This past weekend Zoni attended her first set of shows, and overall I was extremely happy with how things went. On Friday we went to the Basenji Club of Southeastern Wisconsin Specialty. My strongest desire going in was for her to behave reasonably well on the table and after that everything else would be bonus. And the bonus was that she took Best in Puppy Sweepstakes! :D:D:D:D She was a perfect little angel on the table and gaited beautifully around the ring. I got a lot of complements on being able to gait her on a loose leash. When we finally got around to conformation, I think she was a little tired (even though she took a nap in between) as she was a little droopy on the table and was gaiting a really fast pace (not galloping luckily) which was a little hard for me to control and wanted to play with the other puppies. She got 2nd in the 6-9 mo puppy class. It was a pretty nice speciality overall and a lot of fun. I got of bunch of handling tips, etc from the club members and they were pretty tickled that I actually won something my first time out. I got to meet Jon Curby too and talk to him a little bit.

Today we went to an BCOSW supported entry at an all breed show in Waukesha which was outdoors and we had a really late ring time of 3:15. Lots of intermittent rain and sunshine. Unfortunately, there was an extremely LOUD speaker in the tent blaring what was going on in the group ring and it was extremely distracting. Everyone was practically going insane. Zoni was a little freaked out at first but calmed down some by ring time but was doing lots of stress sniffing. I had a lot of trouble keeping her nose off the ground when she was gaiting this time so I'll have to work on that. She got 2nd in the 6-9 mo puppy class again, which isn't too bad I think. I"ll post the sweepstakes picture when I get it. :D:D:D:D

Congratulations! I knew you 2 would handle the ring just fine! Everything surrounding your worries went well? I can't wait to see pictures & am looking forward to meeting you both at the Nationals - you're still going, yes?

Congrats, what a great start! I saw the results elsewhere and thought that was Zoni!

Don't worry, she will keep you humble. Just when you think she's got it figured out, next time she will race around the ring like a bat out of hell or go nose diving the whole way. Puppies. sigh lol

Enjoy your time in the ring with your baby and I'm sure you'll have many more great moments together!

Congrats! Sounds like a nice start.

Congrats to you and Zoni!

Congrats Clay & Zoni! Great start! And it sounds like both of you had fun in the ring and she got over some major hurdles - so congrats!!! That's great! :D:D

Congrats Zoni..She did so good…..

Congrats for both of you!!!

Yay!!! I saw the results on another list also, and was so thrilled for you! Are you going to the National?

That is super… off to a great start.... congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments! I think I have the "showing bug" now because I didn't enter the show today but kinda wish I had. :p Although I need to practice a lot more because I feel like I need to grow an extra hand and a third eye to keep track of what I'm doing. I was 1st in catalog order every time and that was a little stressful because I'm not that fast getting her stacked on the table and the judges were practically on top of me when I was still getting her set-up.

@RedVelvetLynx:

Everything surrounding your worries went well?

Yeah, didn't have too many problems, like everyone else said, the fact she was in season really wasn't a big deal. Her GI tract issues didn't materialize into anything at the show or during traveling luckily but she still isn't completely back to normal yet. Although I somehow lost her show chain when switching her collars. :mad: But, luckily, happened to buy a few more back-ups that day to replace it.

@Quercus:

Yay!!! I saw the results on another list also, and was so thrilled for you! Are you going to the National?

Thanks! Yes, I'm planning to go to National. Although, I'm debating at the moment whether or not to go the Hoosier Club specialty since it is right before. But I really don't want to take the entire week off work and I'm not sure if it's really worth it.

@renaultf1:

Congrats Clay & Zoni! Great start! And it sounds like both of you had fun in the ring and she got over some major hurdles - so congrats!!! That's great! :D:D

Thanks! I feel like we definitely accomplished something getting the ring procedure somewhat down. Although I'm still figuring out when you have to go back in for reserve. Seems like you have to pay attention for a while, which I wasn't doing a good job of. :rolleyes: I know it's only a matter of time before she acts up on the table or runs like a bat-outta-hell (she almost was a few times, lol). I think now that she just doesn't like that conformation class teacher that was a little rough with her early on because that is the only predictable time that she acts up. Zoni showed her, I guess!

I think you did the right thing in only showing her for the two days… really at the Specialty you showed 2x's and then the next day, so really 3 "shows" in two days... if you would have entered her today that would have been 4 times.... Showing is stressful for both pup and handler (and add in her first season)...regardless of how long you have been doing it. I think that sometimes we push the pups to much, too soon....

@tanza:

I think you did the right thing in only showing her for the two days… really at the Specialty you showed 2x's and then the next day, so really 3 "shows" in two days... if you would have entered her today that would have been 4 times.... Showing is stressful for both pup and handler (and add in her first season)...regardless of how long you have been doing it. I think that sometimes we push the pups to much, too soon....

And I forgot to mention we were in brood bitch too at the Specialty so it was one more on top of that. I definitely agree, that was really long day and tiring day for both of us so I'm not looking forward to doing another regional specialty when she is a puppy (or at least I might skip sweepstakes if I do). During conformation, the sweepstakes judge mentioned that Zoni didn't look as quite as perky as she was earlier in the day which is a shame. I'm doing just one more show next weekend (one day only) and then we have several weeks of break before Nationals. I think she should be out of season about 2 weeks before then so hopefully she will be a little closer to normal.

congrats

Congregations to you and Zoni on your great start!

Poppys showing career started more slowly but is going a better now.

Steve

I finally got Zoni's pic from the specialty. As a note, we were looking into the sun while taking the picture. :rolleyes: Not sure why, exactly, I've got my arm twisted like that, though. I think I was just trying to keep Zoni still long enough to take the picture. Oh well, at least Zoni looks nice.

It's so weird to see Zoni like this, she looks so stoic. She doesn't look anything like the goofy little puppy I'm used to. She's also a little heavy in this picture but she's finally back down to a better weight.

What a great picture!! Zoni looks very pretty! You look like a professional handler

Great picture. I think both of you look great.

Great job and great photo! Lots of luck at Nationals! She's beautiful!

Thanks, for the nice compliments. :o

@Janneke:

What a great picture!! Zoni looks very pretty! You look like a professional handler

LOL…more liked a frazzled handler than a professional one. Pictures can be deceiving. :rolleyes: