylan.com/Puppies.htm
How many do you see?
Harry posted Wham’s Xrays on his site. Check it out and put in your guess at how many puppies there are.
The death of a legend
Don Haskins died today. For those of you who don’t recognize the name he was a College Basketball coach. He coached men’s basketball at UTEP. He was a national championship coach, a hall of fame coach and an El Paso icon. He was a flawed man but he was much beloved by the people in El Paso.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3574928
I love college sports and specifically college basketball. I fell in love with the game while I was at University. I have had season tickets to the UTEP Miners since the 80’s and spent many nights watching Coach work his magic. Although he has been retired and there have been 4 other coaches at UTEP since he left there was always the spector of Coach at the games. The arena is called the Don Haskins Center aka “The Don” or the “Bear’s Den”.
Don Haskin was a legend, his story was told in the movie Glory Road, he broke the color barrier by starting 5 black players against an all white Kentucky team and won. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_Road_(film)
It just makes me sad that the legend is gone.
Honeymoon Friday and Saturday
- Polly and Renee at Agility
The agility dance aka the walk thru
We hung around and watched the runs and visited with our friends. PJ got to get out and visit but Miss Pip had to stay in van.
We also saw Carrie Burns and the fabulous ChromaDanes. Orion and Voltaire were bred by my friend JP of ChromaDane and their wonderful handler Carrie brings out the best of them. See the talent Danes at www.chromadane.com.
Carrie and Voltaire
When we got back to the room PJ and Pip decided to have some afternoon delight.
Then they were done for the day.
Actually they were done for the weekend. Dr. Barb came by this morning and checked them out and we are hoping we got a good breeding and will make some pretty puppies. Stay tuned for news on our success.
I left Albuquerque and high tailed it back to El Paso in time to join the tailgate party in progress at the UTEP – UT game. UTEP got whooped on but we had a fun time.
Lindy was thrilled that PJ was home!
On my mind
Well actually on Polly’s mind. Since we had such trouble trying to get a collection from PJ we were worried about his “production”. Dr. Barb came by with her microscope and checked it out. This is what she saw.
Actually this is a painting in the Brazilian resturant where we had dinner, but Polly thought it looked like sperm. PJ’s product just looked wiggly.
The Honeymoon
After a restful night PJ and Pip needed a little distraction so Polly and I loaded them in the Van and took a little Honeymoon trip to the town of Madrid, NM. This is an artsy town where the movie “Wild Hogs” was filmed. Polly and I had lunch at the Mine Shaft which is the “biker bar” in the movie.
We had blue corn enchiladas with NM green sauce.
Wedding photos?
We thought about having the kids wedding photos done here but decided to pass.
Polly and Pippin Shopping
We walked around the town and looked at the galleries and shops. The town people were very nice and invited the dogs to check out some of the local attractions.
They loved the ice cream.
We think we can get to the bottom of the bowl
Solstice Kennels 
