Off to the Geraldine County Kennel Association Open shows this weekend where we gave the oldies a walkout along with Ben - his Grandmother, Nikita (NZ Ch & NZ Neut Ch Eldivino Senorita Nikita) and his Grandfather, Narci (Gr Ch, Gr Jnr Ch & NZ Ch Mystic Legion Narcissus (Imp Greece)).
We love the Geraldine shows. Despite the 2 hour drive, they are always so friendly, start at a very civilised time and have a great little cafe next to the grounds where we always stop for ice-cream on the way home.
It turned out to be a perfect spring day. The shows were judged by Sarah Abrey and Sam Chrisstoffels, who did a great job.
We feel very strongly about supporting Open Shows. These will be our championship judges one day so it helps everyone for them to get good entries in a show, both for the up and coming judges honing their craft and because it's an excellent chance for us to showcase our breed and for the judges to understand Chihuahuas should be "saucy", are great little competitors who love the attention, don't mind being handled on the table and are nothing to be nervous about.
The damaging "snappy Chihuahua" stereotype is so hard to get past, so we're on a bit of a mission to prove that Chihuahuas are not like that. They are loving, attention-hogs, actually (Ben memorably jumped off the table, in Blenheim, earlier this year, and into the Judge's arms for a cuddle, LOL) and we want our up and coming judges to look forward to judging the Chihuahuas, not dreading it.
With Stella in season and Ava not entered because she was supposed to have babies (Ava has apparently decided she doesn't need to be defined by motherhood - a rather inconvenient trait in a brood bitch, it has to be said), so that meant bringing Nikita and Narci out of retirement to ensure we had a full show team.
Nikita is a bit over the whole show thing, but she will, if she's in the mood and the treats are good enough, strutt her stuff like the champions she is. Narci, who we brought of retirement for the FCI show, is having a bit of a renaissance, lately. We took him out of the ring a couple of years ago because he was clearly bored by the whole thing and we don't show dogs who aren't having fun.
But since the FCI show (where he won the Veteran CACIB) he's like the Narci of old. He even runs out to the car at home and tries to jump into the travel crate when we are loading everything for the show (note- "tries" to jump. Narci is the living proof that white men (or Chihuahuas) can't jump... hehehe). So we'll probably show him a bit more, now, particulalry when there is a veteran class. He seems to be having a ball.
Of course, we also brought Ben - who's currently a bit of a viral sensation on social medis thanks to his dramatic "I don't want my nails cut" video - and he didn't let let us down, taking not only the Best of Breed, but the Best of Group as well in both shows.
Narci took the Reserve Best of Breed in both shows and the Open of Group in both shows, while Nikita took Best Bitch and Best NZ Bred of Group in both shows, as well.
The other fun thing we got to do in Geraldine was try out our flash new inflatable gazebo. The new Mojo Dojo Casa Kitaco is awesome! It proved to be quite easy to put up, very roomy and cool and very easy to pack down, once we accepted that the importand thing was that it fit in the car, not necessarily the bag it came in, LOL. We're gonna need some practice on the pack up, oh well.
Thanks to the Geraldine committee for putting on some great shows and to Jorga Dixon for the fabulous photos.
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