A rather belated Crufts 2013 round up...an action packed three days for me, being there Thursday-Saturday.

Thursday was the least eventful day, with just Elton in the YKC obedience. Possibly the less said about that the better - he was completely overwhelmed once in the ring and although his HoL was okish, when we cut the cord (removed the lead) he sat there and decided it was too scary to move! So I called it a day - no point stressing him, C'est la vie! Though having only one obedience class and no breed judging that I was interested in gave me time to do some proper spectating and shopping, so there were plus points!

Friday was Toy Day - breed for Solei & breed stakes for Elton. Elton's stakes were in the same ring where he had lost it the previous day, but in a different context (and on lead lol) he was fine and showed very well. Didn't get anything, but I knew it was the wrong judge for him...just nice to qualify. Solei went well, remembered what to do and although he was unplaced in Veteran Dog it was the nicest Veteran class I've ever seen in Paps - there were 17 dogs entered and a lot of quality. He did then go on to get a VHC in Good Citizen Dog :-) So happy me - a card at Crufts is fantastic.

Solei age 8.5yrs at Crufts 2013 (Photo Yulia Titovets)

Saturday was the "big" day - the Finals of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes. I have had little else on my mind since Elton got through the semis in November! Oh and did I mention - one of the motors in my chair failed and the part was taking forever to get back in stock, so I was without a working chair for 6 weeks...it was finally fixed on the Monday as we were off to Crufts on the Thursday!! I was just slightly stressed. Having been unable to do any proper practice I had one session with him (he was a very good boy) and then that was that - our Crufts preparation!!

(Photo Yulia Titovets)

Saturday was also Gundog Day, so Ria was in action in the Kooikerhondje ring! I was really pleased with her - she got a 2nd in Post Graduate Bitch to the Reserve Best Bitch, and a 2nd in Good Citizen Bitch to the Best Bitch. Good results!

Elton was in the ring early, having been drawn 2nd - couldn't decide if that was a blessing or a curse!
Nice to get it out of the way I think - though we had stays at the end of the class. After Thursday's disaster I could not have been prouder of him, the ring was right in the middle of Crufts with scores of crowds, and flyball being run just down the hall!! but he was a star, I came out of the ring thoroughly satisfied with how he had worked - whatever happened. As it turned out, the marks reflected what I felt!

The scores nearly halfway through the class

By the end of the class he was lying Joint 2nd, surrounded by Border Collies/Working Sheepdogs (BC/WSD)! That was the most terrifying stay I have ever done in my life...but all clear. So then we had a run off for 2nd/3rd. I was not all there by then lol and I knew we hadn't done enough to win it, but 3rd was beyond my wildest dreams...there were BC/WSD in 1st, 2nd & 4th, so he was the Top Anything But A Collie. What a result :-D



So all three dogs came home from Crufts with placements, I spent far too much money and have fab memories that will stay with me for ever :-) Even now, 7 weeks later, I still can't quite believe it happened! But there is no doubting who the star of Crufts was :-) Dog in a million!

I'm clever, yes?

I kept meaning to post...but there was so much to catch up on I kept putting it off, then obviously the longer I left it the more there was to catch up on and so it went on!

Anyway, the big reason for my distraction which is also exactly the reason I should have been posting -

Meet Sadie :) She turned 6 months old yesterday, she belongs to the boys breeders (S+T) but came to live with me at the beginning of February. If everything works out she is "mine" to do what I want with in terms of show, agility, obedience..etc and so could be here for years.

She was completely unexpected - at 3pm I had no idea I was having a puppy (a couple of days before I'd actually thrown out some boxes..etc that I had kept for puppy play, and put all the puppy toys away at the bottom of the toy box cos I thought it was a long way off!) and by 4pm I had a puppy!

I had mentioned to S+T some months ago that if they had a Papillon "spare" I would be interested in borrowing one to show. I knew Sadie's breeder was bringing her litter down for them to look at and all being well have a puppy (they bred both parents), I got a phone call that afternoon asking me if I was busy and would I like to come over cos they had something to show me...with which they produced this puppy and asked me if I'd like her!

She's been an interesting challenge so far! She's got a lot of attitude, but she isn't particularly responsive (even to all the weird and wonderful noises that puppies "always" respond to!) and she's very independent. She knows precisely no commands so far (well, I have taught her her name!), which feels so wrong for a 6-month-old puppy, but we have been busy...just busy with other things! Mostly play :) I've just been doing tons of toy play with her and some fun stuff like running to a toy or running with me in circles....oh and we are working our way through Crate Games. Started some self control with toys/food and targeting...hoping to book her on her first workshop (games, appropriately enough lol) in May.

Other than that things have been ticking over as per usual! Most of it we'll have to gloss over now because I've forgotten it, but I want to do a big post about Crufts (which was AMAZING) cos we had some fantastic results...other than that I don't think there has been anything major. I have done very few shows, Elton got BOB at the two general open shows we attended in March, and I went to my first "normal" (not Crufts!) champ show of the year yesterday with Elton, Sadie (just scraping in for her first show at 6 months on the day!) and Ria. Elton did nothing and did not deserve it - tough being a Phalene :( and it was all less than satisfactory with Sadie, we had been outside all morning, practiced in the outside (grass) ring and were all nice and settled...then just before her class it started raining and everybody went inside. It was chaos as everybody tried to find a spot and resume the judging with minimal delay. So suddenly we were in a very noisy building Sadie had never been in before, with a carpted ring she'd never seen, and a frazzled handler! She coped very well, was happy enough - just very unsettled and erratic on the move. Got a 3rd so she has now qualified for Crufts, but it wasn't the experience I was hoping for for her debut! Ria showed really well and got a 2nd to the Reserve Best Bitch, so very pleased with that.

Oh! We did pop along to a companion show last weekend to give Sadie some grass practice before the champ show - and she won the puppy class and Best Puppy in Show!! Start as you mean to go on ;-)