Back from the Specialty...

Our eight hour, five hundred mile roadtrip to Michigan for the Specialty was a smooth one. Winnie is a great traveler, and slept the whole way. I had to wake her up to let her out at rest stops. Once we arrived at the hotel she settled in very nicely. We met up with some nice HWV folks who came a day early also and had dinner. Then it was back to the hotel for some last minute grooming.

This is an extremely unrepresentative photo because it looks as if she is relaxed. This could not be farther from the case, as it turns out Winnie doesn't really care for other Wirehaired Vizslas. A fellow club member commented that maybe she was beginning to think she was the only one! But the entire show experience this time around was very stressful for her. Perhaps it was the long drive, strange surroundings, lots of dogs walking up to meet, or a little bit of all those things. But I'll be giving her a break for quite a while before we go back into the show ring. Besides, we have fun summer stuff to work on!

Despite my nerves and Winnie's stress, I felt like she presented herself nicely. The judges didn't reward her with a ribbon, but there were many, many very fine dogs there. I felt honored to be included in that very special Champion class.

The highlight of the show for me was seeing Winnie's sister, Bitz, do very, very well. She's a great dog and won Best of Breed in at least two of the four shows she participated in (I forgot the details, but she and Seraphim Kennels had a great weekend!).

My favorite photo from the weekend came just as we were leaving. I had so looked forward to Winnie's breeder, Peg, meeting her again for the first time since I picked her up. I was lucky enough to catch this wonderful moment as they said goodbye.

To avoid the risk of misidentifying someone's dog, here's a captionless collage of some of the great Wires present at the Specialty...