About 5 years ago, a shy little dog named Poco came to live with us. Nominally a "show dog", he was the brother of our 2 pet boys, Loki and Fat Freddie, but had been given a terrible fright as a young dog by a rough handler. Despite being a beautiful example of the breed, he had never made champion because he was now too scared and traumatised to enter a show ring.
We promised his owner, Susan, that in return for a stud, we'd work with him and see if we couldn't coax him back into the show ring, and hopefully make this sweet little fella into the Champion he deserved to be.
His name was Poco (Eldivino Hocus Pocus) and he gave us some beautiful babies, including Fifi, Misty and Duchess, who all became champions in their own right. In the meantime we worked with Poco to slowly build up his confidence and sure enough, after a several months of patience, love and treats, he overcame his fears and earned his NZ Champion title, taking Open of Group in an All Breeds show the day he earned his final Championship points.
He also became a permanent member of the Kitaco pack and settled into retirement with his brothers as a foundation member of the Black Street Boys.
We haven't shown him much in the past few years. He is almost 11 now, and blissfully happy in his retirement, but like quite a few other Team Kitaco members who've been taking a COVID break, we entered him in the Dominion Chihuahua Club Specialty Championship Show, figuring he had a reaonable shot at Veteran in Show at the very least, in New Zealand's first Chihuahua Specialty Championship Show since 2019.
Well, Poco walked into that ring like he owned it, cleaned up the competition, took Best of Breed and then went on to take Reserve Best in Show and Best Veteran in Show.
We don't know what happened to the shy little guy too scared to walk into a ring, because he was nowhere in sight on Sunday night. Poco was on fire. We've never seen him so confident, and the Judge, Louise Harris, was blown away by his amazing condition for an 11 year old dog, his sweet temperament and his fabulous coat, not to mention his excellent breed type.
Our other standout stars were Ava, who took Reserve Best of Breed and Best Junior in Show. Alice, back in her first show since becoming a mother, taking Best NZ Bred of Show and Flint, who took Best Intermediate in Show.
As for the rest of the crew, well, it turns out that a 2 year break from so much as seeing the inside of a show ring is not necessarily the best preparation for a show, LOL.
Kyrie walked beautifully but insisted on doing her "praying for treats" trick everytime we stopped.
Narci, who hates indoor shows, and Flint - who've been having... ahem... "words" for a few days now about who owns the girl in season we left home for the evening - decided the show ring as they walked in for the Imported Stakes, would be a great time to finish the discussion.
Don't Touch Me Tara, on the other hand, surprised us all by showing like a pro and took Best Open of Breed.
We also cleaned up in the stakes, winning 1st place in the Bred and Owned Stakes, Flint took 2nd and Narci took 3rd in the Imported Stakes, our team took 1st place in the Breeders Stakes and again in the Parent and Progeny Stakes.
A special mention, though, needs to go to our newest and youngest member of Team Kitaco, Miss Briar Rose who at 13 weeks, in her very first show, finally figured out that running on a lead was fun and being on a table meant lots more pats. She did a stellar job and took Best Baby Puppy of Breed. We are so proud of her and the amazing job her Fur-mum, Casey, has done with her, in the short time she's been working with her on a lead.
