southern counties show

Wow, what a day we had a Southern Counties this year! It's always my favorite show and it certainly didn't disappoint in 2010. It's my favorite for a few reasons:

1. The organisers always provide us with a Finnish judge.
2. As a result of (1), we never know what the results will be in advance because we don't know the judge & his/her preferences.
3. Because of (1) and (2), we always have an enormous entry. Apart from Crufts, it's the one show of the year you can count on the largest possible number of dogs.
4. And, thanks to (3), you get to see lots of people you mainly conduct an email and facebook relationship with the rest of the year.
5. Unrelated to any other of the preceding points, the show is one of a handful to provide rare breed classes in addition to breed classes. However, as we will be removed from the Rare Breed Register at the end of this year, this particular benefit won't exist in the future. So I'm making the most of it this year.

So, it was fun because of all the people & dogs and two lots of classes, etc. But - wow! - we did so well. In breed classes we were judged by Tuula Savolainen from Finland. Keskiyo, Keksi & Rauhan came 3rd in their classes and Inko came 2nd in hers. But it was really Taito's day, as he came 1st in Postgrad Dog and then won Best Opposite Sex.

In Rare Breeds under judge Patsy Hollings, the Lappies held their own against the Estrelas, Tibetan Mastiffs & Dogues de Bordeaux they were competing against. Again, Taito won Reserve Best Dog. Pretty good going.




Rauhan waiting around for his class sans his normal abundant coat












Inko hanging out in her crate - happy now that Paula & Adam have arrived to take her home after a week visiting us in Devon







I don't often have enough Infindigo dogs in attendance at shows to enter a team of 4 for the breeder competition, but on this occasion I did, and we won that too with the team of Taito, Keksi, Rauhan & Inko (in size order).

It's a long day at these shows, and if you're lucky enough to win the FL breeder competition, then it requires fortitude to stay to the end in order to enter the winning team in the Pastoral breeder group competition. However, it's a shame to miss it, and I was delighted when everyone stayed long enough for us to come 2nd in the breeder group as well under another Finnish judge, Kari Jarvinen. What a thrill!

But next time we really must address our dress as none of us expected to be on display in the big ring that day. In fact, some of us didn't expect to be showing at all and so were dressed for a casual day hanging out with dogs in the hot sunshine. Uh huh.













Taito (left) with sister Keksi (middle) and their sire, Kimi (right)