Little Miss Tonka Little Miss Tonka

Ok, so Ness is watching the judging and trying to work out what we need to do.  Tony is sat keeping me company and reading a book, as is Mick.  Ness’s Mum and Joseph arrive, they are also very excited, however, they don’t stop long, they’re off to watch the border terriers, Sue and Karen arrive, but make a quick exit, they are off to see the sites and say they don’t want to get in the way.

Nothing much is happening, for me.  However, I am wondering why so many people keep walking past and looking at me making ahhh noises and why everyone is so excited.

nothing much is happening, I'm a bit bored to be honest

It’s 12.3o and Ness’s mum has come back, she takes a seat and seems to be enjoying a pint of beer!  I think she’s been watching the Staffies and the Bull terriers.

Everything has stopped for lunch now, I’ve done nothing and everyone apart from Ness has disappeared.

Ok so we’re in.  The catalogue has been collected, Ness has been making excitable comments about the picture on the front of the catalogue (Cairn Terriers by Fannie Moody and an excellent choice in my opinion too).

Now it’s time for me to pull forward.  I don’t know where we are going, and neither do Tony and Ness, but the keep stopping to look at signs and their map.  Wow, carpet everywhere and lots and lots of trade stands…can I have a toy as well as pull like mad?

Well we seem to be here.  Ness spots Dawn and her team and then we find Mick and Babs.  We’re next to them.  Jane is opposite with  with Archie, oh and there’s Bret.  Everyone is so excited and hugging and kissing each other, it’s lovely.  Now it’s time to set up my crate and wait to see what happens.

Why are we up so early?  This is early even for a week day. Wow Tony is up!  I’m getting brushed and packed up into the car.  What’s going off?

Why are we up so early?

See, they're so sleepy they haven't noticed I'm on the sofa

My goodness me, where did all these dogs come from?  We’re in a car park, ness’s phone has been going mad with excited text messages and there are loads of dogs about.  Tony has come with us too, which is a good job as we seem to walk a long way (being a man he carries the stuff).  Am I at a dog show?  I’ve not been to anything like this before…

After about a 20 minute walk (well there were lots of smells) we joined a big queue.  Tony and Ness got in a mess with catalogue vouchers, entrance tickets and my admission pass, but they got there in the end.  Everyone is so excited!

We like it here.  Everyone is friendly and there is always a good turn out of cairns.  Ness says it smells like things used to before the days of double glazing and central heating.  It’s musty, damp and a bit on the cold side; she finds it comforting.  The sun streams through the windows, until we get blinded and have to close the curtains.  Tony likes it here because you get big mugs of well made tea (he didn’t come with us today though).  I showed well and didn’t come last; a good day out.

This was a very busy show.  I was in a different room from where all the judging was taking place, which was nice, as by the ringside there was no room to move.  We waited around for ages, then Ness battled her way through the crowds with me.  Then she cleared off!  She left me with some nice people who also had cairns and came back with my crate.  We squeezed into a corner.  Then it was off outside to play ball and then before I knew it we were in the ring.  The judge made me work ever so hard, but I showed myself off (apparently moving well in profile).  We came out the ring, waited around for a couple more classes and then we were back in again.  Ness made a mistake in my handling, the judge swapped sides and she hadn’t noticed; can you believe it she nearly walked between me and the judge.  At least she realised what she had done.

Today I got my first, first!  I like the colour red.

I think I like these champ shows.  Ness couldn’t find where we were, but Mick and Babs were there to sort us out.  They are so friendly and helpful.  Brenda was there too, and we sat with her after our class to watch some of the judging.

After the cairns had been in the ring Ness took me on walk about.  It was all very odd, I had to go into a different type of ring from what I’m used to and do what I normally do at obedience training, but without any treats!  Anyway I went with the flow and Ness was so excited when we got a rosette and lovely big certificate.  I have got my Bronze Good Citizen Award.  This means that I am very good at being good.  The man who judged us said he was very impressed, there aren’t many dogs who will stand completely still for a minute.  He said most dogs have to lie down or sit.  I smiled to myself at this and Ness looked down at me smiling too.  We both know that if I lie or sit I move around and that would have meant that I would not have passed.  Well it’s good to keep them humans on there toes and guessing!

What is going off?  Didn’t we come here a couple of days ago?  If you think I’m putting up with the cold and the blowing heaters again, you’re sadly mistaken!  Today I made a bid for freedom…unfortunately for me I was caught just before I got into the ring with the chihuahuas.  I thought I was really clever, it took me ages to work the zip out, oh well, better luck next time.

When we got into the ring for our bit we went first.  I don’t think this went well with the other exhibitor and Ness hadn’t a clue what was going on, she kept looking to the judge for instruction but Ness either wasn’t listening or was not in the zone.  She really needs to get a bit more experience…I know what I’m doing!

Wow, for an open show there were a lot of us in the ring.  Eight of us in my class.  We did our stuff, although Ness seemed to find it hard work, I thought the floor smelt lovely!  Anyway we did our stuff and we were just about to walk under the tape round the ring and we were placed!

Don't I look lovely!

As you can see I looked great on the table!

After a short drive from our hotel we arrived.  The car park was full and we had to park on the grass, which was a bit muddy.  I tried to jump in it all, but was promptly stopped.

We were in Maiden bitch.  This is for dogs that haven’t won a first place.  Which is me!

Help! What do we do?

We had to go first when we got into the ring.  We’ve never done this before.  (Even Tony was nervous – look at the camera shake). We managed though and we were awarded one of the most lovely certificates that we have in our collection.

The best part of the day for me was going out to play though.  Tony and Ness found an outdoor pitch, which was fenced off.  We played with the ball for ages.  I hope we go there again.

After a lot of waiting about we finally got in the ring…but it was all over so quickly.  There were only two of us there.  The judge’s critique said some lovely things, but our inexperience was mentioned…well, it is only our fourth go in the ring!