Steve takes his 1st Baby Puppy in Show at Banks Peninsula!

2026 is off to a great start. We’ve had 2 weekends of shows and taken 3 In Show wins!

First up was Ben, who took Best NZ Bred in Show at the CKA Open Show on Sunday, 11 Jan, under Judge Arvine Gamlin. She also awarded Ben Best of Breed, Best Dog and Best NZ Bred of Breed. Reserve of Breed, Reserve Dog and Best Baby Puppy of Group went to Steve, Best Bitch and Best Intermediate of Breed to Serena and Reserve Bitch to little Eve.

To round out the clean sweep, in his NZ debut, Gryff (AUS CH Adrahil the Swindler) took Best of Breed and Junior of Breed in the Smooth Coats.

Australian Champion Adrahil The Swindler "Gryff"

This turned out to be the perfect warmup for our first Championship Shows of the year on 17-18 of Jan.

With Long Coat Chihuahuas being the second largest Breed in the Toy Group, Kitaco made a clean sweep in Show 1 under Australian Judge, Tanya Scales, with Serena (NZ CH Kitaco Lipsync Assassin) taking Best of Breed, Best Bitch CC and Best Intermediate of Breed, and Steve (Kitaco Etienne of Navare) taking Best Dog, Best Baby Puppy of Breed and Best Baby Puppy of Group!

Ben (NZ CH Ben de la Crème) took the Reserve Dog CC and Best NZ Bred of Breed, while Candy (Kitaco Hard Candy Christmas) took the Reserve Bitch CC and Best Puppy of Breed, behind her mum, Serena.

In the Smooth Coats, Gryff took the Reserve Dog CC, Best Junior of Breed and Reserve Best of Breed, while Scotty (NZ CH Kitaco Beam Me Up Scotty) took Best Neuter of Breed.

Scotty then went on to take the Reserve Best Neuter in Show!

On Day 2, with rain threatening, under NZ Judge, Kathleen Harwick, in the Smooth Coats, Gryff took his first Best of Breed in NZ and earned his first Championship points. He took Best Junior of Breed too, but was knocked out by the Reserve of Group winner.

Scotty again took Best Neuter of Group.

In the Long Coats, Ben took Best of Breed, Best Dog and Best NZ Bred of Breed. Serena took Reserve Best of Breed, Best Bitch and Best Intermediate of Breed.

Wendy, handled so well by her mum, Doreen, in only their 3^rd show, won Best Neuter of Breed.

Candy took the Reserve Bitch CC and Best Puppy of Breed; little Eve took the Best Baby Puppy (Bitch) and Steve took Best Baby Puppy of Breed. And then Best Baby Puppy of Group.

And then he took Best Baby Puppy in Show!

We are so thrilled with this pocket rocket who is so full of confidence and attitude, in addition to his amazing conformation and type. To win a Baby Puppy in Show with a baby smack bang in the middle of the “uglies” with no coat and not many brain cells firing yet, was so wonderful and hopefully is a sign of bigger and better things to come.

Thanks to the whole Kitaco Team, Jenny, Debra, Doreen and Tash for showing our kids so well and to the Banks Peninsula Committee for some great shows and lots and lots of treats.

Thanks also to Doreen for the sandwiches and snacks and the great groomers at Angels Grooming Centre for preparing our dogs so well, even if we did show Candy with a big orange stain on her chest because she might have gotten into a bowl of spaghetti after she came home from the groomers, LOL.

For the record, spaghetti sauce is really hard to get out of the coat of a white dog, no matter how hard you try. We’re hoping it will be faded completely in time for the next show, otherwise we’ll just have to pretend she has really strange markings!