YES!
Saturday we earned the last of three CAC's needed to make Danish conformation champion (My breed also need a second in open class on field trial, we took care of that last summer, as we got a first) The three CAC's were earned in the course of only four shows! (the first of which was at a breed gathering with plenty of wonderful dogs to compete against)
The judge even wrote "happy dog" in his critique, and when the judging was done he walked us out of the ring telling me how beautiful sha is and how he couldn't understand why she was shown in working dog class, not in the champion class - It was a delight to tell him that his judging today just made her a champion - he seems genuinely delighted. What a nice person he was.
I am certain that the work we did with clickertraining gaiting and stacking has been a tremendous help.
Even when we finally was presented in the "great ring" 8 hours after leaving home, my dog was still wagging her tail, stacking perfectly, had her ears forward and was totally focused on keeping eyecontact with me - so even though we didn't get placed in the group (against other dogs of the hunting types used for driving and retrieving) I'll bet noone from the audience could have any doubt at all about how we earned the right to be there.
thank you
hubbie and I never was dedicated conformation show lovers, but as breeders we think it is important to show the dogs to help assure that the breed as such keep in contact witht he ideal, I think it sad that so many breeds are getting separated into working and showing lines. We count ourselves lucky that the chessie, at least in my part of the world, is still a true dualpurpose dog.
Huzzah!
Woo-hoo! that's awesome!!
We just started a conformation handling class last night. Laev apparently sets herself up well :) but she will *not* take her eyes off me, while in AKC the dog is supposed to look forward while gaiting and stacking. We have no serious conformation goals, but just for fun I'm going to train a gait with her eyes forward....
Great job! And so very nice to see a working dog finish a championship!!
Laura &