Cheeseburgers For All

It's our tradition to treat the dogs to cheeseburgers to celebrate good show weekends.  Yes, they normally get their meat raw, BUT they all love cheeseburgers and it's such fun to watch them enjoy a special treat.  Years ago my ex & I used to take birthday dogs to MacDonalds for a cheeseburger, but we now generally celebrate birthdays with vanilla ice cream.  Cheeseburgers are saved for dog show wins.  When Argus was being campaigned, we always got cheeseburgers on the way home from a successful dog show weekend.  He still gets them when his kids finish their championships.  This weekend he enjoyed a  cheeseburger with two granddaughters.  Of course he got to come along to watch, even though he is semi-retired.

A MOST successful dog show weekend.  We took puppies Meribel & Amery to the Waukesha Wisconsin shows.  Both of them had 14 of the 15 points needed to finish their American Championships, and they had both done it in spectacular fashion, with Meribel going Best of Winners at the National & St. Louis Specialties for two 5-point wins and WB at Chicagoland for 4 points.  Amery picked up 12 of her points in one weekend, going Winners Bitch at the Greater Washington Dal Club AND the two supported entries.  Meribel's wins came from the Puppy Class, and Amery was shown in the Bred By Exhibitor Class  (she was bred and is co-owned by Jess, Laurie & me, which allowed Jess to show her in that class).  They will turn one year of age next weekend, so this weekend was their last chance to finish as puppies - we had never previously finished littermates as puppies.  So Jess decided which judge would be right for each girl, and entered one of them each day.  Talk about cutting your odds.  Each girl had just one chance to finish at these shows.

Meribel was in on Saturday, went Best Of Winners, and was considered for Best of Breed but got distracted by a dragonfly (she is after all still a puppy).  New Champion!  Amery was in on Sunday, her first time showing on wet grass and she really wanted to sniff but kept it together nicely and stacked beautifully (see picture at right).  She ALSO went Best of Winners and the judge was most complimentary about her excellent breed type.  New Champion!  Wow, what a weekend!

Jess and I BOTH really needed a weekend away from home, so it would have been a fun weekend even if the girls had not finished, but finishing BOTH of them was such a thrill, and both finished in a minimal number of shows.  Next up, the 3rd sister Gemma, who is absolutely stunning.

It was fun to come home and see the babies after being away for a few days.  Amazing how much their spots had grown.  Oh my, they look so beautiful!