Conor Gets His First Points!

We had a fantastic weekend at the ASCA conformation/obedience trial. Since I hadn't had time to work with Kaylie & Conor in obedience, and people were trying to make majors in the Altered class, I decided to enter Conor to help build that major. I hadn't shown him in conformation in well over a year, as we'd been busy over the past year working towards qualifying for the obedience Finals. But he's such a good little doggie, doing exactly what is asked of him. I don't know how he knows things, but he just does. Amazing. Anyway, we had two shows each day. In the first show on Saturday, in a class of 4, he placed 4th. That's where I expected to be all weekend, to be honest. But at the second show on Saturday, he actually placed 2nd! I was pretty excited about that - as we then would have had a chance to go back in for Reserve if the Open Blue dog went Winners Dog. But another dog won, so no second chance. Oh well. As I was leaving for the show Sunday morning, Kaylie just looked so sad that I was leaving her home again. I couldn't stand it, so I decided to bring her along and then enter her in the afternoon show just for fun. I always enjoy showing her in conformation - she knows how to bring it on. Sunday morning, Conor placed 3rd in his class. I started thinking about it, and he had placed 2nd, 3rd & 4th. All he needed was 1st. I decided to show him a little differently, kind of like I would show Kaylie - let him stand on his own and do his own stuff instead of trying to micromanage everything. Well, it paid off, because he actually won his class!! Yay! A 1st place! I was pretty happy with that. But then we had to go back in for Winners Dog. Again - I just let him do his own thing. I know his down and backs aren't the greatest, but he's got a beautiful side gait, so I made sure I used the full back side of the ring to show off the side gait, and what do you know - the judge must have noticed and pulled him up to the second position, behind a nice red dog. She had us go around again, and again, I used that full length of the back of the ring. The judge then put is in the front and had us go around one more time, and this time she left it at that, giving us Winners Dog!! I was in shock! His first points. But then I had to make a really hard decision. Since Kaylie was entered as a Special for Best of Breed, I had to find someone to take either Kaylie in or Conor back into the ring. I asked Clarissa, Kaylie & Conor's breeder, and she agreed she'd take whoever I chose, if she didn't win Winners Bitch. I then found someone as a backup to Clarissa. Luckily Clarissa's dog didn't win, so I handed Kaylie to her. I figured Conor was too new and such a momma's boy, he wouldn't show well for someone else, especially with me being in the ring with him, and plus Kaylie loves Clarissa. So we all went around the ring a few times, did the down and back, and then the judge pulled Kaylie to the front. Way cool!!! I was so excited to see her up there, but really wished it was me. But then the judge pulled Conor to the second position!!! Wow!!! I didn't know exactly what it all meant, but I knew it had to be good. Kaylie ended up winning Best of Breed, and Conor won Best Opposite Sex and Best of Winners. The major actually broke for the dogs, because one of the dogs finished, and then one of the other people didn't enter their dog, because they found out it was a major in Bitches. So by winning Best of Winners, Conor also got a major! Woo hooo!! His first points, with a major to boot! I was so very proud of my puppies. A really funny part of all this was having to borrow a conformation lead and chain, because I only have one!! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd have two dogs in the ring at the same time.