We decided to attend the Albuquerque shows this year which are always fun. The Weimaraner Club of Albuquerque had back-to-back specialties on a Friday, followed by all-breed shows over the weekend. The weather was generally beautiful, though going from Colorado’s 65 degree temperatures to Albuquerque’s 90 degree temperatures was a bit of a shock.
On our way down we stopped in Santa Fe, a favorite place of mine. We visited with Piper who we recently placed with Allison and David. It was a lovely visit and we were thankful for their hospitality. Thank you Allison, for letting me drink your very fine whiskey! If you are in the area and want to check out the local distillery, click here to find out more https://santafespirits.com/spirits/single-malt-whiskey. Piper is doing great and enjoying her only-child status, though she did enjoy visiting with Baby and Samantha.
By the way Hannah and Baby are the same dog. We didn’t entirely agree on the name, so she answers to both. Namely, I call her Baby, and LaRita calls her Hannah. She’s carefree and would probably come to “hey you” or “chicken butt” if that’s how you called her, using a high squeaky voice.
We made it to Albuquerque in the evening and settled in. We stayed with Laurel who owns Seth, Ch.Foxfire’s Man In The Moon. Laurel flew in from Hawaii Thursday night, after getting stuck/re-routed in Los Angeles. Seth was ready for his mom to come home!
Friday proved to be a successful day at the dog show. The a.m. specialty was better for us than the p.m. specialty. Baby took Best in Sweepstakes which was a feat considering I started leash training her the day the show closed 2 ½ weeks prior. I appreciated my conversation with the judge, Ms. Leslie Blythe, who mentioned it was her last assignment before becoming provisional as a Weimaraner judge. We wish her good luck! Samantha took winners bitch under Dr. Jill Warren. It was a 3 point major. Sam pretty much thought she was done for the weekend after that. Seth placed 3rd in a big open class in the a.m. show.
Also on Friday Gunnar finished his championship, giving Gunnie his 9th champion. Gunnar is Ch. Cheyenne’s Sympathy For The Devil, bred by Christine Trujillo. Congratulations to Christine, and the Mox family. We’re getting close to Gunnie’s BROM, I should probably do some math.
Saturday, Brock took first in open and showed the best he has so far, the puppy had ants in her pants, and Samantha and I had a crash and burn. A professional handler I know summed it up, “your bitch is very pretty, but she’s a $h17head…” Yep. She can be. Not to put too fine a point on it! I appreciate everyone who listened to me work through it, because I don’t have a sports psychologist on speed-dial. Thanks to George for showing Baby, you did great! I wish we had some photos of Brock but our photographer doubles as handling help (grin).
Sunday didn’t start out so rosy. The attempt to coddle my show dog completely backfired! Oh don’t look shocked, we all know things never go as planned. I let Samantha sleep on my bed Saturday night. Around midnight, she fell flat off the bed onto the floor. I’m not sure how she avoided hitting the crate, nightstand or the bookshelf. Sam’s a grudge holder. Thankfully she didn’t associate me with falling off the bed! I scooped her up, took her outside and then she darted for the crate and slept quietly for the rest of the night.
I arrived at the dog show with my game face, grilled chicken, popcorn, and patience. Samantha just needed one more major to finish her championship. In my mind, we just had to do better than Saturday and it would be good enough. Brock took 2nd in open and showed nicely for me! Baby took first in her class, it was uncontested. She dances instead of trots (ha!). Samantha was a work in progress, but we did it with smiles and a lot of bait.
My Facebook post said, “Sometimes, it takes a village”. Thanks to George for helping me ringside, and walking Samantha around, Sandy for helping me juggle dogs and just talking to me, Laurel for her popcorn, Tim for his encouraging (if not incorrigible) text messages, and my mom who waited to hear from me, even though waiting was torturing her!
Sam’s a new champion. She is Lillian’s 2nd champion and Rowdy’s 8th champion. This also gave Rowdy enough points for his BROM! Congratulations to Chris and Steph Meyer! Sam is also Gunnie’s 4th grandpup to get a championship.
I have more photos sitting in my camera from the last day that I have to review, I’ll put those out there in a separate post.
