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.

Stacking the dogs... my hand should have been on the top of his collar...

Stacked & ready!

Judge examining the dog

Happy turns!

How the PROs do it! (TJ & Sandy)

2nd judge inappropriately checking out my ass.....

2nd & 3rd

Great Pyrenees 101

Mile High Great Pyrenees Annual Fun Match

We attended the Mile High Great Pyrenees Annual Fun Match in conjunction with the Evergreen Kennel Club All Breed Match and had a ton of fun! We learned a lot too as it was our first match to be handling dogs. Matt handled Chai or Charles, as we call him in the ring, and I handled Nubikins, the breeder's dog, Chai's littermate.

Chai took Best in Sanctioned Match and Nubi took Best Opposite Sex in Match.  It was a successful day! Too bad they don't count as points toward his champion!

The most fun part of the day was watching Freddy, the 5 week old Pyrenees, and Lacey, the 6 week old Bearded Collie, play together.  Freddy is the only child so this was his first time meeting his match.  Lacey definitely showed him who's boss!

The little kid doesn't shut his mouth! Lol :0)

Our Awards!

5 Week Old Pyrenees Puppy

We figured it out! A 5-week old Pyrenees puppy is about the same size as our chihuahua, Miss Starlet-- EIGHT whopping pounds.  The breeder changed his name from Ice Man to Shaman to Fast Freddy, which now seems to be a worthy name. This little man GET AROUND! And apparently he's the worst troublemaker she's had in her 30 years.  Fun stuff!

Big Boy!

Freddy teasing Nubikins 

Freddy love his fan!

8-day old Great Pyrenees Puppy

OMG! Got to hold the cutest little 8-day old Great Pyrenees puppy the other day. He is the only puppy in the litter and was born about 4 days early! He won't open his eyes for another week at the very least. The breeder is calling him "Fire & Ice" or "Ice Man" at the moment, but since he's so young that's apt to change.  Heck! Chai was first named "Trouble" we later found out..... now it's his middle name!

Ice is VERY strong already for his size. He crawled all they way up my chest in search of a nipple with some milk! I literally had to squeeze him to get him to stay still.  The breeder squeezed the wrong section of his little body while he was on my lap; I was lucky to discover he has diarrhea! NICE. Typical newborn, I suppose.

Check out his belly!!