Posts filed under ‘Shows’
Weekend Antics…
Yesterday saw Mingus’ 2nd show – the Exeter & County Canine Soc Open. By the time the HWV classes came around the originally promisingly-cool-and-cloudy weather had given way to baking hot sun, which was less than ideal.
Judge & HWV owner Lesley Trow attracted a large entry of Wires, of which Mingus was the youngest. Despite the odds apparently being stacked well against him Mingus was awarded 1st Open, Best Puppy, and Best of Breed once again, which was pretty awesome going!
The, err, rather minimal judges critique read:
“Good coat, good straight front and feet. Best of Breed. Best Puppy in Breed.“
Hot dog Mingus.
The very large Gundog Group took the best part of 45 mins to judge, which, (coming on top of three visits to the breed ring) added up to a long time for Mingus to be out in such a hot ring, alleviated a little by lots of sprays of water. The Puppy Group, and more hot ring-time followed but Mingus kept himself together and performed admirably… then things started to get a little odd.
Mingus was chosen for Puppy Group 2 – which was an incredible result – but due to some ermmm…confusion, and ummmm… argy bargy in the ring he got recorded as Puppy Group 4 instead – much to Tim’s considerable bewilderment/frustration….which unfortunately kind-of put the dampener on what should have been (and which by any standards still was) a really great result…but so it was.
So, two shows and two Best of Breeds at 6 months old – couldn’t be a better start in the ring for our li’l lad!
“Pretty Good for his 1st Show!”
So yesterday, along with tens of thousands of others, we ventured West to the Royal Cornwall Show for what was to be Mingus’ first ever show.
The day was extremely hot and the showground literally jammed with people, many of whom (seemingly) wanted to stop us and ask what breed Mingus was or to comment on his “adorable face” etc. This was a benched show, and lots of other gundog exhibitors had placed signs above their dogs saying: “Please don’t talk to or touch the dogs as they are hot and grumpy and might chew your arm off” (and variants thereof) but Mingus was happy to see and be seen by everyone, taking the scale of the event in his stride.
As we’ve previously established, Mingus really doesn’t like the heat at all. It’s not that he gets grumpy or bothered, more that he turns into a floppy-ball-of-panting-lollop, so we were keen to keep him in the relative cool of his benching marquee for as much time as possible and then zip him straight to the ring when the class time arrived. It took Tim the best part of 6 months to figure out exactly how best to prepare Phoenix for the ring, (and even then things don’t always go according to plan – see Crufts 2010!) so this was the first time for him to learn about Mingus’ ring-time foibles. As it was he moved really nicely (as commented on by many who were impressed by how fluid he was for one so young) and stood well too, happy to be examined by the judge, which was a big relief.
We were delighted to be awarded 1st in HWV Open and then take both Best Puppy in Breed and Best of Breed. The judge really seemed to like him quite a bit, so we were hopeful that she might still like him when the time came for the Gundog Groups. Trouble was that time turned out to be more than 6 hours later on, by which time Mingus was getting a tad frustrated by not being able to run around and “do-fun-stuff”.
Despite keeping him cool and rested the heat took it’s toll too, so in the Puppy Group (we skipped the adult Group in the hope of keeping Mingus fresh for the Puppy Challenge) he was less than keen to “perform”. At just 6 months Mingus was by far the youngest of the 10 puppies in the group, and still managed to move very well (again, attracting lots of positive comments) but definitely didn’t give his best when stacked, when he decided it might be good to start leaning backward or forwards or sideways….
Nevertheless, the judge pulled Mingus out for her short-list of 5, although he wasn’t awarded one of the 4 Group places…so he was judged 5th out of 10 Best Gundog Puppies in Breed. The judge shook Tim’s hand, grinned and said “Pretty good for his first show!” and we can’t say better than that really.
The 13 hour show day ended with a joyous romp in the foothills and streams of Cornwall’s Rough Tor, when Mingus could finally let off some steam and much fun was had by all.
Phoenix’ Swag.
What does everyone else do with their rosettes? That’s the question that we’ve been pondering, and the answer we’ve arrived at it to put the best from Phoenix’ first show year into a couple of poster frames for safekeeping:
and here are her Top Puppy of the Year & Top Puppy Bitch trophies:
River beds, Jazz names and Birmingham.
Mingus: pausing briefly before investigating another exciting dead thing (today's, rather randomly, was a mole).
First off, Mingus’ lovely mum, Anora (Starshot English Miss for Morehay) won another Championship Show Best of Breed at the National Dog Show in Birmingham last Sunday, against some very stiff competition from some very fine dogs.
The judges lovely critique read:
“At three years old she is mature and of excellent breed type. So well proportioned all thorough. Pleasing feminine head, excellent angulation both front and rear giving free sound movement where she excelled. It was a pleasure to watch her striding around the ring with reach and drive. Best Bitch. Best of Breed.”
Unfortunately we weren’t at the show, but if we had been we’d have been hopping up and down with excitement….which is pretty much what we did anyway on hearing the news. We’re absolutely thrilled for Anora, Jacqui & handler Emma.
Mingus stands to attention on hearing news of mum's latest big win.
Down here in Devon we’re in the midst of an almost-drought. Bits and bobs of rain have come to nothing, and the river has virtually disappeared altogether, exposing the slate river bed with just a small funnel of water off to one side.
Phoenix picks her way across what's left of our river.
Mingus continues to develop rapidly. He seems to have pretty much settled into his shape and proportions now and looks like an almost exact blend of each of his parents, which is just fine with us!
Mingus on point.
When we chose his name we (mistakenly, as it turns out!) thought that:
1) Charlie Mingus was pretty much a household name
and
2) That our favourite hippy chick musician Joni Mitchell‘s Jazz influenced 70’s album “Mingus” was almost as well known….
Instead out we find ourselves explaining anywhere between 1 and 100 times every day what our boy is called and why.
In the reeds.
Still, we’ve recently learned that we’re in good company. Danish supermodel Helena Christensen‘s son is also named Mingus, as are a select handful of other online dogs around the world, including a Vizsla. There’s even a highly successful Beagle and Foxhound breeder & show judge in Australia who’s kennel name is Mingus. On that basis we’re pretty sure that by this time next year everyone will want to be called Mingus….possibly.
Venturing forth with a captive stick.
Top Puppy 2009/2010!!
TARNDAIR PHOENIX OF BELATARR
HWVA TOP PUPPY BITCH 2009/10
HWVA TOP PUPPY 2009/10
Yesterday was the HWVA Annual Awards and Open Show. An awesome day, with 79 HWV’s present in glorious sunshine, and a day we’re never likely to forget.
In the crowning achievement of her show year Phoenix was awarded both Top Puppy Bitch of the year and (following in the paw-steps of both her grandfather Harris, Moricroft Methuen, who won the same award in 2001, and half-brother Leiborschy Ylai, who won it last year) overall Top Puppy of the year, receiving the Leiborschy Goblet and the Leiborschy Flask trophies respectively. We’ve never been more proud of our lovely girl!
Phoenix standing whilst Tim & judge Margaret Hathaway share a joke.
Being awarded the Leiborschy Goblet.
And then the Leiborschy Flask for Top Puppy.
Mingus was also in attendance and was very much admired, with a number of respected and prominent HWV folks casting many complimentary remarks in his direction. Our boy also had a mini family reunion as he met up with his mother, Anora – who was herself awarded 1st Limit Bitch at the show – and his sister Love for the first time since leaving the nest.
Mingus & Phoenix, covering all angles.
Viewing the action.
And...."Watch!"
All ears.
Mum Anora, on her way to winning 1st Limit Bitch.
Anora with the kids - Mingus and Love.
Family portrait, take 2.
Home Show.
Rather belated this, but back on Saturday Feb 20th Tim and Phoenix went along to the Ilfracombe & District Canine Society Open Show in Exeter. This was significant because the Ilfracombe & District Canine Society is our own society, where we go for ringcraft, and where we’ve made many doggy friends (of the four and two-legged varieties).
The graduate class being judged - Phoenix is on the far left.
The show was also significant for a couple of other reasons – it was Tim & Phoenix’ one and only chance to “warm-up” for Crufts, and it was also the first time that the show had put on classes for HWV’s.
Phoenix being placed 1st, still on the far left.
A very successful and enjoyable day was had, Phoenix showed really well, and was awarded 1st Graduate and Reserve Best of Breed. Several seasoned observers commented that it was the best they had ever seen her show and singled out her movement as being particularly good, which it certainly was….ironically though it was her poor movement that was to let us down a few weeks later at Crufts, so much for warming up!
These pictures were taken by and are used with the kind permission of Denise Stanton from the Society. Many thanks Denise!
Stacked for the judges critique.
Crufts + Puppy Progress.
Time for another long overdue update…
First up, last weekend saw our very first trip to Crufts! We’ve never previously attended as spectators, let alone exhibitors, so it was with much excitement and some trepidation that we ventured with Phoenix to the show-of-shows to take our place in the big ring alongside 74 other HWV’s.
Phoenix stacked for judging at Crufts.
In the end Crufts proved to be pretty much like any other Champ Show (albeit with adjoining vast arenas stuffed full of every conceivable canine related product and thronging with punters.) The actual dog show element of Crufts seemed to pass by most of the general public, which resulted in lots of space and a remarkably relaxed atmosphere.
Phoenix was in Special Junior Bitch class and despite our concerns about her slightly jumpy, hormonal, post-season demeanour (which has seen her pull away from the last few judges who examined her rear end) she stood beautifully. Sadly her movement was not so hot (blame operator error…) and we were awarded 2nd Place, which does mean, though, that she’s automatically qualified for Crufts 2011.
Unfortunately our in-house photographer failed to produce much that was usable to document the day.
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Mingus - 16 weeks Head Shot.
Meanwhile, back at HQ, young Mingus has come on in leaps and bounds – often quite literally so. Advice from Tracey at Puppy Gurus saw us relocating his cage to be right beside Phoenix overnight and an immediate good-nights-sleep for all was the result. In fact he’s never failed to sleep right through the night ever since – yippee!
At the grand-old-age of 16 weeks Mingus has now perfected all his Puppy Gurus obedience training moves and will be tested this coming week. He’s also picked up all the basics of ringcraft incredibly well and just loves being taken along for training where he struts his stuff with the big dogs – leading one very experienced Champ show judge to comment this week that Mingus was: “Just amazingly good!” He has proven to be vastly easier and quicker to train than Phoenix, although a large part of that must surely be down to us knowing roughly what we’re doing this time around!
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Mingus - Called to attention on the common.
Mingus’ utterly delightful, affectionate, calm and polite nature never fails to charm everyone who he meets. Today on a socialisation trip around Torrington Common he hooked up with a wide assortment of walkers and their dogs, from Labs to Cockapoos to Spaniels to Scotties, all with great waggy success.
As was the case with Phoenix’ puppyhood we’re also now back in the land of “he’s got big paws – he’s going to be a big dog,” together with the usual (sometimes rather surreal) attempts at playing Guess The Breed – today’s examples being:
1) Labrador
2) That Dog With The Ridgeback (that would a Ridgeback Madam)
3) Newfoundland (see below)??!!
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err....Mingus? (apparently!)
So that’s where the last month has gone…
Shockingly it’s been over a month since our last update…slapped wrists all round…we blame pressure of work and puppy juggling… so we’ll now attempt a potted history of the last month-in-the-lives-of Mingus & Phoenix.
Twin engine.
Firstly, like Phoenix before him, Mingus has been busy at his Puppy Guru’s training classes, the third of which is coming up in a few days. His initial foray into the class was undertaken with some trepidation (but then he was only 11 weeks old at the time and hadn’t yet started getting out and about to meet and greet) but since then he’s really got into the swing of things and is incredibly quick to learn and easy to train. We’ve mastered come, watch, sit, up, down, (plus the infamous sit-up-down sandwich) heel and wait. This week should be “stay”.
Mingus at large.
Meantime Tim took our little lad along to his first ringcraft class last week, mainly to introduce him to the cut-and-thrust of the training environment. Luckily he loved the whole experience and, of course, received LOTS of attention from humans and canines alike as well as some extremely favourable comments from several of the Champ show gundog judges who were present. He also did several pretty presentable laps of the hall in fine style,so, all in all, a very pleasing start.
Having an explore on the Common.
Back at base Tim is slowly attempting to shape Mingus’ stacking technique using the same positive training methods that (eventually!) worked for Phoenix. This time round at least one of the two parties knows roughly what they’re doing, so hopefully by the time he’s 6 months Mingus should have a pretty decent stack to show the world.
Watching the action at the Wadebridge show.
We all went to visit a dog show at Wadebridge in Cornwall last weekend in order to give Mingus more full-on socialization opportunities. Despite the cavernous venue and the many, many dogs of all shapes and sizes, he took it all firmly in his stride and trotted round with great enthusiasm and curiosity – again, receiving much attention and many oohs, aahs and coos along the way.
Ready to roll at Rough Tor.
Soggy-bearded Phoenix en route to the top of Rough Tor.
At only 12 weeks old Mingus is limited to walks of 10 to 15 minutes at the moment (so as to protect his developing joints) so he still gets to be carried once his allotted walk time is up…we did manage a quick trip to the beautiful moorland of Rough Tor on the way back from Wadebridge though, and this allowed Mingus the opportunity to splash around in the shallow river and see some horses close up. Phoenix and Tim then went for a great romp up to the top of the tor itself whilst Mingus and Adam want for a snooze in the sun back at the car….
It's all go on the dog-sofa.
Phoenix & Mingus are still very much besotted with one another, but (again, with joints and hip-scores in our minds) we’re now very wary of allowing them to play together for more than a few minutes. We currently running an alternating-dog schedule of play, walks, training and confinement which, although very time consuming, seems to be working fairly well, but can’t wait for the time that they can both hit the moors and beaches together.
Throwing a semi-point on Torrington Common.
Mingus’ big-boy cage arrived last week, so he’s now upgraded to a full-on adult-sized den, which he clearly loves, and voluntarily hops into when he wants some quiet time. He’s been completely toilet trained for a few weeks now, but still wakes up a couple of times each night, so the 3AM toilet run has yet to fade into memory (unfortunately…) That’s pretty much the only area that needs work though, in all other respects he’s a total delight to live with, incredibly affectionate and responsive and such a cutie!!
Red Letter Day.
Two very happy events in the life of Team Phoenix occurred today…more details of the second, and most momentous, will be posted shortly, but for now it will suffice to say that we had a truly excellent show at the South Western Gundog Open where Phoenix again moved terrifically well, and achieved the following results:
- 1st Junior HWV
- Best Puppy in Breed (her 15th BP)
- Best of Breed (her second BOB)
- shortlisted/pulled out for Best in Show from a group of 25 Best of Breed winners, the rest of whom were all adults
- 3rd Best Puppy in Show (from a group of 14 breed winners)
Stacked in the huge line for Best in Show.
Oh, and along with 4 x soopa-doopa rosettes we even managed to bag a cash prize for 3rd Best Puppy in Show – an unexpected bonus!
The judges critique read:
“11 month old puppy with a well proportioned head and intelligent expression. Good depth of chest and correct angulation front and rear. Feminine but with a well proportioned body and well developed thigh. Level topline. Lovely coat. As her natural exuberance settled she moved very well maintaining a level topline. Best of Breed, Best Puppy and Puppy Group 3.”
In Motion.
Today was Phoenix’ 20th show…amazing to think how far we’ve all come since our debut back in Taunton on May 29th!
But much more importantly, today was also the day when everything came together perfectly, and for the first time in any show, anywhere, Phoenix really showed what she was capable of in the ring.
The scene of this happy occasion was a biggie, The South Wales Kennel Association Championship Show at the Royal Wales showground in Builth Wells. This was also the location of our first Champ Show Best Puppy award at the end of August, and today it certainly proved to be a lucky venue for us once again.
We arrived with about an hour to spare, and, both in practice and around the showground it was apparent that Phoenix was very excited and also very fluid in her movement, definitely “up for it”.
This was carried through into the ring in spades and she didn’t put a foot wrong at any stage, first becoming best puppy bitch and then, after going head to head with the winning puppy dog, Phoenix was named Best Puppy in Breed, her 3rd Champ Show Best Puppy award.
We had recently been given some detailed handling tips by a professional handler (thanks Emma!) who observed what Tim & Phoenix were doing together and made a few suggestions. The changes were seemingly small, but seem to have made a huge difference and Phoenix is finally demonstrating in the ring what we’ve been seeing in practice and at ringcraft, that she really can move very well!
After she emerged from the ring one seasoned HWV observer/exhibitor was heard to comment of Phoenix that she had “totally outmoved the rest of the class” – particularly pleasing after a number of shows where it was purely her movement that had held her back. Also, she’s always been a major attention seeker, but it was abundantly clear that she was really enjoying herself in the ring today – as was Eileen Hughes, the judge!
The judges critique read:
A well made puppy bitch, well up for size, although balanced, and with the correct length in body. Matching angles front and rear, moved truly. Best Puppy.
Just a few days before turning 11 months it feels like our gal has finally grown into her body and has, at the same time, figured out exactly what is required of her in the ring. Exciting times lie ahead!
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 