National Specialty: Part II - Monday and Tuesday

ALAC Specialty Week

Monday, October 10:

After a trip with Marsha to the nearby WalMart where we purchased water, snacks, and other necessities for the week that we'd either forgotten to pack or had to leave behind for lack of space, I spent the morning grooming and bathing Walker and Raven. I was relieved that the trip had not been too bad on their coats. The first time I took Walker to a National Specialty his coat did not do well. Marsha, JoAnne (Walker's co-owner and co-breeder), and I traveled to California in 2003 when Walker was just a year old. He somehow became totally matted between the time I groomed him when we overnighted in Colorado and when we stopped the next night somewhere just east of Las Vegas. While JoAnne and Marsha slept, I sat on the not-so-clean carpet of the motel room grooming Walker for hours, and watching re-run after re-run after re-run of Mr. Ed. The TV had no remote control so I could not change the channel without getting up from my grooming spot on the floor! I have not watched a Mr. Ed episode since then either!

Fortunately neither Walker's nor Raven's coats had more than a few easy-to-remove tangles on this trip.

Bathing the dogs was not fun. I managed to get as wet as the dogs. The showerhead in the tub was one of those rain showers that was "green" and water saving, but had barely enough water pressure to get shampoo out of my short hair, let alone a Lhasa's coat. So the bathing took longer because I had to use a dip and pour method, which did not work well either. Finally, I resorted to turning on the faucet and holding the dogs under it. They were looking at me like, "What the heck are you doing?" Neither had ever been bathed like that before!

Once the dogs were groomed, bathed, and dried, we explored the hotel, took our grooming tables to the ballroom to reserve our grooming spaces for the show, and helped Sandy Devlin and her Tibetan Spaniel friend, Ruth (whose last name I forgot), put the various goodies into the hospitality bags.

That night was ALAC's first-ever Top Twenty Competition. Breed points were totaled from wins from July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The top 20 dogs were invited to participate in this competition. Those who entered included 
GCh. Ch. Alasara Northwind Anbara Maestsro, 
GCh. Ch. Apsolutely Desiderata Partygal, 
GCh. Ch. Edrey Tara Huff Angels Are With Me, 
GCh. Ch. FFT Take the Money and Run, 
GCh. Ch. Joyslyn Mi Toya Wind Walker, 
GCh. Ch. Mokiema's I Believe In Angels, 
GCh. Ch. Monarch Rufkins Tango In Paris, 
GCh. Ch. Red Fox's One Wing in the Fire, 
GCh. Ch. Rufkins Squeezin Into a Speedo KH, 
GCh. Ch. Sundancer Aleksandra, 
GCh. Ch. Suntory Beastie Boy, 
GCh. Ch. Sutra's Affair to Remember, 
GCh. Ch. Ta Sen Bond James Bond, and 
GCh. Ch. Ta Sen Samara I Want It All.

Some of the entries were absent but I did not get the catalog marked so can't tell you which were not competing. I think that only 10 or 11 of those listed actually competed.

The three judges, whose identities were kept secret until just before the competition began, were the Group Judge, Mrs. Patricia S. McLeod, from Queensland, Australia; the Breeder Judge, Ms. Wendy Harper, from Granite Bay, CA; and the Handler Judge, Lois DeMers, from Conroe, TX. They each scored each dog from 0 - 5 on a variety of attributes. Scores were then tabulated and the Lhasa with the highest total score was the winner.

GCh. Ch. Sundancer Aleksandra, owned by Kathy Hamilton, Lori Johnson, and Marsha and Tom Worlton, won the competition and also won the People's Choice Award. Congratulations again to Lexi and her people!!

Walker was the oldest Lhasa in the Top 20 Competition, and he showed very well. I think he was glad to be moving again after being crated for the long journey to New Mexico. Everyone found it hard to believe that he was 9 years old. Walker's co-owner/co-breeder and my dear friend, JoAnne Hayes, died in 2008. I know she would have been very proud of him that night.

Here's the write-up about Walker that was in the Top 20 catalog. If it is too small for you to read, just click the picture and it will get larger.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011:

The day began with the ALAC Board meeting at 7:30 AM. Marsha, Jan, and I are among ALAC's officers and board members, so we had to rise early and get moving! Since most officers and board members were showing dogs in the Lhasa Apso Club of Central Colorado's Specialty Show and Sweepstakes that afternoon, the business meeting moved along quickly and ended with enough time for us to grab a quick lunch and get dogs groomed before the show started.

Walker was entered in the sweepstakes and was the only veteran there, so he naturally won. The Sweepstakes judge was Larry Bruton. Raven had been entered in the 6-9 Puppy class under Specialty judge Bill Lee, but since she finished on October 1, I moved her up to Best of Breed Competition. The Best of Breed entries numbered 27. I was delighted that Raven, the youngest champion in the ring, showed well, and I was so proud when she actually made the cut.

(For those of you readers who do not show, "the cut" refers to the judge pulling out from a large group of entries, a smaller group that he wishes to consider for the awards. The ones who do not "make the cut" are then dismissed from the ring. Not all who make the cut are given awards, but by making the cut, the handler knows the dog she is showing was considered worthy of further consideration.)

Other winners were: 
Best in Specialty: Ch. Rushmar's Charmer; 
Best Opposite Sex: GCh. Sundance Aleksandra; 
Select Dog: GCh. Ta Sen Bond James Bond; 
Select Bitch: Ch. Monarch Rufkins Tango In Paris; 
Winners Dog & Best of Winners, Apsolutely Keep On Truckin'; 
Reserve Winners Dog & Best Puppy: Rufkins Monarch Just Because I Am; 
Winners Bitch & Best Bred By Exhibitor: PRK's Defying Gravity; 
Reserve Winners Bitch: Elminja's Snyin-Nye;

After the judging, Karen was the lucky winner of a beautiful sterling silver Lhasa pendant that the Colorado club featured for its raffle.

Tuesday night, thanks to the sweepstakes money Walker won, I enjoyed a delicious Mexican meal with the Companion Events (i.e., agility, rally, obedience) participants. Later, back at the hotel, I participated in the Lhasa bingo games, sponsored by our Rescue Network. I had a lucky bingo card that I kept using for each new game. I won five times on it! Karen, LaVonne, and Jan also won numerous games and prizes and, remembering how tightly the van was packed on the trip to Albuquerque, we were starting to wonder how we were going to fit our winnings in our suitcases! We'd only just begun!

Helen Zeppenfeld Brown, our Rescue Network Chairperson, shared with me the following recipe that she says works great for ear problems: 

4 oz. sterile water

4 oz. peroxide

Mix with 2-3 drops of Tea Tree Oil

There is more to come, but this is enough for now.

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

Joyce