Swing, Dodge and I (along with our friend Joan) headed to Florida to participate in the Brevard KC show (Swing's debut), the Orlando DTC obedience trial and Eukanuba. We planned to take two days to get there and we pretty much met that schedule even though it did take a bit longer than I remembered from the last trip. We made it to Rocky Mt, NC the first night which was about 100 miles less than originally planned, but we were safe and that is what was most important. Swing and Dodge traveled well and she did very well for only her second time staying in a hotel (although the first two nights we didn't get a lot of sleep because she had to vocalize her uncertainty at every little sound that wasn't familiar). We arrived in Orlando around 8pm on Wednesday evening and settled in to our nice suite at the Embassy Suites about a half a mile from the convention center.
On Thursday morning we were up and out the door early since Swing's ring time was at 8am. I figured we would get there about an hour early so that she could settle and get ready to show. WELL, little did I know that parking is what seems like a MILE from the show rings! From the directions we were given it honestly took us around 15 minutes to find the hall where the rings were. Needless to say, my plans of being ringside an hour early fell to the wayside. We did get there with about 20 minutes to spare which gave me time to put on her show lead, get out the bait and pick up my number. First up was the Sweepstakes class where she got a second place out of two followed by the regular class where she again got a 2nd place (out of 3). Holding the stack while being examined proved to be challenging, but her movement on the down and back as well as the go around was very nice (she did a little bit of pacing but I was able to fix that fairly quickly. The important thing was that the ring experience was positive and she appeared to have a good time. Video of her performance is coming soon.
Dodge was in the obedience ring on Friday (we did not qualify in Open) before going in to the breed ring on Saturday for the Eukanuba show. He did not make the cut but showed well (as he always did in the breed ring) and looked good. It was a good way to finish his conformation career.
We logged a slew of miles over a 6 day period, met a lot of nice people, walked a LOT and ran in to folks from our area. I am always amazed at how far you can go from home and still manage to run in to someone that is either from Pennsylvania, has relatives in Pennsylvania or has a funny story about Pennsylvania. Cracker Barrel was our go to place for stopping to eat (Joan wondered just how many of them there are), gas prices where a lot cheaper as you went south although every now and again you would see a place where it was more expensive (we saw $2.99 in NC and $3.47 in SC), and we managed to see license plates from 30+ states! Traffic was manageable, no accidents or scary moments. All in all I'd say the driving portion of the trip was uneventful (ok, there was this one incident where I got on I-95 and drove in the wrong direction for a good 30 miles...).
I hope to return to Eukanuba some day, maybe with Dodge participating in the NOI (National Obedience Invitational) or Swing in breed. But before then I think I'd like to go as a spectator just to take in the sights and enjoy sitting at ringside watching great dogs and handlers (that applies to ALL disciplines). Video to follow!
No comments:
Post a Comment