March 7th and 8th the IABCA hosted a show in Tucson, AZ - a very long drive away from west central Colorado! Motivated by Anne and Leo (Sunny's litermate brother) driving all the way from Dallas/Fort Worth area in TX and by Michelle, Sunny's littermate sister's (human) mom staying in Tucson and offering to host...well the whole family packed up for a whirlwind road trip and headed to Tucson.
We were lucky that the weather was mild - almost cool - high 60's, low 70's, as the drive and the show were much easier on our winterized Colorado dogs!
Other than one fun match, this was a first real show for Sunny and me. I was very proud of how attentive and obedient she was in the ring. She couldn't have done better, but the competition was stiff. Ender was also entered in all 4 shows, a 3-month old Shiloh pup from Phoenix, who took 3 out of 4 best in breed. Quite the impressive pup.
We only entered in three shows and in the third show, it came down to Sunny and her brother. The judge put them both thru their paces - three times around the ring, twice diagonally and two physical exams on each dog. As she did her second exam on Sunny, she told me "They are both really nice dogs," but gave the Best in Breed win to Leo.
Sunny did get three SG-1 cards, which means the judges felt she was an excellent representation of the breed judged against the breed standard, and those three cards gave Sunny a National Puppy Championship with IABCA - yea! (IABCA considers the large and giant breeds puppy until 18 months.)
It was great meeting Michelle, Anne and Ender's mom, Carla, as well as Leo and Ender. 1650 miles later, it was a great trip and a great experience and I'm already excited about the Loveland, CO show coming up in May :-)
