Dang! So close (4 dog lovers)

[Ken Ibold]

For the last couple of months my Samoyed, Tia (see avatar), has been plying the dog show circuit with a handler. Last weekend there was a 4-day show in Perry, Ga., with enough dogs that all of the shows were "major" shows. Tia had won quite a few shows, and would be a champion if she was able to win two majors. On Thursday, she took the win. We drove up to Perry on Friday. She was so excited to see us after all this time she did lousy in the show. She kept scanning the crowd to try to find us. Saturday the judge was on drugs. That left us Sunday. Tia was in the zone. Like an athlete, she had her game face on. In my uneducated and biased mind, she was easily the prettiest in the ring, but when it came time for the "up and back" she briefly forgot herself and fell into a brief "sidewind," where she ran a little crooked. Damn! She took 4th. The judge took the unusual step after dismissing the class to pull aside the handler and tell her that Tia was easily the best dog in the ring but she pulled on the leash just a little too much and then there was that sidewind, and so she couldn't put Tia up. So Tia's stuck on needing one major to be a champion. So close, and yet so far.

But we brought her home. It's good to have her back, although the new puppy is being something of a pest.

 

[OtisAir]

Ken, congrats to your 4 legged youngen.

We always watch the shows on tv; I must admit though, that in our case, we're woofin' for the bull-dawgies .

Seriousely, keep us posted when 4 Legs reaches Champion!

 

[steingar]

We see all the dogs in the shows and wonder, "who owns those?" Now I know someone who does. Cool.

 

[SCCutler]

Y'know, when I was a kid, we had a Sheltie (Angus Duncan McDougal) who was descended from champions both sides, and just a hum-dinger. Conformed in all the right ways.

We started to show him, but found out that, if he was gonna be a show dog, he could not really be a family dog, so his show business days ended early. Subsequently, any possibility of showing ended when he squirted out the front door (he was a bolter) and was run over by a car.

He survived (amazingly, thanks to remarkable work at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine in College Station, where he was a class project for six weeks or so), and even walked again (which they doubted he'd do) and ran again (which they assured us he would not do), and lived to be an old man of a dog.

Always slept on his back, legs splayed in the air, at the bottom of the steps from the entryway, where he could guard my parents' room from invaders entering through the front door (none ever did, but woe be unto them if they tried), and one day, my Dad came out and Angus was there, as always, but he had gone away. Good dog.

(excuse me)

 

[etsisk]

oooohhhhh....

good dog, Angus - glad y'all got to have him with you for a while.

 

[steingar]

One day I came home from grad school, got in really late. No dog barking. My little Lhasa usually barked her wonderful little head off at me. Woke up me mum, who opened the door to let me in. I casually asked where the dog was and got a long, long look. Boy that way sad.

At one point the Lhasa Apso had its back fixed by the wonderful vets at The Ohio State University Vet School.

 

[Ghery]

I've lost a few dogs over the years and it's no fun at all. They are members of the family, pure and simple. And for many years they got free veterinary care at the vet school at Washington State University where my dad was a professor for 30 years. At least, their pets did. Some great stories from those days. Like the Golden Retriever they had in the 70s and early 80s who would go over to the school at night with dad and sleep outside his office until a student or two would enter the hallway. Up he'd go and charge down to them. He'd grab one (always the girl if there was one) and drag them down to dad's office. "Did you want me for something, Dr. Pettit?" He's always grab my wife's wrist and drag her back to the kitchen when we'd visit. He was a retreive"her". After 25 years we still miss that sweet beast.