Chasing Chai T: Our First Dog Show

What an interesting weekend we had.....

Friday, we rushed from work, to the breeders, to Four Paws to give our filthy Little Man a bath before his big day. We made it there with 40 minutes to go! (As some of you know, bathing a Great Pyrenees takes at a minimum of 90 minutes- 20 minutes to suds him up, 10 minutes to rinse & 60 minutes to blow dry him with a cattle dryer.) Well..... lo & behold- when there's a will, there's a way! We borrowed our breeder's dryer & the resident groomer's and got him remotely dry by the time the doors closed.

Wet Doggy

Ever since Chai was a glimmer in our eyes, it was always Matt's dog, more specifically Matt's responsibility. When we found out we would have to show him, we, meaning Ashley, also decided that this would also be Matt's responsibility. Somehow, Saturday morning at 7AM I was dressed & ready to be in my first dog show, not Daddy Matt. ..... mmhm ...... After a caffeine pick-me-up, we drove up to Greeley for the day.

Clean & fluffy boy!

Well, dog show people are a breed of their own. It's like a bunch of non-athletic people got together and decided that since their dog was "SUCH a good looking dog" they'd show the dog off instead. Needless to say, dog shows are not for us. The amount of cockiness and competitiveness was astounding. Here we thought that we would have just as much fun as we did at the MHGPC Annual Fun Match..... more friendly, carefree competition, but no. There was definitely a certain "I'm better than you" air that we are not privy to....

Regardless, after two days of shows the judges apparently did not like my novice handling skills or Chai's superior good looks. Or maybe they were baited with some hundred dollar bills by the other handlers. We ranked 2nd & 3rd out of three male puppies. No points. We went home empty handed.