You win some...

I figured the first post of the week had better be about Cotton's dog show, because I know everyone is waiting with baited breath.

The first show was Friday night.  It was a specialty show, done by the Oregon Brittany Club.  Even though Cotton wasn't the best behaved, he still did really well.  Just not good enough.

He basically got second place.  Or as we like to call it, "First loser".

As Ricky Bobby says:

Just kidding.  Here's how he he took it:

{Pouting like a baby while the Best of Breed was being chosen.  

And I'm not even kidding.  He climbed up in Phil's lap and cuddled like that.}

But in reality, it is his own fault.  It's like he didn't know how to run properly on the show lead.

So Saturday, we arrived nice and early to make sure he had plenty of time to get out his excitement and run around on the lead.  But we had a judge that likes smaller dogs, and a puppy won over Cotton.  We weren't thrilled.

I showed Cotton to that judge when we first started showing Cotton, and he was a jerk to me.

Basically we won't be going to shows judged by him anymore.

Henry had a blast at the show.

He loves the Brittany ladies.  And he loves our breeder's dogs.  Seriously, he doesn't do it to other dogs in crates.  Just Cotton's litter mates.

{Man-pris and TOMS.  He's too cute}

Playing with dogs can be exhausting though.

It was definitely disappointing to not get anymore points for Cotton.  But that's how it goes.  You can't win them all.  And it was still a fun outing and great to see the show dog people.  They are seriously the nicest group of people.

There's a show nearby at the end of September and I think I might try showing Cotton at that one.  We will see.  I have a couple of weeks left to decide.

I find it interesting that my competitive spirit has branched out to dog shows as well.  I see the professional handlers in the ring and think "I can do that."  Apparently I can't.  But maybe that's why they are professionals... they make it look so easy.

Oh well... I guess I will just keep practicing.  Cotton and I will get it down eventually.  :)

5 Things Friday

Oh Friday...  You are my favorite.  Honestly, Friday evenings are my favorite part of the week.  I think it stems back to my childhood.  Every other Friday night, when my siblings were with their other parents, my parents would take me out to dinner and then we would maybe go to a movie or go home and I'd spend the next 2 hours enjoying TGIF without my brothers or sister bugging me.

For some reason, I also remember doing puzzles while watching TGIF.  I don't know.  Specifically, this one:

{Found HERE}

This evening, we will be at a dog show.  It's pretty much the last one we will do until later this year, so we are hoping Cotton gets some points.

In honor of my love for Fridays, here's this week's 5 random things.


1.  I finally started going back to spin class.  I went to my first class two weeks ago and was thrilled that I didn't die.  It was my first time at a spin class since Labor Day 2012.  I knew it would be painful and it did not disappoint.  So when my coworker/friend asked me to go to a class last weekend, I said, "SURE!"  It was her first class in a while too, so I figured we could be in pain together.

About halfway through the class, I can feel that my face is matching my bright pink workout shirt.  Huffing and puffing, I glance over at my friend, thinking she will also reflect the physical agony I was experiencing.

Nope.

She barely looks like she has been exhorting herself, aside from a tiny bit of sweat at her temples.

Oh well... at least I survived again.  And my fingers are crossed that in the next couple of classes or so, my butt will adjust to the bike seat.  Ouch.



2.  I made tilapia for dinner last night because it was something I knew Henry would eat.  Boy loves his fish.  I felt confident he would easily eat an entire filet like he did last week.

Nope.

Wanted nothing to do with it.  He would, however, eat the pasta I made last week that he wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Keeping me on my toes, that's for sure.



3.  In case you were wondering what Cotton thinks about getting his hair blown dry, I think it is pretty clear:

He was thrilled.  As always.

He really needs to win some points this weekend because I am a little tired of blow drying my dog.



4.  It is really hard to be a baby.  It's also really hard to go bra shopping with your mom.  At least Henry thinks so.

He stayed asleep as I took him out of his carseat, brought him inside, and put him on the floor.  Then he slept for another 15 minutes while I got his dinner ready.  Poor baby.



5.  You know I like to talk about my underwear (see HERE and HERE).  The topic of underwear came up the other day with a friend and she mentioned that she wanted to get a set of panties all black that could be worn during a certain time of the month.  I thought that was brilliant!  Honestly, I wear black pants or jeans almost always anyway, so black panties would really be appropriate.  I stole the idea and bought a set of black underwear while Henry and I were bra shopping.  When I told the sales clerk the black pantie idea, she thought it was brilliant  I'm thinking it will be the next big thing.

Not that I didn't have black underwear already.  It just happens to say, "GIMME YOUR CANDY" across the butt.  No joke.

A 3-pointer!

I know there are tens of you out there, just repeatedly hitting the refresh button to find out how Cotton did at his show this weekend...

HE WON!!!

It's like he won Best in Show.

He didn't even win Best of Breed.

Ok let's clarify... And this be wrong because I'm still trying to figure out the whole Dog Show thing.

In order to get his Championship, Cotton needs to earn 15 points.  Within those 15 points, he needs 2 major wins meaning that at least twice he needs to beat a lot of other Brittanys.

To get points, he needs to beat other Brittanys.  This weekend, there were only 4 dogs, but he was the best looking boy dog and he won.  That earned him 1 point.  Then he went into the Winner's group and went up against other champions and the best bitch (female dog).  He was named Best of Winners, meaning he beat the bitch.  Because there were a lot of bitches at the competition, the bitch had 3 points.  Since Cotton beat her, he got 3 points for the win instead of 1.

And it counted as a major.

So Cotton got 3 points and a major.

That was Cotton's first big win and first points!

{Checking out his teeth.  I didn't take a picture of when they checked out his man parts.

Cause I'm not a weirdo}

We went back on Sunday and Cotton didn't win any points, but he was basically the 2nd place dog.

It was a good weekend for the little prince.  He's a good boy.

His next show will be at the end of July.  But it was really nice to know that all of the training we have been doing with Cotton is paying off.  We have more things to work on but he is a good little learner and hopefully next show will be even better.

All of the pictures are from Sunday with his breeder.  She showed him.  And he won.  Further proof I was holding him back.  :(  Maybe with some more training (for me), I will be able to show him again.  It hasn't been bred into me like it has with Cotton.

In case you were wondering, Henry came to the show with us both days.  Here's what he thought of it:

He loved it.  He loves the dogs.  I think he was just really fascinated to see so many dogs that looked like Cotton.  :)

Loving him enough to let him go...

The title could suggest some melodramatic post about Phil or maybe even Henry.  Don't worry.  It's not that kind of post.

I have mentioned before that our dog, Cotton is a show dog.  And I have also mentioned that some people believe I have been holding him back from reaching his show dog potential.

Well, I have decided to set my pride aside and give Cotton the chance to reach his full potential.

This weekend, Cotton will be in another show.  This time, the breeder will be running him around in a circle (a skill I obviously can't perfect).  At Cotton's last show, he won his class and was beat out for Best Dog (in the Brittany group) by a dog that had a nationally known professional handler.  And here I thought it was a DOG SHOW.  I guess it isn't only the dogs that are on display.

(insert blow to my self esteem)

In order to get Cotton ready for someone else to show him, we have had to take him to his Show Dog class so that someone else can work with him and run him around.  Henry came too (obviously) and had a good time watching all the dogs run around.  He looked on with a peculiar fascination like, "What exactly is going on here?"

{It was crazy hair day at daycare that day.  

You should see what his hair looked like when I pick him up}

We will explain it to you when you're older, buddy.

Even sitting that far away, we were still distracting Cotton (according to the breeder).  Next time we will just drop him off and go to dinner I guess.

Tonight starts the preparation for Cotton's show.  Think beauty pageant for dogs.  We have to bath him tonight so he can get groomed tomorrow.  Grooming will include shaving his neck, trimming his ears, and cutting off his whiskers.  Makes him look weird and cute all at the same time.  Then Friday night, he gets a bath with whitening shampoo and then we have to use a blow dryer to dry him.  Curiously enough, he is usually VERY well behaved while getting his hair dried.  I think he likes being pampered.

Wish him luck!!!  I will be that stage mom, looking on nervously from the audience.

All for Show

Cotton's show was Saturday.  That meant a little Friday night beauty ritual after Henry went to sleep.

After we washed Cotton with whitening/brightening shampoo (yes, they make that), I blow dried Cotton, making sure to straighten out his leg feathers as much as possible.  He was a very good boy, actually sitting down on the floor willingly next to me while I blow dried his ears.  Then, we cut off his whiskers and used the drimmel to round off his nails.

He was beautiful and ready to go!

{He's so ridiculously good looking}

We also spent Friday night purchasing a cart to roll Cotton and his crate into the dog show.

{I think Taylor was in the background laughing at him}

I seriously can't believe we did that.  But the idea of wrangling Cotton, his crate and Henry on a rainy day around a bunch of other dogs drove us to spend a gift certificate and $20 on a cart.  In case you are wondering, it was amazing and worth every. single. penny.

It was his first show in over a year.  And there were at least 30 other dogs there.  Between everything that has happened in the last year, Cotton's show training has been VERY lax.  Understandably, it has been one of the furthest things on our mind.  We worked on it when we could.

Our tiny attempts at training left us with very low expectations.  That coupled with my inexperience and we figured Cotton would get his once over from the judge and be promptly beaten by a more seasoned dog (and handler).

I was more nervous than I should have been when Cotton and I entered the ring.  Cotton, however, was as cool as a cucumber.  He was just eager for the macaroni noodles he had seen me shove in my pocket.  There were 4 or 5 other dogs in his class and we were 3rd or 4th in line.  As we waited for our turn to stack for the judge (show dog speak for stand pretty and still), I did my best to keep Cotton from sniffing absolutely EVERYTHING.  We did our stack.  We ran out and back and then around in a circle.  And I was very shocked when the judge moved us to the front (meaning we were in first place).

And I was totally shocked when they announced that Cotton was first in his class!

We stayed in the ring for best dog, but got beat.  According to the people who were watching, the handler for the dog that beat Cotton was a nationally known handler, so in reality we lost to the handler (damn my inexperience!).

Cotton didn't get any points, but it was really good experience.  And our breeders made sure we knew that it was a VERY big win for Cotton.

After watching the other dogs and handlers, I can see that we need to work with Cotton more.  There's an ease about how professional handlers work with the dogs and how the other dogs responded.  Cotton is just too excited at the moment.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that my competitive spirit came alive at the dog show.  I thought "I can handle Cotton as well as those handlers!"  I just need the practice.

For the record, Cotton has won 1st in his class for every show he has entered.  The other shows may have only had one or two dogs in his class, but whatever.  We take what we can get.

This is the weirdest post I have written in a while.

Hair Cut

Maybe you thought I meant for me.

Nope.

Someone else in the family was in desperate need of a hair cut.  Like BEYOND need of a hair cut.  As in "there was no way I wanted the breeder to see you" need a hair cut.

{He's a big baby and his bath had traumatized him.  

And yes... that's Zoolander on in the background}

Cotton is a show dog.  He hasn't won any big shows or anything although he did fairly well in the puppy categories.  It's partially because I am the one that shows him (meaning I run around the ring in circles with him) and partially because he still hasn't quite developed his big boy body.  And it is probably also because we don't train him enough.

When you have a show dog, you find yourself congratulating them on things like standing well and not sitting down when you bring out a treat.  In fact, one of the breeders told us the last thing we should teach him was how to sit.

Oops.

Anyway, the guy was super shaggy.  He had so much chest hair, it looked like as ascot.  And he looked like an old man with so much hair growing out of his ears.

{That's how he sits}

And because Cotton was SO BAD, there was no way I could let the breeder see how long it had been since he had a hair cut.  Phil and I went for it ourselves.

{That pretty much all came from his ears}

He looks like a different dog.

At first when we had finished, he wouldn't even look at me.

But after several treats and A LOT of petting, he forgave us.  And I guess the experience was so traumatic for him, he then proceeded to pass out.

It's hard to be so good-looking, right Cotton?

I'm off to see if I can find a cheap grooming table.  That's something I really never thought I would do.

Pretty Prancing

I'm sad (or happy really) to report that I don't have any weird dreams to share with you today.  Although I am pretty sure I had a dream the other night that included Cotton.  And that probably isn't too weird since we would be going to conformance class tonight if I didn't have a meeting.

Conformance class is where he (and I) learn how to make him stand and prance properly.  Turns out, there's a lot involved in this whole "show dog" thing.  And since I haven't worked with him much in the last few weeks, he kind of looked at me like "what the *$%# are you doing to me?!?" when I tried to "stack" him.

And I think I heard that one or more of the dogs was in heat last night.  And since Cotton has recently discovered his love for lovin' on things (mostly people's right leg, and YES it has to be the RIGHT), I think that may have distracted him a little

Overall, he did pretty well.  He prances with the best of them.

I, however, did not do so well with the prancing.  You know what feels great?  Running on concrete.  I was fine the first few times.  But towards the end of class, I thought the front of my pelvis was going to shoot off.  It wasn't painful, more just weird feeling.  And the next day, I had a nice little waddle going on.

Phil may have to start participating in classes.

His next show in rapidly approaching.  We'd better start working on his "pretty standing".  We don't give our dog treats for sitting.  We give him treats for standing.  And wagging his tail.  And breathing (ok not really).