What Happens at Dog Shows Doesn't Stay at Dog Shows!

Anytime friends or family get together, people are bound to reminisce. Recently we began talking about "most embarrassing moments at a dog show." The stories abound. Everyone has one! At one of my first shows both my dog and I were very nervous. My Lhasa Bo often anticipated what I was going to do next. Once his habit got us in trouble when, in my anxiety to remember what I was supposed to be doing and to do it fast, I knelt down on the floor beside him to stack him and whipped the lead around my neck so hard that, instead of draping around the back of my neck and down the left side of my chest, it went AROUND my neck! So when the judge gave the command to "take 'em around," Bo (who was sure he knew what was coming next) took off as soon as I started to rise from the floor. The lead tightened around my throat and I literally choked! Red-faced, gagging, I grabbed for the lead in an attempt to loosen it and get some breathing room. Of course, I was mortified while my friends watching outside the ring exploded in laughter and Bo gave me a disgruntled stare when the lead went taut and pulled him up short, giving him a little choke too I guess! After that I was always very cautious about what was going on with the lead. Of course, that was 35 years ago and just last summer I got the lead tangled in a necklace I was wearing and ended up ripping off the necklace so I could get the lead from around my neck and walk the dog into the ring! And then there was the time it got caught in one of my earrings..

Often there are times when an exhibitor just cannot wait to get out of the ring! One of my friends tells the funniest story about how her pantyhose starting slipping as soon as she walked into the ring. She finally had to reach inside the waist band of her skirt and hold them up. That time I got to be outside the ring laughing – and hoping it would never happen to me!

At a show this past weekend I saw a young woman trying to bait her dog as she went around the ring, alternating her right hand holding up her slacks then holding the bait out for the dog. All who were watching were waiting for those slacks to fall. There was a lot more suspense over that than over which dog was going to win the class! I'm positive that handler was thrilled when she was able to walk out of the ring.

We've all been there – buttons pop, zippers split, pants fall, slips slip, bra straps break, skirts tear up the back seam, a heel comes off a shoe. The sexy little handler who likes to show her cleavage gets a shock when a boob pops out! (or maybe she planned it that way???) The judge says "go down and back" and the handler does a triangle. People slip and fall or trip over a dog…

Which brings me to a favorite story, one of those "I wish I would have been there stories," although the friend who witnessed it told me that someone somewhere has it on videotape. In my mind's eye I can see it happening so clearly that I'm afraid if I saw it on video I'd be disappointed. Imagine: a Lhasa ring back in the late '80s/early '90s when there were actually a lot of Lhasas being shown. The ring is lined with Lhasas and their handlers. The ring next to it is full of some kind of terrier breed and handlers. The Lhasa judge says, "Take 'em around" and off go the Lhasas. A Lhasa handler, sporting a dark brown wig, takes off with her Lhasa and BOOM, for whatever reason, down she goes to her knees and catches her fall with her hands. Her head snaps forward. The crowd gasps. Her Lhasa takes off. The WIG goes flying – you guessed it – into the terrier ring! A sharp-eyed terrier sees it coming, pounces, grabs the wig, and shakes it as if it is a gigantic rat needing to be killed. I know it seems cruel not to be concerned with the fate of the poor woman (She was not badly hurt – except her pride) but wouldn't you loved to have seen the expressions on the terrier judge's and handler's faces as that dog swooped in and grabbed that wig?

Keep smiling...it's only a dog show!

Life is good when you have a Lhasa to love you!

Joyce