Tag: conformation

Crufts 2018

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What an experience!  I loved every second – my tail was wagging, I was giving everyone lots of kisses and cuddles, mum felt sick with nerves and I came second in my class! You can see the results listed here – I’m Tough Cookie at Bolhaus.

It was a long, long day for the humans.  At least I had my crate trolley to have a nap in, but no chance for M&D!

A picture says so much more than any words, so here are some highlights… not all of these photos were taken by Dad, so he’d like to thank Archie’s Dad, Mollie’s PA and anyone else who took photos of me and sent them to us!

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Southern Counties Championship

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After the disappointment of coming 3rd and 4th at Reading & District, to say mummy was nervous about appearing in the Southern Counties Champ. show would be an understatement.

It rubbed off on me slightly, I had uh… a squitty rear end… and that’s NOT fun when you’re at a show.  I do hold it in until I can find a spot of grass, but to mummy’s horror – the show rings were on grass.  Crispy grass too as it was quite warm.  I’ve never done a show walk on grass before and was skittering around because I don’t like crispy grass.

To try and remedy this, Mummy sped up, which made me bunny hop round the ring at times.  Not ‘appropriate’ apparently.

And I was up against Ben the Welsh again.  He beat me.  Again.  And he deserved to – he’s a much better structured Welsh than I.  I like him a lot, and his human offers us lots of handy tips and tricks.  They’re good eggs.

Despite all of this – I came second in PGD Welsh (behind Ben) and then 1st in Open Welsh.  So I got beautiful rosettes, mummy was pleased and I got lots of kisses from random humans.

Turns out, Southern Counties is a bigger affair than most shows i’ve been to in the past.  Lots of stalls to buy things (I got a new show lead), lots of visitors who come to see the dogs, and Dad saw a pal from work who breeds Rottweilers!

And my bottom behaved itself within a few hours.  Phew!

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Post-Qual. Reflections, Reading & District

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So I qualified for Crufts. What next?  It was a nine whole months away.  Surely going to more shows would be pointless, right? If our aim this year was to get to Crufts, I’m already there.

Not so fast, everyone!

There are things I need to improve upon.  There is always time to learn.  And the best way to learn is to *do*, so Mummy took the decision to enter as many shows between now and next March as possible, to give me practice, to learn by doing.

Knowing that my second championship show was early June, we found a local(ish) Open Show a few days before Southern Counties to give me some practice.  The Reading & District Open Show.  There was no Welsh Terrier class (there rarely ever is in county open shows) so I entered AVNSC (Any Variety Not Separately Classified) Postgraduate and Open.

Funnily enough, it appeared that others had the same idea – to use this Open show as a test for Southern Counties two days later (same venue, you see).  There was another Welsh! We’ve never ever come up against another Welsh Terrier in a local AVNSC class.

Ben the Welsh beat me twice, but neither of us won the class – I came 3rd and 4th.  Disappointing, but a good lesson – I’ve never really come anything less than 2nd before!  A dose of reality and a warning for the Championship show at the weekend….

Points of the Dog

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Apparently you can’t just say “nice chap, isn’t he?”… There’s a whole vocabulary of doggy anatomy when judges look at us, and it’s called “Points of the Dog”.  In America, it’s called Conformation.

People say things about me, which mummy didn’t understand, like “good stifle”.  WHAT?  I’ve got a nice stifle.  Where is that?  So…

We all have a Breed Standard… Here’s ours for Welsh Terriers.  This tells us how we should look and move.

The Breed Standard will use words from the Points of the Dog anatomy vocabulary.  Here’s a good explanation.  The Kennel Club runs tests and training for judges to learn these terms!

Basically, I have nice knees…