Fun in Central New York - yeah, really!

I co-own a young male German Shepherd Dog with his breeder, who happens to be the woman who handled my dogs in conformation dog shows many years ago. Sue and I became good friends over the years, and back in the mid-80's through the early 90's, I spent a lot of time traveling to dog shows with her, helping her with the work of showing dogs, and having the time of my life. I always thought I should get back to that, and in 2005, she offered me this co-ownership, and I thought, "why not?"

A.C., our dog, had not been out since last year for the Central New York K.C. and the Susque-Nango K.C. shows. He did pretty well last year, with a Reserve the first day, and going Winner's Dog for one point on the second. He'd earned a point in his first show as a 6 month old puppy, and it was nice to know that he was growing up well. We weren't ready to really get him out and start campaigning him yet, so it was a really nice surprise.
This year, I decided to take a vacation, and go up with Sue and her husband to the shows. On Saturday, at the Central NY K.C., A.C. backed away from the judge, and refused to go up to him. He was excused from the ring. I spent the rest of the day walking him around, getting him used to being out in the big world. I let people meet him, and greet him, and made sure there was plenty of liver to reward him for accepting people. He really is a nice boy, but he hadn't been out of the kennel for a year, and he had just been a bit overwhelmed with all of the sights and sounds. The longer we were out and about, the more relaxed he became. I also brought him back to the motel with me Saturday night, and let him sleep on my bed with me.

Sunday, A.C. stayed out with me until ring time. He won the Bred By Class (only entry,) and I kept him outside the ring with me until Winner's class. The major had held, and I really didn't expect A.C. to do anything. Our goal for the day was for A.C. to get some experience and to learn to enjoy dog shows. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Look what he did!I really do like dog shows. We had 11 dogs with us. While I was helping Sue exercise them, standing by the stinky X-pens, scooping the poop from a dog that wasn't even mine, wearing saw dust halfway up my calves, and busting my hump running dogs to and from crates, I realized that I'm rarely more relaxed, more within the moment, or more completely myself than I am when I'm at a dog show. Oh, yeah. Winning's nice, too, but I learned this weekend that winning unexpectedly - going for the sake of going, doing my best for the dogs, really just enjoying myself, and then coming away with a win on top of it all - is really more fun than going with winning as the goal. It's really nice to be back.