Friday 23 September 2011

teeth

If there's one thing that puppies often struggle with when they're learning show craft, it's letting the judge look at their teeth. Judges examine every part of a dog - including teeth, legs, tails & even boy-bits. So puppies have to be trained & trained & trained to stand quietly and let the judge do so. But it's never that easy.

For one thing, during all that training the puppies will be teething and have very sore mouths. Not a good time to be sticking one's fingers in there, really. Also, it is a big ask for a puppy to stand quietly while a stranger's hands descend onto it's face and fiddles about.

So it's often difficult, and so it has certainly been for the Persikka puppies. Remember Tippi not letting the judge look at her teeth a few weeks ago? Well, Kuura also wouldn't at the last show. Daniel has been putting the work in, though, and here he is proving that it can be done. Sometimes, anyway.

I particularly like Kuura's model stare to camera at the end.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

naughty show puppies

Egad, did I manage to publish a blog post without a photo last time? Huh, sorry about that. I'm sure you all tune in for my entertaining prose rather than photos of cute dogs, but still...

To make up for it, I have permission to publish a video that Alan recorded of Sisu & Bo at their very first outing at the Scottish Kennel Club show in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. Bo is in front being handled by Wendy (of Wendy & Karhu fame) and Sisu is behind her being handled by Kristiina who I must say is looking very able at her own very first show.

From this video you get to see 2 very adorable & funny puppies who are just a bit distracted by all the excitement and just a little eager to get to each other for a game. You get to see just how difficult it can be to show a puppy. You can train & train & train and still this is what happens. Even for the veteran dog show folk, it can be a test. Just ask Wendy.

In this instance Sisu won Best Puppy, but the judge said that she also loved Bo and that she would have placed very well indeed in this competition if only she had allowed the judge to examine her... when you've seen how her siblings act for judges in the ring, it's easy to tell they're all related.

(A small word of warning: turn the volume down! Someone standing near Alan as he recorded the video was enjoying the sound of his or her own voice.)




So this erratic behaviour is something they will grow out of with time & practice. Or at least that's the theory, anyway. I'll get back to you on that.