The Most Excellent Idaho Adventure

I am sure Karen is not alone in wondering how we survived our Camping/Dog Show Adventure -- well, wonder no more because here is the true, unabridged story of The Excellent Idaho Adventure...

It started before I left -- Dear Husband clucked like a worried hen: "will you be warm enough? Shouldn't you take more blankets? Shouldn't you take your heavy coat?"

Oh no, I reassured him -- temperatures would be in the 70's so I would be fine. And when Ralph and Jennifer offered me a sleeping bag that first night, I repeated my reassurances -- and froze my #$% off as Blackfoot suffered under a late frost.

I am not sure what was worse -- freezing all night or having to tell Dear Husband he was right. At any rate, I did (gratefully) take the sleeping bag for the other nights -- here is a picture of my heroes:


Okay, so back to the story -- we arrived and set up the tent (aka my imaginary trailer) next to Jennifer, Ralph and their son Alex; they have Syd's littermate, Cooper Whitby (I have made a unilateral decision that from now on all Kaibab dogs have their litter name as their middle name). In addition to Cooper, they have a berner girl named Britta and a real trailer (named Arctic Fox).

I have always wanted to stay at a show site and so this was my big chance to see if I like it. I figured that being a somewhat experienced camper, I would be fine in my little tent with four large, furry dogs. When I was a kid we camped every summer and I had to share a tent with my four siblings and so four dogs is kind of like four siblings, right?

So this is what our camp looked like (note the difference between a real trailer and an imaginary one):


And I creatively used xpens and crates to create a safety zone inside the tent to prevent any escapes:


Zoey took advantage of the close confines to get even closer to her beloved sister, squeezing into a crate with her that is really a little small for one plus-size model let alone the plus-size model and her baby sister...

In addition to the small problem of hypothermia the first night, there were some other glitches. First of all, when tent camping one has to decide if one would rather be dehydrated or take a dark, lonely, cold walk to the bathroom at 2 a.m. Unlike real trailers, imaginary ones only have imaginary bathrooms -- darn it. Second, it is hard to plan/manage food when tent camping with four dogs who would happily raid the imaginary cupboards -- so I ate from my supply of pumpkin bread and bagels, bummed meals from Jennifer and Ralph, and worked agility classes to earn tickets so that I could have real food like hot fudge sundaes and trail mix. Well, and there was also the small problem of sleeping on the floor with four dogs, including one who loves too much but over all, it was actually just fine. I admit to having trailer/RV envy now but do not envy the payments so my envy is actually balanced for the time being.

I stayed at the show site for two reasons -- it was cheap and easy (not unlike some of my dear friends), and I wanted to see what it was like -- well, I loved it!!! Dog shows after the dog show are really fun! It was like being ten again and on a camping trip, where a group of relative strangers come together and form a little community for a few days and then disbands and goes back to real life (except when I was ten camping involved Lake Tahoe and s'mores). And I had a GREAT time with Jennifer, Ralph and Alex -- and I am not just saying that because they lent me a sleeping bag!

Okay, so that is my report on what it was like to camp -- no problem! And now let's move on to the dog part of this adventure...

We will start with Cadi -- she has decided that 24 inch jumps are not for her so sent bars flying in every run and will be moving down to preferred agility (20 inches) -- more on that in a future Blog. But what AWESOME weave poles she has (credit to Elizabethanne, who taught Cadi to weave)!!! And what a perfectly lovely disposition that dog has -- so big success with Cadi since just being able to do something with her is a gift.

FYI: we found a park and went there for romping time twice -- and the pictures are fun so I am including them but wanted to mention they are from the park so you do not imagine that dog shows after hours is a big free-for-all! In this picture you can see that Cadi noted there were no bars to send flying so she gathered the troops and plotted to send a human through the air...


Okay -- let's review who was being shown -- we have Asia:



And we have Zoey:


And Sydney:

And Sydney's littermate, Cooper Whitby (serving in the first picture as a pillow for Alex):



So here are the results!!!

On Thursday Asia was entered in Best of Breed and Novice B obedience -- she went Best of Opposite (Yea!) and got Leg #2 with a placement (Leg # 1 was at the Specialty). I attribute this to the special socks that Carol gave me -- I wore them the first time I showed Asia in obedience, and of course had to wear them again for Leg #2!

Jennifer showed Cooper and he was Reserve, and Syd won the Bred-by class but didn't do anything else.

Friday started with Cadi sending more bars flying. Ralph and Alex went to play golf and Jennifer was left to face my incredulity that she had not entered Cooper in Breed -- why??? Because she wanted to do obedience with Britta -- huh?????????!!!!!!!! Being the Queen of Multi-Tasking, you can imagine that I had a hard time understanding why she could not do two classes in one day but she is a beginner at this making yourself nuts at a dog show thing -- she will learn :) And she did a great job with Britta -- they earned Britta's first Novice B obedience leg :) :)

So, in between giving poor Jennifer a bad time about being a dog show wimp and helping Cadi send bars flying in agility, I showed Sydney in Breed -- and she went Winner's Bitch :)

Okay, now it was Saturday and because we had nothing better to do (than send more bars flying and run all around the show site keeping track of when/where we showed, when we worked what class in agility, and so on), we decided to give the (clean) dogs a bath -- Cooper was not amused...


However, you know what Joan says: Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good!!!! And it worked -- with Jennifer showing Cooper, he went Winner's Dog and Best of Winners!!! And not to be outdone by her brother, Sydney was Winner's Bitch, giving the Glitterati littermates a sweep of the points :)

Sunday morning was The Abandonment -- Jennifer and Ralph packed up the Real Trailer and left me all alone with my imaginary one. Sadly I took down my imaginary trailer and managed to cram everything back into the van so that I could leave as soon as I was done showing. It was a tight schedule and I knew it would be a challenge to get to everything and so I pulled out the Big Guns -- I put on the Lucky Hanukkah socks.

Yes, I know it is not Hanukkah and yes, I know I am not Jewish but I support all faith groups and I am a firm believer in Lucky Socks and those Lucky Hanukkah socks have seen us through some very excellent titles -- and so I put them on with full confidence that in spite of having been abandoned by my trailer park friends, I was going to have a good day.

The Lucky Hanukkah socks do not work for agility -- oh well. After Cadi and I knocked some more bars, I put her away and got out Zoey -- it was to be her Big Day!!!! Now, remember that Zoey had some Stranger Danger issues with judges last fall and so I have worked diligently to get her over that -- okay, that is a big, fat lie -- I let her grow up some more, taught her to lean on people, and put on the Super Lucky Socks and that was the extent of my diligence -- sigh....

But you know what Joan says -- Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good -- and so Zoey got beautified in preparation for her Big Day. That done, I raced over to obedience -- well, I drove slowly through the showgrounds so as not to run over any person or dog but I had a racing mentality so it felt like I was racing -- remember -- it is all about perspective.

Obedience started at 10:50 and Zoey's Breed ring time was 11:10 but there were some dogs ahead of berners so I decided to just go for it (as in -- just show Asia). There were only three in Asia's class and it finished right at 11:10 -- how is that for perfect?! (hint, hint -- Lucky Hanukkah socks).

It was hot and right as we were going into the ring a person said, "what a nice looking BOY" or something to that effect!!!!!! So being both hot and insulted, Asia was not at her most attentive but it was good enough for second place and her CD title!!!!!!!!! That makes her a BMDCA Working Dog :) :) Can you tell I am a little excited about that??? :) :) :) Not even three and she is already CH Kaibab's Enter from the East TDX, CD, DD, CGC -- a Versatility Dog and now a Working Dog :) :) We might have to chat with our favorite advertising person, Daniel Sernicola (Best in Showing Marketing: daniel@bestinshowmarketing.com), about an ad for our Plus-Size Model who does NOT look like a boy!!!!

Okay -- enough obedience! I put Asia in her crate, gave her water, and got Zoey out with her Bling Bling pink breast cancer awareness show leash and off we went -- to wait. Sigh.... We stood in the shade of a vendor booth and watched the ring until finally the berners were showing -- I started to feel as if I might just throw up from nervousness. Would Zoey stand for the judge??? Would she be stressed????? Would I ruin the leash if I threw up on it??????!!!!

Ye of little faith!!!! Zoey was rock solid and even more -- she won! Yes indeed -- our cute Zoey was Winner's Bitch, Best of Winners, and Best of Opposite. And the judge said and I quote, "she is very nice" (referring to, of course, Zoey :).

So, Cadi was a champion bar knocker, Syd won two of the three days she was shown, Cooper won one of the two days he was shown, Zoey won the only day she was shown, and Asia qualified in obedience both times she was shown, earning her title. I survived the tent experience and had a great time with Jennifer, Ralph and Alex.

Zoey got a new ball but Cooper, not understanding that pink is a girl color, stalked Zoey for it...



And when he got too close to her new ball, Zoey scared him right into the air!


However, Cooper touched the ball and Zoey rejected it as having boy cooties on it...


And so ends a perfectly lovely weekend -- I can hardly wait for the next one!!!!! I hope yours was also a success, no matter what happened :)