My Year in Dogs

[anoki]

Since many of you commented that you enjoyed following my dogs, I thought I would do a mega post on the past year.

February starts the new year in the conformation ring here in Ontario now. I had a puppy starting at her first show, another of my young girls needing a few more points to finish her Championship, and Moxie, my first Cardigan, who I had decided to show to her Grand Championship.

At the first weekend of the show, Boo (Esrohollow Behind the Door) earned her 'major win' and finished her Championship a couple of days later, Jersey (Esrohollow Simply Jerseymilk) earned her first points also getting a 'major', and Moxie picked up points toward her Grand Championship.

Boo finishing her Championship



Jersey's first show & points



Two weeks later, we were showing again, where Jersey picked up a couple more points to her Championship, and Moxie finished her Grand Championship.

Jersey again



In May, I headed out to Chattanooga, TN for 10 days for the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America's National Specialty. I actually started out in the Atlanta, GA area for the Herding Trial, where I finished titles on 3 dogs in one day! Boo earned 2 Qualifiers to earn her Herding Tested (HT) Title, Mate-r (Esrohollow Radsprings Tuhmater) earned 2 Qualifiers to earn his Pre-Trial Tested (PT) Title, and Delilah (Esrohollow Hey There Delilah) earned her final Qualifier to finish her PT title.



During Veteran Sweepstakes, Moxie was 4th in her 9-11 year class



Mate-r won the Herding Titled Dog Class



And Boo was 4th in the Open female Class



Moxie & Delilah also won the Brace class, where the dogs have to show together at the same time like a team.

The next show I went to was in August, when I decided to take Mate-r out to 6 shows in 3 days, where we earned 3 - Herding Group 4s (which is a big thing to do when the dog is handled by an owner, not a professional handler)!!

I went out to Illinois in October where Jane (Esrohollow Diamond Jane) earned 2 Qualifiers to get her HT title, and her sister Lainey (Esrohollow Plain White Ts) earned 1 Qualifier toward her PT title.

Mate-r and I hit another conformation show a few weeks later, where we earned another Group 4 (against some VERY tough competition) as well as a Best Bred By Exhibitor in Group win!



Then I had another long break, until this past week, when I entered a show for one day, because this show offered a Brace competition and it had always been a goal of mine to go and show Moxie & Delilah in it just once (even if it was between Christmas and New Years when I had more than enough to do already!!).

I entered Jersey as well, and she won again!



AND Moxie & Delilah won Best Brace in the Herding Group….then went on to WIN Best Brace in Show!!!!!



So that was my year in dogs!

I will try to get in here more frequently to post updates rather than doing one BIG dump!

~kathryn

 

[New mini]

WOW congratulations on all the wins

 

[Marsha Cassada]

So impressive! You have really showed their versitility.

 

[Debby - LB]

Congratulations! Those are such beautiful little dogs. I love seeing someone representing a breed so well.

 

[paintponylvr]

That is so awesome! You have done great with your dogs. Do you have any of the herding pics, too? Did they title on sheep or did they herd other animals, too?

********

We had an acquaintance that I worked with w/ our ponies and she asked if our daughter would be interested in showing dogs. So, for 2 show seasons, Madira went along with their family for mostly UKC shows and a couple of AKC shows. They had a Corgi that they showed and then got into the Finnish Spitz's. During the time that Madira went with them to shows, she showed in Open conformation and Youth Showmanship classes. She handled dogs that weren't ours and did very well with some AWESOME dogs - she helped to get the final legs of Championships on several Yorkies - 2 females and 1 male. She also had the honor of showing a Brittney Spaniel, a white Shepherd and several Finnish Spitz's. I feel like I'm leaving some out, but I can't find the pics at the moment...

We ended up partnering with a judge/kennel on a Finnish Spitz pup - but due to an injury he never was shown,

, and ultimately he was neutered and is still our funny, talkative pet! Soon after that, my acquaintance and I had a bit of a falling out and we needed to start going to the shows ourselves. We got to a couple, but they always seemed to fall when I needed to be elsewhere and I simply couldn't get her to the out of state shows. She did, however, enjoy her run with the dog shows and I truly believe it helped to shape her into the young woman she is becoming. She graduates from College in May (extended her degree program due to having to work full time to take over payments for her own schooling) and is looking forward to going to Scotland for Spring Break and hopes to secure a job there and return to Scotland over the summer "permanently".

 

[anoki]

Thanks everyone!!

Dog shows can be a lot of fun…..they can also be very frustrating! LOL

I try to just do my own thing and let the political bs and the jealous competitors do and say what they want, but it's hard to not let it get to you sometimes.

I have only trialed on sheep. Cardigans were bred for herding cattle, but it is hard to find places to train on cattle. And I don't trust my dogs to work ducks!! Here are some photos of the dogs herding. They are from the trial in May, but the first one is from my very first trial….

Moxie teaching me how to sheep surf!



Boo



Delilah



Mate-r



These 2 are from May as well, when I showed Delilah & Moxie in Brace at Nationals.





~kathryn