Today it was time for another much too early morning. And this time we only had to drive about 30 minutes away, so imagine how early we’ll need to get up for the next one (that’s the Swedish Boxer Championships, so its worth the extra effort) that is closer to 4 hours away. Anyway, today was a smaller affair. An official show for working dogs, with 10 boxers signed up. One of them being our little ... handful (that sounds nicer than hellion, I think).
Since the last show had been a small disaster in terms of Ringo’s behaviour in the ring (of course, he still manage to win the junior class that time, but it sure wasn’t for being a well-behaved boxer), I was fairly nervous about this one. We’ve practised quite a bit at home, but he never gets as excitable at home as he does in the ring, so its hard to correct that sort of behaviour. I did, however, come better prepared this time, with a pair of riding gloves to protect my hands.
To start with, things looked a bit bleak to me. Ringo was very lively, and he was so geared up that he wouldn’t take any treats even. Eventually, however, he started settling down (it was pretty warm, so that curbs his energy a bit) and we could focus on some final teeth-showing and running practise. It went fairly well, but I was still pretty nervous.
Fortunately, as it was time for us to get into the ring, it soon became apparent that the judge was a very pleasant, easy-going fellow. When he saw that Ringo was quite the handful (he wouldn’t stand, he kept turning, sitting and scratching) he joked (I think ;) and wondered if he had an itchy butt or if he was just like that normally. I confirmed that it was the latter, and he suggested I run first and then he’d check his teeth. The circling went quite well, though he acted up a bit when I did the run straight away and straight at the judge. He also didn’t run quite as well as he can, because he does get a bit less energetic and less showy when its warm.
We then moved onto the teeth showing, and he was (as usual) a wriggly handful who’d rather show the judge all of his tongue across his face than his teeth, but the judge was very relaxed about it and got it sorted out just fine. I then managed to pose him okay in front of the judge for a moment or two before Ringo decided that he’d had enough of just standing around (again he had taken the teeth showing as an invitation to start getting rowdy) and started jumping on me, biting my hands and sounding like a fierce creature.
Fortunately, the gloves helped. I managed to get him standing there and chewing on my glove. ;P Not precisely the right method, but hey, it kind of worked. And the judged liked what he saw. He awarded us a 1 for the quality (and, by default, a win in the junior class, since he was the only male junior boxer) and an HP. The written evaluation was as follows:
1-year-old male under strong development with excellent proportions. Masculine, well-made head, lots of lip. Excellent neck, strong back, good croup. Suitable bonestructure. Well-formed front and chest. Needs to become stronger on the move. Moves with ??? strides. Promising but needs more time.
The judge also took the time to explain why we didn’t get a CK today. Basically, he said he really liked Ringo (I have to admit that he sounded quite enthused) and thought we’d have a lot of fun with him at future shows, but he wanted him a bit steadier (in his build and his movements) to give him the CK. I really like these sorts of judges, who are calm, friendly and take the time to explain their evaluation and what they felt was missing.
So, overall, a very good result that I am quite pleased with, both in terms of how Ringo behaved and the evaluation. I do wish it had been a little cooler, however, because I think it may have made a difference at least in terms of how Ringo moved. And perhaps I should also have been more precise about him being about 3 weeks away from being a year old. This was actually the first time someone’s felt he wasn’t well-developed for his age, but he has probably been lagging behind a bit of late, perhaps partly due to not eating as well as he could. We’re going to see if we can get some more protein in before the next show, and perhaps some running in sand to build some muscle.