Purina National Dog Show

Mike and I drove down late Friday for the Purina National Dog Show, a CKC Charity Event where they reached 879 entries on the Saturday. We entered our Group winning girl Ch Shelamo Sugar Shack and her daughter, which was her 1st show, Shelamo That's Amore.

Saturday is a special evening where the finals for Group and BIS are judged that night in a Gala event. Jim Reynolds from Ottawa had the honours of judging BIS (he judged BIS at Westminster in 2006).

The venue contained a large # of vendors, CKC had a booth & an Auction area (we won a lg doggie bed & other goodies) 4 large red carpeted conformation rings, a grooming area, obedience & rally rings along with a Breeders Village. Purina had their main booth, ProClub area (will get to that later!) and their Hall of Fame booth.

It was a miserable weekend weather wise. Not only did it rain, it poured with high winds. There wasn't a decent high and dry grassed area for our girls to pee. The ground frost is not yet out, so most areas were soggy with mud. Just nasty for getting show groomed dogs in/out of any area. First time I think I've ever seen inside potty areas with a line-up!

View of the ring area and the crowds watching the day time judging.

Picture taken from the grooming area where at the back were the performance rings & the Breeders Village.

Grooming area ... not sure what anyone left at home :) Dogs had to be comfy, don't ya know!

This picture was taken before Group judging Saturday evening. You can see in the distance the expanse of the room ... behind the foreground rings is the grooming area, then the performance rings, then the Breeders Village. Just on the very left of the picture is Mike sitting with our good friend Judy Flanigan (has 3 of our dogs) who came up from Guelph to be with us for the day. Thanks Judy for all your extra help with the girls, ringside holding and loading up the van.

The main Purina ProClub booth.

The Proplan booth beside the ProClub booth. All over the booth are pictures of ProClub dogs with their various wins.

This side (reg arrow) had the picture of our Ch Shelamo Changing Winds winning his Best Puppy In Show award. I've been amiss in not getting LauraLee our Group 2nd win at the Purina Puppy Classic last fall of our Multi BPIG Ch Shelamo Riding The Wind, and most recently, our BPIS Am/Cdn Ch Shelamo's Prospector's Best of Opposite win at the CC&SSA Specialty. That's on my To Do list this week.

They had a lovely Hall of Fame booth, where many representatives were present to provide the public with information, goodies and food samples.

THE PROCLUB BOOTH

The best of this show.

Inside the booth was an area for ProClub members to get away from the crowds, chit chat with other members, along with spending time with the ProClub Administrator LauraLee Camilleri, and most of her reps from across Canada. Thanks LL for treating us to so well.

Purina served us well! What a treat .... they provided breakfast and lunch each day and constant coffee and specialty teas.

So, how did our girls do? "Ruby" took Reserve Winners Female (a 3pt'r), which I was so pleased with considering it was her 1st show and what the competition was. "Maple'' only had a shot at Best of Breed, and with this year's campaigning female there .... well ....

The girls ... chilling out Saturday nite.

Miss "Ruby" ...... (finally a dry moment to allow her some bed time)
But not long before her and her mom "Maple" were more than ready for a nap time. It's tough being a show dog wouldn't you say? lol ....

We left Sunday morning after a short visit to the show grounds, to find everything taken care here at the house. Thanks Mary-Anne.

Today, Monday, it's nice and sunny ... go figure!