Blogging is even lighter than usual this weekend, because I’m spending most of each day at a dog show - a “foo foo” dog show, no less!
Miki, our one year old field spaniel, is in his very first dog show. He’s too young for agility (where he is destined, we hope, to be the very best field spaniel ever seen on an agility course!), but he’s just old enough to be entered into a traditional dog show. Allegedly these dog shows are all about the dog’s conformation to breed standard. When you walk through one of these shows, it looks like a gigantic beauty salon, with all the accompanying chemicals, brushes, hair dryers, etc. All around you, dozens and dozens of dogs are being groomed, bathed, powdered, and dried. Some of them, I think, are also being dyed, lacquered, or painted.
Given all the effort that goes into this “prettifying", I think it’s fair to say it’s really a beauty show more than a conformation show. So we’ve nicknamed them a “foo foo” show. And we never thought we’d be entering a dog in one!
But…Miki came from our favorite breeder (Sheila Miller) with a condition: we could have him, but only if we agreed to show him in these foo foo shows. So there we were yesterday, entering Miki in his very first foo foo show.
And he won first place! First place, that is, amongst 12 to 18 month old field spaniels in the show. He had lots of competition — himself. I’m told that the first place ribbon isn’t an inevitability in a one-dog show; the dog has to meet breed standard, behave in some acceptable way, and apparently the handler (which was Debbie, of course) also has to meet the handler appearance standard. But she and Miki met all the applicable requirements, so they took a first place ribbon home!
