Fun at NWFest

This weekend was a blast!  Well, Saturday & Sunday were a blast.  Friday I sat at home with Appley, Luka, and Mintz while Bados went on an excursion with J.  Boy, have we heard a lot about that from the big-headed BadAss; we may never hear the end of it . . .
He & J went to the NWFest Conformation Show.  J had not expected to be able to be at the show as she was supposed to work.  Iola had agreed to show him for her, but in the end she made it to NWFest just before the show started.

Not only did Bados manage to win his American-bred Class & Winners Dog (which earned him an ISWS CH).  He went on to win Best of Winners, Best of Breed, & Best in Show.  I think Karen Sander's Sky was Best Opposite, but Bados was too busy bragging about himself to give any details.  I point out to him that he necessarily won BIS by winning BOB as this was a specialty show with no other breeds represented (while I had to beat other breeds to get my 2 Altered BIS rosettes last weekend at the UKC shows), but this does nothing to reduce his swagger.  BISS RBIS, ISWS CH, ICKC Int'l CH, UKC Grand CH Allagante WindSpirit Barbados ISWS LCM SRC.  Thats a lot of initials; I probably got the order wrong.

Saturday was more fun for me - and, if Bados could set his ego aside, he'd probably agree.  Bados went straight racing; Appley & I got to practice.  One time I pulled the lure back with me about halfway.  It squawks and is fun to play with.  After halfway there is lots of resistance; but, as long as I don't shake it too much, J will help but still let me hold on to it while we finish walking back.
As usual, J had set up Ivan with a large 'paddock' off the side door.  I completely messed with J's head by breaking out 3 times.  Once I even made it to the track just as they were preparing to open to starting box, but someone alerted the starter & they stopped.  Sigh.  Someday they'll let me race again.  Anyway, it took J several times to figure out my escape routes.  My favorite was learning to open the low sliding window.  It has a screen, & she had opened the glass slightly for ventilation.  AHA!  It was very easy to slide both further open.  The window is not tall, but I am small. : )  J was mystified about how I had escaped.  Unfortunately, someone saw me sneaking through when I tried again.  That spoiled my game.  J closed & locked the window.
Garis won (no surprise there).  Bados was down at 9th I think.  Being all egotistical about Friday's big win, maybe his head was not fully in the game.  I don't remember the rest of the placements, except that Hudson - who came all the way from New York - did well & earned his SRC.  Maybe if they let me compete, I'd pay more attention to the results.

Today was Lure Coursing, my favorite!  Doing Singles instead of open allows me to focus on strategy.  I got some good stalking in, and J was pleased that I still got 'qualifying' scores, finishing 4th.  Chino won Singles.  Whatever; judges just don't 'get it'.  Did Chino manage to get a paw on the lure before the finish?  No, but I did; I almost always do.  Oh, I managed one escape from Ivan's paddock, too!  J had not been careful enough locking the gate; I was able to push the bottom corner open.

D'Artagnan finished 1st in Open & then BoB (against Kamiah who is FCh).  His humans are very proud.  There was a 4 way tie for 2nd-NBQ.   After the run off the result was Nike, Bados, Frankie, then Sky.  All of the scores had been really close all day.  There was one really sneaky, sharp turn.  The dogs that got that turn best are the ones that ended up on top.
A Basenji & Mintz (Greyhound housemate) also won BoBs.  Ann Chamberlain was concerned that it was too hot to run Mintz for BiF.  J wasn't sure, but she's always cautious with his old foot injury.  She decided not to run him for BiF.  Mintz is miffed, but, when no one is looking he may be favoring that foot a tiny bit.

When we went up to the house for awards, Luka fell in the fish pond.  She loves to lie in shallow pools & had not realized it was so deep.  This completely freaked out both Luka & J, so we did not stay much longer.  That was OK, because Hudson & D'Artagnan were being too flirty with Appley & I - and Appley is a boy!  I put those boys in their place, but they were still annoying; so I did not mind leaving.