AKC Eukanuba – The Saga
By
Janina Laurin
Coordinating the trip to the AKC grand event in Orlando was logistically complicated. It fell right when one of the other Chateau Blanc females was due in heat and my husband’s birthday with a double secret birthday surprise.
The stars aligned nicely so everything managed to fall in sync. My husband didn’t find out about his surprise until his birthday, our little peanut was bred, a condo to share with friends was found, and dogs which qualified stayed in coat. It was off to the shows!
The trip to Florida was uneventful. My husband and Darlene headed down on Sunday making record time to arrive in the sunny State on Monday afternoon. The dogs met our grandchildren in Ormond Beach, played on the beach sands of New Smyrna and dallied at the local outdoor coffee café. Tuesday arrived quickly enough with the hour or so trek to Orlando to wait in the 3 hour line to unload.
Unloading was controlled chaos, as it quickly became apparent, that if you hadn’t arrived to line-up by 10:00A.M., there would not be any room in the main arena for grooming. As it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise. The larger secondary hall was cooler, roomy and basically light on spectator foot traffic. Darlene and our Siberian friends found a terrific spot and as it turned out a fellow West Coast Tervuren person working with a professional handler ended up setting up next to us. It was a great time as everyone took turns for lunch, walking dogs, cheering each other on or consoling one another. Highs and lows were evenly distributed from Wednesday forward. Someone was always at the set-up to keep the dogs comfortable. It was a good-time.
I arrived via plane on Thursday afternoon just in time to see Lulu (GrCh. Mishaook’s Lulu @ Chateau Blanc HSc) prepare for the group and earn a Group 3 in devastatingly magnificent competition. The group points were over 375 with just about every top herding dog in the country competing. We just don’t see legions of some of these breeds in our area at all and it was eye opening. On Friday, I was off to briefly attend the AKC delegates meeting, some low-entry breed seminars, and did manage to watch the Tervuren/Siberian judging. It wasn’t a stellar day for anyone so off we went to the condo to relax. I was assigned dog sitting duties while Darlene and our Sibe friend went off to the invitational international dinner. The Sibes and Tervuren immediately took advantage of me since it was clear to them, I was not a member of the original pack and they weren’t sure I should be roaming around the condo unsupervised. LOL! Cookies and cheese all around calmed the howling pack of delinquents. You wouldn’t think there were 3 National Specialty winners & a multiple BIS in one spot all misbehaving. I kept shouting YOU ARE ALL GOING ON EBAY!!; AND CAN YOU DOGS SPELL CRATES!! GET OFF THE COUNTER, THE COUCH, THE BEDS, STOP PUTTING YOUR PAWS ON THE DINNER TABLE, STOP BARKING AT ME IN THE BATHROOM…….spoiled. all spoiled LOL!
Saturday was a down day basically with plans to relax, go to the show grounds observe a bit and have an early dinner….or so we thought. Our condo pals had coupons of significant size for a local hotel restaurant. We arrived at our couponed restaurant to find out it was a 5 Star restaurant with the average dinner price of $75.00 a la carte, we realized the coupons wouldn’t even begin to cover soup! We decided to skip that and go with the valet’s recommendation. The restaurant which was supposedly right around the block took us over an hour to find. It was lovely and I highly recommend Fishbones when you’re in Florida. When we left the restaurant, we were broadsided by a car illegally entering our lane in 5mph hour traffic! The other party drove down the sidewalk to flee the scene (in our humble opinion). Darlene jumped out of the car, chased them down and demanded they halt. The police arrived took our statements and suggested we leave while he dealt with the other party. This piece of the saga is still continuing.
We’re all a superstitious group – what did this mean for the big event on Sunday, how would we be impacted, was it a bad omen? Our early evening turned into not getting to bed until about 11pm with a 5:00am wake up. UGH!
5:00am came quickly but really I don’t think any of us truly slept a wink. Both breeds were on within a ½ hour of each other. Trying to put the events of Saturday evening behind us, the task of preparing for the ring, scanning the crowds for our respective competitors, grooming, more grooming, greeting friends from all of the country and more nervous grooming put us all in the right competitive spirit.
Off the Sibe tribe went to the ring & the Tervuren crew left for their ring shortly thereafter. It was tense in both rings with top notch competition from around the country. It is electrifying and truly intoxicating to be among deep quality! In the end, everyone prevailed in our little row - the Rottweiler won the breed, the Sibe won the breed AND LULU TOOK THE BREED, Demi was an Award of Excellence and her dam Queezle also earned an Award of Excellence.
What price can you put on working hard all year to earn an invitational spot at the AKC Invitational? Absolutely None! It’s priceless and a validation of all you’ve done with your dog all year to represent your breed to the best of its ability. A lofty journey culminating in a wonderful win. It’s priceless! Right up there with competing at your own national specialty or local prestigious specialty.
If you ever aspire to make the AKC Invitational in ANY arena a goal– work hard, keep you and your dog in physical and mental shape, be fair and equitable and keep your eye on the ball. If you earn the invitation – GO! Go at least once. It is worth every minute of it. Tervuren especially prevailed exceptionally in obedience and agility as well. The Meet the Breeds booth was outstanding. Seeing top level competitors in other breeds and sharing best practices with your own and others really brings out the best in our dog show community.
Thanks Lisa for inviting me to write about the AKC-Orlando experience.
Janina
Thanks Janina for sharing your "saga" with us all!!! - Editor
