We had a great weekend in Hastings. The weather wasn't the usual hot and sticky stuff with guaranteed sun, no. It was predicted to be the only place in New Zealand to have rain at the weekend. So, having heard the prediction of that a week beforehand, we altered our plans, and instead of the weekend being our last camping weekend of the season, we chickened out and booked a motel! We were glad we did because the ground was very wet and it was drizzly on the Friday night, so we would have been putting our tent up in the wet and then trying to hunker down for the night. Nice motel and I managed to persuade the owner to let me have the dogs in the kitchen area. We had only take Shadow and Sherry, so not too many to be in a small kitchen. Saturday morning dawned a bit drizzly but by the time we got going - the show started at 8am and we left the motel at 8.30am - the drizzle had mostly gone and it was just a bit cloudy. At least it wasn't windy. At the morning show we got nowhere with either Shadow or Sherry but at the afternoon show Sherry got a Reserve Bitch CC, which means she was the second best golden retriever bitch there. We were quite happy with that. Sunday we did the same again, left the motel around 8.30am (but because of daylight saving ending we actually got an extra hour's sleep) and prepared for another go in the ring. In the morning show once again Sherry got the Reserve Bitch CC and so we were again really chuffed with that. Then, when she went up against the dog in the Junior class, the judge had difficulty trying to decide which one to give the award to and had to look at the dogs a few times to make her decision. In the end she put the boy up, but it was a pretty close call. As you can see from the photos below, Sherry was very tired after the morning show and took time out for a bit of a cuddle and snooze! Shadow was on guard.   Then came the afternoon show. The judge clearly liked the look of Sherry and he gave her the Bitch Challenge Certificate (CC) - that is what you want to get in breed showing, eight CCs and you can call your dog a Champion officially. We were absolutely stoked. Sherry has now got five CCs, so only three more to go. Sherry also beat the best boy dog to become Best of Breed for the show.  Now, there is no video or even photograph of this tumultuous event. My better half was standing by the ring looking after my numbers and slicker brush etc, and if you stand near the ring when the golden retrievers are showing, you become what I can only think of to call a doggie coat hanger, e.g. people hand you a dog to hold while they go in the ring with another dog, and then they come out and swap that dog for another dog, and someone else commandeers your other arm with a dog or two. So, that is what happened to Rob. He became surrounded by dogs with both his arms out each side and people putting and taking dogs willy nilly! So, there were no arms for a camera even if he had thought about it. Once you get Best of Breed, you get to go in for the Gundog Group awards, and Sherry went up for Best of Group and Junior of Group. She didn't win either of these but Rob did have his camera at the ready for this and below is a video of Sherry running for Best of Group. So, all in all we had a great weekend. We didn't leave Hastings till 4.45pm and got home at 8.45pm - very tired but happy with our Challenge Certificate. |
News >