Thursday, May 15, 2014

Sunflower Kennel Club, Topeka, KS Saturday May 10, 2014

A very stinky day at the dog show.  Started out with a judge change in Havanese.  To ending the day hanging out in the grooming area waiting to run to the tornado shelter with the dogs.  Thankfully after we moved the dogs into the shelter area, where we could keep the dogs in their crates, the storm turned east and missed Topeka. 

Havanese Judge change to Terry Lyddon.  NEVER AGAIN.  After she butchered the breed for the umpteenth time in November, I swore that I would never show anything to her again.  We pulled our class dogs and asked another well-known handler to show Selena.  When she was awarded Select and even the breed winner couldn't believe that Selena lost.  It was horrible.  When talking with many other exhibitors that showed to Ms. Lyddon that day, they couldn't believe what she did in their breeds either.  In fact, we had to ask 4 handlers before we could find one that would show to her!  

Selena was the only dog that Ms. Lyddon 'really' felt the coat.  Selena is 4 years old.  Everything else in the the ring was under 16 months of age - puppy coat!  

How many times to we have to explain, to judges, that there is a difference between soft, silky adult coat and soft, silky puppy coat.  It's not a question of which is softer or silkier.  That's like saying that an adult supermodel does not have soft, silky hair because they just felt a 5 year old's soft, silky hair.  They are both soft and silky, just different.  

So, yeah, now you're saying that it's sour grapes since we lost.  NOPE.  You are right that I don't like to lose, but I can also understand losing to a good dog that is a good example of the breed.  At the end of the day, if it's a dog I wouldn't mind taking home, then it's a dog that I can tolerate losing to.

I won't have to worry about losing under Terry Lyddon every again though.