A Special Hawklet

is heading this way. Kathy (Corgi Committee Diaries- http://corgisandme.blogspot.com/) is on another road trip adventure with her Pems, Rhys and Molly. She'll be providing expert transport for a special delivery.

This is how it's done.

Sydney, are you watching? That yellow part is not for leaping over, it's like the caution zone, and you are 'sposed to slow it down, sister! I'm just a baby, and I already know how to do it better than Syd.

First, you hafta look both ways. This is very important, you need to be sure no flying Cardigans are going to get in your path.Second, you stop and look up so your mom can get a really cute smiley picture of you. You wait right there til mom says you can go.
The last part is the running off. I like that part, even if Sydney runs right into me sometimes.

My mom got a video of me with my new A-frame ball game. But she was silly, and put it on the Cardigan blog. http://hurrikanecardis.blogspot.com/2009/08/self-trained-contacts.html

Camera Hams

Darby met a new friend at the SVCA Specialty last week. Teddy came to Topeka from Indiana with his mom Amanda, and we shared a room at the host hotel. We had a really large suite, and the dogs had lots of room to play and run. Teddy is about a year old, so he and Darby are right on the same wavelength when it comes to Vallhund play. Notice the exact moment when each of these little hams discovered I had a camera!

Office Help

After a long 5 days of dog shows, the last day the Vallhunds showed early in the morning. My office is sort of in between my house and the Topeka show site. So, after we showed, I drove right to the office. It was an unusual 67 degrees and overcast yesterday, so the dogs were fine snoozing in the van with windows and hatch popped. Later in the afternoon, the sun began to peek through the clouds, and I thought it was going to get too warm in the van. I brought the dogs in for an office visit, thinking I would let them visit, then leave and work the rest of the afternoon from home. The dogs were a big hit, and our office is full of Hawk and Darby followers, so the Vallhunds had great fun catching up with all their fans. Once I got back to my desk, both dogs were so good, they just plopped down and didn't make any noise, so I opted to just keep working the rest of the day, and the dogs behaved perfectly!
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Hawk was a good boy, and he was virtually unnoticeable sleeping under my desk.


Darby, on the other hand, was content to lay down and snooze, but she needed to be right in the aisle, so that she didn't run the risk of missing out on any potential fun activity!

No More Counting-She's a Champion!

This morning, leaving the house at dark-thirty, driving through buckets of rain in the dark, I really questioned why I was even bothering driving out to Topeka to show. Well, now I'm glad I did. Darby was able to pull off a Winners Bitch today and finish her championship. There were no class dogs, so no Best of Winners available.

So, pending AKC confirmation, Baby Show Dog is now CH Corval Bless Yer Cot'n Socks.

She's 8 months, 7 days old. Not so bad for a puppy in just 3 weekends (3 weekends with other SVs for competition). Orlando, San Antonio, and Topeka.

Good girl, Darby.

Darby- 14 and Counting

Yesterday, Darby pulled off a nice Reserve Winners Bitch win at our National Specialty! I was really proud of her, even though she was tired after winning her class in puppy sweeps, and then she also had to show in Stud Dog with her sister and dad. She was not her usual happy, peppy self, for sure.

But the big news is that Darby was a real Baby Show Dog today, and she had a good time in the ring. She won Winners Bitch. We were thrilled. Then we went in for Best of Breed, and since this is the specialty weekend, we had to wait and wait and wait for the first group of specials, then the second, then finally we all came back in, with 23 Vallhunds entered today.. Darby did great, considering we were hiding from Hawk most of the time. How bad is it when Hawk is in line as the first Special, and Darby is WB? The first time around the ring and here's Hawk behind us. woops.

SO, Darby did great, and when the judge (Jacqueline Stacy) had WD and WB do their down and back and around, she asked the WD to go to the back of the dog line, she said she wanted all the dogs with the other dogs, and the bitch with the other bitches. So I was going to head to the end of the line of the bitch Specials. The judge motioned and said "Bring the puppy and put her at the front of the bitches." I was sure I was not hearing her correctly. But that's what she wanted, and the way it ended up, Darby was not only WB, she went BOW, and BOS over the bitch specials, and ended up winning a 4 point major today! So, now, at the age of 8 months and 5 days old, Darby has 14 points and 3 majors. Oh, that last point, I hope we don't have to chase it around!

I'm sure Darby and Hawk will sleep for a week once we get back home. They've been very busy supervising all of my show chair duties, like goodie bag stuffing and organizing boxes. It's tough work being the show chair's dog!!!