Sunshine and Rosettes ...

Today, we bumbled on over to our local annual Country show & had a lovely afternoon in the sunshine.
For a bit of fun, we entered Archie into a couple of the dog classes.

Firstly, we entered in the 'Fastest Recall' competition followed by a very hot and sweaty wait for the 'Best Rescue Dog' class.
We were about the 10th dog to run the recall competition and achieved the fastest recall from that point onwards. How excited were we ? Archie is incredibly fast so we knew he'd do quite well. Boo was well excited !

Anyhow, after he'd done his bit we had an ice-cream and had a look around the show and then went to wait for Archie's 'Rescue' class to start.

(Pah ! and what am I supposed to do with that ?)

Now, I know I'm quite a competitive soul but not to the point I'd nobble my opponents or such-like, and I know that the novelty classes were meant to be fun, BUT I, and my neighbour in the ring were a tad confused at the logic of choosing the winner.

The judge, who seemed a lovely lady, came around and spoke to all of us handlers asking questions such as age of the dog, how long we'd had them and more importantly to her (quite obviously), in what terrible circumstances did come by our four legged pals.

OK, so Archie wasn't tied up in a sack and thrown in a river, nor was he found in a terrible emaciated state, nor was he tied to the central reservation of the M4, but he is still a 'rescue' pup.
My friendly neighbour in the ring also had a Springer Spaniel, a 4 year old she'd had since he was 4 months old after being found wandering around the streets of Portsmouth, assumed dumped because he was a failed Gundog pup. The docked tail (illegal now unless it's a proven working dog) and nervous manner and behaviour hinted at such. Not a great start in life for him.

So, there we were, waiting for the judge to call up the six best in class to eventually choose an overall winner. Archie was getting a bit bored so I snuck him a Chicken Hula Hoop to keep him focussed on me and not so interested in sniffing his new 'mates' winky do dah ...

And then the judge pulled out the first dog saying ..
"This little dog was shut in the dark ... "
and then she said ...
"Oh it's so difficult to choose. All the dogs are just lovely but I am trying to remember their stories"

Well, I feared that that sealed the fate of all of us who didn't have a sufficiently sad story. I felt really sorry for a little boy next to me, he looked so disappointed and he had a beautiful little dog.
My neighbour said "Why not just interview the entries and make the saddest story the winner eh ? Rather than waste time and ask the dogs stand in the heat"

She had a point, and I'm the first one to admire anyone taking on a disturbed or severely mistreated animal. But surely the competition should have been based on how well the dogs looked, their condition and personality ... or am I being too harsh here ?


It didn't really matter to me though. The whole point of the exercise for us was for educational purposes as far as Archie was concerned. He's been dreadful when other dogs are around, screaming and barking with excitement because he wanted to play with everyone. I've been taking him to busy and dog populated places to try and de-sensitise him to all the excitement.

And, I have to say he was absolutely brilliant today. Whether it be down to just maturity or his new food and herbs, whatever the trigger, he's much improved. So, I was a happy bunny. If you'd asked me, even 2 months ago, to stand in a ring with 25 other dogs and expect Archie to be quiet, I'd have said "Pah ! You're having a laugh aren't you?"


But looky here ....
No-one got close to Archie's time in the recall competition and so we won the 1st place rosette. He is a rocket, so it was going to have to be something like a border collie or another pocket rocket Springer that was going to beat his time.

Mr Boo was happy as Archie also won a bottle of wine !


And look at that sky. The morning started fairly mild but grey and not very promising. By 2pm it was flippin roasting !


Little Miss Boo is becoming a real whizz with the old Hoola Hoop. She was like the Goldilocks of Hoola Hooping, trying out all the different sizes of hoops.


Then she tried a bit of balance beaming. But she got cross when she kept falling off. The man to Boo's left in the photo was having a great time having a go all by himself ~ maybe he was reliving his childhood. He had a go on everything ~ bless im.


Bouncy Castles, slides, entertainers, craft tents, produce tents, children's activities, showing (horses) amd show jumping, dog show, fairground rides, ice-cream vans, pony rides, firemen (hubba, hubba !), main ring events, birds of prey, music bands and bars .... we had the lot there.

A huge amount of work goes into this show and it was brilliantly attended this year ... I know, because my next door neighbours were on the gate.
It's in the field practically opposite our house so we can walk to it too.


I loved this set up ...

A quick go on the spinning tea-cups and then it was off home. Very tired, very hot but very happy. Boo had a lovely time, Archie learnt a bit more AND he beat 70 other dogs to win his shiny bright red rosette. What a clever puppy dog.