Greenville, SC

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The good news is we made it to the show, the bad news was I was suffering with COVID pneumonia and could barely breathe. I know it sounds weird but I knew going to the show I would actually get more rest than at home. We stayed at one of my all time favorite hotel the Drury Inn and Suites. It has great areas to walk the dogs and is by a ton of restaurants from Door Dash.

Thursday

First up was Pekingese and I knew that this way my best shot for points (more on that later) and Eliza did not disappoint. I am so lucky to have the best breeders and my Tibbie family came to cheer us on! It makes my heart smile how they have become family.

Eliza went Winner’s Bitch in her first show ever for two points. David was able to watch and had a big smile on his face which made me so happy and I was even told my grooming was better. David is one of the finest people in dog’s and being told good and better is the highest praise I am going to get at this point!

I did not show Hamilton myself, when I called my bestie Kimmy (Dynasty Minis the best Mini Americans on the planet) she texted her handler Arvind DeBraganca and then informed he was showing my dogs. I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and I cannot thank Arvind enough for showing Hami. I was struggling especially on Thursday and I did not have the lung capacity to show him.

Hami has never been handled by anyone but me and did not seem to care at all that I was sitting ringside. He did great on the table but his go around was a bit off. Considering Hamilton had met Arvind 15 minutes before it was great and his half brother Liam who is 3 months older took the major and I was thrilled for him and his owner Janet.

Friday

Today I got a chance to be schooled by the master. David had a class bitch Pequest Saki who I met when I picked up Eliza and Angelica. She and Eliza and are 3/4 sisters but she is a couple months older and she did not disappoint in the ring. When we were in Winner’s Bitch my goal was to try and get reserve Winner’s Bitch but sadly it did not happen. Oh well we will try again and Eliza was being a good girl.

Then we went over to the Tibbie ring and Arvind was unable to make it so I was back in the ring and actually felt okay. We were reserve to the lovely Liam, Hami showed amazing but Liam looks so much more mature and deserved the win. The judge liked him so much he got Best of Breed as well. The judge was Dr John Ioia and I would show to him again any time, any where. He ran a great ring, was very good to the dogs and did a great job with the dogs. He definitely loved movement. The good news was Liam finished and I just wanted those four points!.

Saturday

The Peke ring was the highlight of the day, because of all of the specialties we were able to show to Mr Gary Jones of Jonesville Pekingese in Wales. How were we this lucky?

I went reserve to David and Saki (surprise) but the judge really loved Eliza and said she gave Saki a run for her money and he actually had us go ALL THE WAY AROUND THE RING. My pet peeve is when judges act like these dogs cannot move – let me tell you if they are structurally correct then they can go around the ring – multiple times even!

It was so amazing to me that ELiza and I were able to do so well in a stellar lineup of class bitches. This cluster brings out the best dogs in the southeast and I was proud of Eliza.

Hamilton and I were reserve to our friend Sherry and her boy Hunter, she and Hunter need a major too and unfortunately they did not get it so she commiserated with me on that. It was so nice that the Tibbie folks came over to cheer us on in the Peke ring. Janet sat next to Hami who decided to scream at me and Eliza lol.

Later that afternoon David gave me a handling lesson which was so awesome (who else gets a lesson from the master handler of the oy ring). When he took Eliza I was shocked at how his little tweaks helped change the picture. He is truly the master and I will tell you this I wish I could show to him and anyone reading this should not have ANY hesitation to show to him. He is such a great dog man – he will judge the dogs and a newbie can be assured that he will find a good dog.

Sunday

Hamilton and I were up and I was determined to get that major. The judge requested we wear masks and it was so hard to breath and I had to take my glasses off as they fogged up. So we went Winners Dog and then were in the Best of Breed ring.

We were pulled out with Liam to go around and then not put in any order. She then worked the Special bitches and never moved the Winner’s Bitch. When she started to place the classes she gave me Select Dog. As I walked out she motioned to go back for Select and I told her he was a class animal so not eligible, she then pointed to a special female and tried to give her the Select Dog.

My thought is that when she got us out of order she missed that she had a class dog and bitch. The entire ring was out of control and in her defense her steward was untrained and uninterested in the ring so it was complete chaos. All I know is Hamilton showed his heart out and I am so glad that I enter Salem as their are majors every day and we may be able to finish there but I was really disappointed since this is my kennel club.