Springtime Rituals

I've always envied my friends in California. The weather generally stays nice enough there so they can go to shows and trials all year round. Here, entering any event in the winter is always conditional. You enter a dog event with full knowledge that if the weather that weekend is sufficiently bad, you'll end up eating the entry. That, along with hibernating from Thanksgiving until St. Paddy's Day or so, marks the "off season" for dog showing here in the Frickin' Arctic.

Since today is the Vernal Equinox, it's time to start thinking about the year ahead. It's time to dust off the equipment, take inventory of what needs repair/replacement/cleaning, invest in some fresh batteries, and organize it all so that an event's worth of necessities can be tossed into the car without too much scrambling. It's time to start reading the premium lists for the springtime events and to think about what to enter when.

Another way I mark the start of the dog-event year is to clear off the bulletin board in the sunroom. Back when I was still actively trialing with Seamus, I'd hang the ribbons and rosettes he'd earned from it in a given year onto the board. At the beginning of the next season, I'd remove them, pack them away, and hang the new year's booty. This has now become an unofficial ritual to mark the new dog-show season. (So what can you do with all the old ones? I had Dinah's BPISS rosette from the '06 BCCC National framed. There are also quite a few people who will take your collected ribbons and stitch them into a quilt, wall hanging, chair back, or what-have-you. This site shows a bunch of photos of finished examples. Maybe someday I'll do something similar with mine, but storing all the ribbons in Rubbermaid boxes in the downstairs closet is still much easier than trying to figure out where to hang a quilt.)

2010 was relatively slim for us in terms of spoils -- we only entered three conformation shows, five AKC rally trials, one UKC rally trial, and a bunch of APDT rally trials -- but we did bring home enough bling to cover the bulletin board. Each one marks some pretty nice memories: the weekend we finished Dinah's Canadian CH, BOS for the second year in a row at our Regional Specialty, her AKC RN and RA and APDT RL1 titles, Badger's 4th in Veterans at the BCCC National... Still, they make a pretty nice collage...

Now that the bulletin board is bare again, it's time to start thinking about the year ahead... and train, train, train! Dinah's litter sister Buffy is now competing in APDT Rally in the UK and is on the verge of earning her RL1 title, too.

As Seen in Dog Fancy

A few weeks ago, a very nice person named Nicole contacted me through the blog. It seems she was writing a small article about the AKC Grand Champion title and was looking for thoughts from the fancy about the new title and its appeal. The article will appear in the July issue of Dog Fancy, in case you're interested.

Public Service Announcement

The next session of Penny Cary's conformation handling classes starts in April at Finish Forward Dogs in Saco. Class spots are filling up fast, so contact Finish Forward soon if you want to get in on the fun.

It's (Almost) All About Dinah

It's getting to be the time of year where we pack up the show stuff and prepare to hibernate for the winter. Dinah hasn't actually seen the inside of a show ring since the Canadian Specialty in August (though I still wish we could have gone to the Carolinas Regional). We do have two more APDT rally trials coming up on the first weekend of December, and then we'll really put 2010 to bed.

All the same, we brought home a decent small collection of memories this year...

• BOS at the New England Regional (for the second year in a row)
• BOS at the Supported Entry the next day
• 10 AKC Grand Champion points
• BOS at the Fredericton KC show to finish her Canadian CH
• Best in Show in the MB-F Virtual Dog Show
• AKC Rally Novice and Advanced titles
• APDT Rally Level 1 title with an Award of Excellence (AOE) and 1 leg toward Level 2
• 7 legs (so far) toward the APDT Rally Level 1 Championship (RL1X) title
• 1 leg in UKC Rally Level 1 (URO1)

Although I say we're hibernating for the winter, we're really just not going out to compete. When the weather permits, we spend our time at home on the weekends, practicing. Dinah's back in agility class with Jim Gregg, who's a master at deconstructing handling and helping you build a successful process. We've been going to Wednesday-evening rally classes since school started, and will resume when the next semester resumes in January.

Oddly enough, working in rally and agility seem to complement each other — all the more so since Jim is so good at spotting inconsistencies in handling that (especially in my case) seem to be handicapping our progress. Sometimes neglecting the simplest things can make a huge difference. Jim noticed that I wasn't taking the time to catch Dinah's eye in the ring because my ring nerves had me all flustered. Keeping that in mind, I tried to keep eye contact in both agility and in rally, and Dinah did much better. She's always stellar in practice; at trials, not so much.

I'll have to remember to keep Jim's advice in mind next time we go to a trial. I've had the worst time doing APDT Level 2, although we managed to complete the AKC RA. Dinah knocked the jump bar on our first Excellent run, but that has to do with bad agility handling (mine). She was looking at me, and not at the obstacle.

The year hasn't been completely about Dinah, though. Badger Blue managed to take a 4th in his Veterans class at the BCCC National.

Dinah's image has been places, too. Two photos of her — one as a puppy, one as an adult — appeared for the Bearded Collie at the AKC's Meet the Breeds event in NYC last month.

Next month, Dinah and Badger get to be supermodels for a day! They'll be modeling couch covers for the FetchDog catalog. We'll all head to the shoot at a house somewhere in West Falmouth, and a local dog trainer we know will help coax the two stars of the show up onto the furniture, to recline in appealing poses. Somewhere, some lucky copywriter will get to struggle with the temptation to talk about all the dog hair that won't get on the furniture, and we'll end up with some lovely professional photos of the Breakseas. I'm looking forward to it!

Seamus already knows how best to model a couch!

We have to spend every Thanksgiving on the road, so we won't be home to watch the National Dog Show on TV. Have a great Thanksgiving, all, and enjoy the show for us!