Canine Experience

On Sunday, a very rare thing happened. The whole family attended the Suffolk County Kennel Club Canine Experience in Long Island. Normally dog events are a me-only activity, with Audra occasionally coming along, BUT, since the canine experience was the first opportunity Reanna has had to “show” a dog, Perry came along to watch (and film).

Reanna was entered in pee-wee junior handlers with Beaker. Pee-wee juniors is a class for all children under 10. Parents were allowed to enter the ring with their child, but I was the only one who did. Reanna was by far the youngest in the class, and she was right between a child with a staffy bull and a child with an adolescent black GSD, neither of which had very good control of their dogs. I wish THEIR parents had been in the ring. At one point I actually picked Beaker up when the staffy bull got VERY interested in him.

All children won a rosette and a Pro-Plan towel, so Reanna was on cloud nine. She was very proud of herself.

Audra, Reanna and I showed Carla, Beaker and Lizzie in conformation. The judge was very happy to have Podengos in his ring. He was very patient with the kids, and very gentle with the puppies. Beaker won the puppy group which was very exciting. Here’s Audra showing Carla.

I also entered Carla in an agility fun “run.” As you can see, she clearly didn’t read the “run” part of the entry form.

All in all I thought it was a successful outing. In between rings we hosted a Meet The Breed Booth for the Portuguese Podengo Pequenos of America (PPPAmerica) As always, the pod puppies drew a lot of admirers and we handed out a lot of pamphlets. Perry did have an unfortunate (and painful) encounter with an easy up that wasn’t all the way “up.” Perry turned around and smacked his head right into one of the metal parts that was slowly sliding down. Ouch!

Here are the girls 10 minutes out of the show site on the way home.

Advertisement