Learning the Show Business

Once in three years, our little town of Strömsund hosts a dog show, organized by the local Working Dog Club.

You can´t receive any championship points or merits here, but it has a great atmosphere, plentiful with nice and useful prizes and it´s a great socializiation event for the young dogs.

Living in the middle of nowehere makes our pups daring the wilderness and bravely conquer all kinds of obsticles, such as stumps, fallen trees, deep snow, ant nests and a lot more. But a concrete floor of an ice hockey arena, with a roof over it, and dozens of dogs of all kinds of sizes and shapes, makes them "fall on the butt" :)

This year we decided to pick two of the puppies - Iluq and Inuk.

Both did great, although Iluq became acquainted with the place a lot faster (girls mature faster anyway, and we could really see this on the two siblings yesterday).

She got used to the handling incredibly easy and fast. I would actually say she totally took after her mom Mouse, who is our dog show pro. In the ring she smiled and wagged tail, enjoying every bit of it. In motion, she showed some powerful drive, which of coures makes me think and wonder how she will do in harness one day :)

Inuk took longer to get used to all the hustle. He wasn´t afraid or paniced, but rather uncomfortable with the flooring and didn´t want to keep his head up high. But that´s ok. He did great otherwise.

Pretty girl Iluq

Telling Inuk he did a great job.

It was fun, mom!

Both got first prize, but didn´t place any further. They were naturally quite tired, but handeled all professionally without big fuss. They entered the show ground as two wild creatures, and left it as trained and way more confident dogs.

I was quite amazed how fast they took to the handling, stacking and other show business stuff. Mouse most´ve done some theoretical preparation with them :) I could swear I saw her proud look, when the kids returned. And they stayed up late, telling their siblings and mom about all the great things they did, all the dogs they met and the big world they entered.

Good babies! Mama is so proud of you both!

P.S. One big thank you is in order to express -- Jachym came along, suffered along, without a word of complaint. He didn´t have to enter the show ring, which is a good thing - because, well, it´s better not to push it :)

More pics on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/kippsiberians/InukAndIluqAtShowInStromsund2010#