May 2 - Lisa's Musings (on Driver Becoming a Champion) and Every Day Life

On with the show...

First, you'll see Driver show in his breed class. Note, there are no other Tollers there, which is why we needed group placements to get a championship.

And if you decide to watch the video, you will see why I call this conformation stuff -- stand-and-eat-food competition. Although, you'll read later in this blog that showing to the judge in this video was a bit unconventional.

This championship winning performance -- Driver's, not mine, doesn't involve a whole lot of exercise. There are a few jogs around the ring and to the corner and back, but for the most part, it's a beauty contest.

So, if you decide to watch this video again, please note my cool sparkly shoes ... and Driver's constantly wagging tail.

And, yes, he did try to bribe the judge by kissing her on the face when she leaned in to say hello.

We Are the Champions:


So what does a new UKC Champion puppy do on his first day "sporting" his first title? Although in UKC, the sporting group is called the gun group.

He pees on tall grass, plays with his brother, eats breakfast, and acts no differently than he did the day before or the day he was crowned a champion.

He's a dog. He doesn't care that on May 1, he earned a CH before his name.

Yes, WE DID IT. He got a Group 4 in the first show and a Group 3 in the second show.

Those two elusive competition wins we needed to make him into U-CH Redwyn's Hard Drive. At 13 months old.

Too bad there wasn't even a photographer at the show to record it for posterity. But thanks, my friend, Nancy, videotaped our performance.

For the record, one of the judges wouldn't let us take food into the ring. So in one show, it was a stand-and-fake-that-I-had-food in the ring.

Driver's pretty smart, so by the second time I reached in my pocket acting like I had a treat there, he'd figured it out.

He looked up at me adoringly, as he always does, then tipped his head to clue me in that he knew there was no stinkin' treat in my pocket.

Regardless, he still showed like the champion he'd soon be.

And I really owe this judge for not only awarding him the last group placement that he needed, but also for catching a glitch in his paperwork that would have null and voided both his group placements Saturday.

The secretary had mistakenly marked "him" as a "her" in the judge's book. The first judge missed this "small" detail; the second judge didn't.

So because of her attention to detail, the paperwork for both shows was corrected and now I'll wait for the championship certificate to arrive in the mail.

So what did I do the first full day of being the person on the end of the leash of a new champion?

The first dog I've owned and shown to a real honest-to-goodness, stand-and-eat-food title?

I watched as he peed on tall grass and played with his brother, and I made his breakfast. Then I tried out a new pet-friendly cleaning product on the toilet.

Do we know how to have fun or what?