Locked In/Out

Eddie meets Murphy, a Landseer Newfoundland.

Came home to some cute pictures of Eddie's visit to Canada!  He'll come back here when Lucy goes home, and will move on to his forever home with Lisen.  We haven't decided if he'll be a show dog or just a companion, but he seems to be coming along well.  Lisen can show him if she wishes, or we can borrow him to show which will work out nicely.

An interesting trip to Clinton/DeWitt Iowa.  Lucy lost to her cousin Maggie both days, so did not pick up any points, but it broke from 2 to 1 anyway.  She showed well for Jess.  Guess she does better at larger shows!  So glad we got both the majors out of the way.  Argus went BoB on Sunday, and showed extremely well both days.  Good specials competition, and nice honest dogs with solid dispositions.  It's a lot easier to lose to "natural" dogs than to dogs with doctored noses or tails or "enhanced" attitudes.  Most of us try to play the game fairly - but unfortunately not all of us.  Fixes are illegal of course, but fairly common in many breeds, fortunately not too common in Dalmatians.  Too bad the enhanced characteristics are not the ones passed on to the offspring.  Dog shows were originally about judging "breeding stock", but now they are more about winning.

Because we had early judging on Saturday we had a very nice touristy day exploring the old river town of Clinton.  Unfortunately the museum is not open on Saturdays.  Went through some antique stores full of "real" antiques, spent a bit of time and money at the Casino and had dinner overlooking the river.  Fun day.  Big adventure was being locked in/out of our motel!  Jess locked in, me locked out.  The maintenance man finally had to kick down the door!  Fortunately the motel had another room available for us - this one with a good lock.