A Pleasant Surprise

Just received my copy of The Bearded Colleague, the newsletter of the Bearded Collie Club of Canada. Seems that The Lovely One is still the #7 Bearded Collie in Canadian conformation standings in terms of 2008 breed points, as reported in the July Dogs in Canada. Not too shabby, considering she only had two wins in Canada last year. They were just big ones.

The Colleague also contained the unfortunate news that the 2010 BCCC Specialty won't be on the West Coast, I'd been looking forward to going to Victoria again (this time, with all my clothing!) with Ann and Ray and their young brownies. The good news for us is that the show might return to Gananoque in 2010, since it can't be in Victoria. Gananoque has been good to us.

Warming Up for Summer (Finally)

Like the weather, it's taken us most of the season to get into the summer showing season. This is mainly due to the old budget; this life of leisure doesn't really support my hobbies or what few vices I do have. Kathy and I have been selective about our shows, but there are some coming up that we don't want to miss.

We decided to move Badger's AKC debut from Fitchburg to Springfield. Since Kathy's other class-dog client (a boy of Lesley's) wasn't showing there, we decided to take the B-man and go where the breed points are. I would much have preferred to show at Fitchburg, if only because I don't have to shell out money from my dwindling supply for a hotel -- but maybe we won't have to go to as many shows to finish Badge if we just go to bigger ones to begin with. All those little zero-point shows I went to with Dinah were wonderful practice, but they didn't help us very much in terms of competition.

Kathy's going to enjoy the B-man. That dog is a born show-off, and will happily show himself. Dinah's beautiful and can move when she wants to, but Badge is a complete and utter ham. He doesn't gait; he floats. It will be impossible not to look at him in the ring.

This makes for an August full of adventures. I've also been possessed of the crazed notion of showing Dinah up in New Brunswick a few days before Badger's debut in Springfield. Dinah and I get to share a camper with Val, Pat, Traveler, and Fiona. Guess how much sleep we humans will get with that crowd --!!

Even our September adventures are starting to take shape. The Garden State Regional, another show that has been good to us twice in the past, has been moved to a different club's show on a weekend in September. Kathy and I had concocted an elaborate scheme where we'd get Dinah, Badger, Jake, Diva, and at least one of Lesley's dogs (Cali) to the Regional and borrow one of our favorite juniors to help show. As things worked out, we are now minus Jake and Diva, and might not be able to get Joanne to the Friday show because of school. We do have more leisure time, and maybe room for Casey the Newfie to join in the fun now. I'll miss October at Ramapo and the lovely Tuscan bistro we discovered, but we must go where the specialty goes...