May 8 - Lisa's Musings (on another group placement) and Every Day Life

I think the dog show paperwork Gods are frowning on Driver and I.

While driving to the dog show today, I got to thinking. What if the paperwork was screwed up the first time Driver got a group placement -- as it was last weekend.

And what if he got his first group placement as a girl instead of a boy?

Then he really wasn't a champion after all because his paperwork was incorrect.

It never occurred to me to check the paperwork -- until last weekend -- when the secretary had him entered as a girl dog instead of a boy one, and the second judge, not the first one, caught it.

Fortunately, she did, and got his sex corrected for his first group placement, too.

So, here was my dilemma: If he really is a champion, then I needed to move him up to the championship class today to show him in the correct class.

But if he wasn't, and he got another group placement today, it wouldn't count because he wasn't entered in the correct class.

So, before I did anything, I asked the secretary to double check that he was entered in the judge's paperwork as a he and not a she.

Are you ready for this?

Sure enough, the paperwork was messed up AGAIN.

And, I promise you, when I sent in my entry, I entered him as a boy dog.

So, that sealed it for me. I left him as a non-champion, known as a class dog, and hoped for an insurance group placement -- just in case.

In the first show, we didn't really even get a second look in the group ring and Driver showed the best he's ever shown.

But it didn't matter, I was so proud of him, I could have cared less what the judge thought.

That's the problem with showing a relatively rare breed -- a lot of judges don't know if Driver's a good example of the breed or not -- because they've not judged enough of them to know the difference.

As luck would have it, the same judge who gave him a Group 3 last weekend for what I thought was his championship, was our judge in the second show.

When she opened her paperwork and saw they'd had to change his sex on the judge's page yet again -- she could not believe it.

We laughed about it and I thanked her again for finding the mistake last weekend and for the lesson I learned from her about always checking to make sure he was entered as a he.

And not a she.

She then awarded him a Group 4 today. Which, was actually a nicer win than last weekend's Group 3, because there were even more different breeds of dog in this Gun Group today than there were last weekend.

I decided to bring my ribbons from last week's show with me today in the hopes there would be a photographer because both judges would be there today.

And, bless her heart. We had to wait almost an hour and a half to have the photo taken and she hung out for me when she could have gone home.

I had a photo taken with both ribbons -- the one I thought was Driver's championship placement ribbon from last weekend AND the one from this weekend that definitely sealed the deal.

I figured I have it covered for good this time.

He's entered tomorrow and although I'm darn sure he's a champion now, I'm going back to show to a male judge -- because, for the most part, he's only seen female judges in the ring.

Perhaps they'll bond.

Or something.

Our next stop will be stand-and-eat-food in American Kennel Club shows where we'll chase another championship and there will be male judges.

For instance, on Memorial Day weekend when we'll head to a big Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever show -- where he'll actually compete against other Tollers.

Besides, I don't think I mentioned there's interesting karma at the fair grounds.

Along with the dog show is a pagan convention.

I kid you not.