ATB at the Dog Shows: An Expression of Friendship


(Pause the PlayList to the right; there is a soundtrack.)

Well, there was an ATB road trip to shows in Fitchburg this past weekend. Julie and I headed out with Thistle and Pippin and met up with Pam, her mom, and True and then with Dawn and Alex. About a half hour out of Fitchburg on the highway a vehicle with Maine plates caught my attention and sure enough! We were driving side by side of Pam. Too funny and we couldn't have planned that to work if we had tried. Dawn was already at the show sight and I finally had a chance to see this handsome liver and white 3 month old half brother of Pippin and uncle to Hemis and Thistle. (Don't you love the relationships here?!) All I can say is there will be some more very magnificent pups in the field and show in the near future which will include J & A's Magnificent Obsession of Acton of course! After setting up Dawn took Pippin to finish her grooming for the evening Brittany Specialty and the rest of us checked into a nearby motel. It was a great weekend spent with dog folk and dogs. I enjoyed catching up with many people and sitting ringside to cheer friends that were in the ring - most especially Pippin and True. Pam handled him all weekend and presented him quite well. His 1st indoor show and away from home for a week this was quite an experience for my True puppy who did come home with 3 white ribbons for 4th place. (Well, he actually did defeat another Brittany; there were 5 entries one night!)  Pippins class was a lot more competetive, I think there were 9 girls for the judge to consider. Friday and Saturday she was not in the ribbons but on Sunday she placed 3rd out of the entire class seriously defeating some beautiful Brittanys. Dawn came up for the Friday night show just for Miss Pippin at the Central New England Brittany Club (a shout out to Peggy Aguiar and Linda McCartney Roy for all their hard work to make it such a nice Specialty show).   Julie handled Pippin Saturday and Sunday. I'm really very appreciated and also quite blessed to have the support of such dear friends. True is very lean and muscular right now and has dropped alot of coat. Considering he's been in the field almost daily since April it's quite understandable. This is not the best condition for showing him and I don't think I'm going to ever pull him out of his summer training mode again. His structure and form is so similar to Treasure's. We have always had to work very hard to keep any 'meat on her bones' so to speak because no matter how much she eats she was always lean - until her pregnancy. Anyhow! Late winter and into Spring is the time seem to be the best time to show him. He's going to be expected to work especially hard this fall so I do prefer he remains lean and muscular to do his job. I think too in retrospect that I probably should not have been so anxious to show Pippin again after pups regardless of who was judging. She just wasn't in prime show condition but speaking of that - she is doing very well in her field work and John's probably going to enter her in a hunt test. I did take some really nice photos at the show this weekend which I'm still working through. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the video I made which speaks to the very special friends we have in our life that do so often  help us out. This is not all inclusive but shares some of the highlights and hopefully a measure of the appreciation I feel in my heart about this past weekend. More than anyone could ever know - I want to be the one handling my own dogs - but rarely is it possible. Neither Osteoarthritis or Lyme Disease are respectors of persons, or their belief systems!

Take care and God bless you always, John, Ann and All Things Brittany