Hi all!

Thought this would be a good thread to 're-emerge' on! as this coming year I'm hoping to make a real comeback after a horrible 2006 (divorce and promising, long-awaited new puppy getting run-over ). I went to my first dog show, TOP DOGS in 1990! ( gulp! that makes me feel old now!) aged 11, with my best friend & my Fell Terrier rescue bitch GSD bitch (no good for showing!) and friend had never even owned a dog! The next 15 years went a bit like this....

- Child handling classes at the then Exemption shows with my fell terrier and my best friend and her newly acquired NCDL rescue whippet cross! Doing really badly to start with - making our dogs sit!

- Joining the then Kennel Club Junior Organisation (now YKC) best thing I did, thoroughly recommend to all under 18's reading this wanting to progress in all aspects of dogdom!

- Mum buying me an American Cocker - success at Exemption shows - move onto Open Shows

- Success in handling classes at Open Shows - offered handling of other people's dogs at Open then aarghh scary! - move onto Champ shows - little success! Ecstatic when won crappy dog class at Birm National Ch show with my Obedience class instructors Boxer! (Incidentally she owned George the Coleman's mustard Boxer! Anyone remember!!)

- Worked for, then took over a top show kennel with successes building from...

1st's & 2nd's at Champ shows
BPIS at Open Show! Woopee! (not sarcastic! I was only 16 and thrilled!)
Awarded Reserve Best Midland Handler of the Year 1997!
B.O.B.'s at non-cc champ shows

to what seemed like suddenly, and I'll never ever have a moment like it ever again...

Mine and the dog's first ever CC and BEST OF BREED, at no other but Crufts 2002!!! !!!

Made him up then and was given full ownership of him!!

He went on to being the Top male in the breed 02', 03' and Top in the breed 2004!!

I really haven't come down to Earth yet!!

Have bred a champion daughter from him since and the little girl that I lost last year - his granddaughter, had won 2 BPIB at ch. shows before she died, but and this is the key...

You gotta take the highs and the lows, everybody starts somewhere, enjoy your dogs and you always take the best dog home!! Good luck and best wishes to you all for 2006!!

Kate xxxx

Well done Kate.
Great post! You've certainly achieved plenty.The nice thing with showing is that there is ALWAYS more to achieve....always another goal.
We had a terrible 2005 also....not only in the ring but out of it too.We're hoping that 2006 will bring us better fortune.

I keep going because Morgan loves it, he loves to perform as long as he gets his reward. The better the titbit the better he shows. I once had some left over steak so i used that. We were only going to a club match. Did he show just perfect got reserve best in match with the judge telling me she had a hard job picking between the two and he just missed best in match. He has 2 reserve best in match now and has never not won his class. Im starting to feel bad now each month especially when i always win the raffle too!!!
I go to all different shows including the companion shows. He normally does well at those even though the classes are very large and he is up against other breeds. I put it down to the fact that he has lovely movement and that he is very showy not that you could see from his picture!! He has his 2nd ch show this week at Manchester. He got a forth at his first but just recently at open shows he has started to beat dogs that i have seen get best in breed when he was a puppy. Its normally only by one place but its a start perhaps he'll get his turn one day he is a lot younger than them too. In all the shows he has been to he has only been unplaced twice and they were companion shows so he was up against 30+ and he was just out of puppy. I am quite pleased with his progress although its been slow he'll never get a cc but the judges normally say "hes a nice dog" i think hes beautifull and thats all that matters isnt it? I probably hold him back a little too as i get nervous but i love the feeling of anticipation. He has not done bad for a dog i bought from someone who was unknown and breeding for pet. Years ago when i showed Great Danes i bought the best breeding several times and never got anywhere!!! Still i am not expecting much this week at manchester ch show ive put him in yearling and post graduate. Not sure why i did that perhaps i thought that going all that way i might as well have a shot at it twice. I would like to qualify him and then i would have to keep his bits on. Which he is in danger of loosing if he doesnt behave himself!!!!!