So, being incredibly unprepared (but incredibly well groomed), off we went to Wales for the WTA Championship Show.  It’s a breed championship, so only WTs.

Now, I only entered one class.  Postgraduate Dog.  This was because in previous shows, mummy learned that if you enter more than one class, win one but get beaten in another, you are no longer an “unbeaten dog”.  Only unbeaten dogs can progress to Best Dog, Best of Breed etc etc.  So we decided to just enter one class, so if I won, I wouldn’t then be beaten in another.

There were four entries in my class.  All younger than me, and two of whom were far better qualified already.  One was a ShCM, for example.

We saw lots of friends from the WT Club show, and lots of other exhibitors came up to offer us tips and assistance to ‘get it right’.  Mummy had soft shoes, tweed in a complementary colour.  I had my new grooming trolley…

Here I am in the ring…

I came second in my class.  So that meant I didn’t qualify through to Best Dog.  I came second in my first ever championship class.  Out of four! Now, initially, mummy was a little disappointed, this was my only class entered, so coming second meant I was eliminated unless the winner of PGD went on to Best of Breed and I could then come back in to challenge for Best Dog.

Whilst Mummy was sulking, one of our friends sidled up to Daddy (Photographer & Chauffeur in Chief) and said how pleased we must be for qualifying for Crufts!

Here we are – the 1st and 2nd in PGD.  Ben (who came first) is a cracking dog and his dad John is one of the most helpful exhibitors we’ve met!

SO – coming second in a breed class qualifies you for Crufts – if only we had actually read the qualification criteria in my earlier blog post.  We were actually shocked.  This was our fourth ever show?!