Hey everyone! We know we have been a bit out of touch, but life tends to get in the way!
A week ago we returned from a 5 day stay in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the UKC Premier (essentially the United Kennel Club Nationals). We went for a couple reasons:
1. UKC Ch. Glenire Angus (brother to our Acadia and owned by our aunt at Glenire) was invited down for the Top Ten finals as the #1 Great Pyrenees of 2017.
2. It is Katie's favourite place to spend her birthday.
So! We packed up all the lids (except Miss) did our entries and went to the show from June 13 to 18.
We had a blast! Angus (being the only Pyr in Top Ten) was of course Top Pyr for 2017 - he did not make it past group, although out of the collection of lovely working breeds, he was the only one the judge stopped and stared at on her last go 'round (we consider that an honour).
Over the next three days we had regular shows, with our 2 young males, our young female, and our 3 champions, plus Angus.
The results of the days were as follows:
Shanlimore Cidwm Glenire (Troll/Felipe) was Best Male once, completing his championship (although I suspect he had done that before we went down).
Cidwm's Cumae Prophecy (Prof) was Best Male twice, and Best of Winners, also completing his championship.
Cidwm's Cariana Bonum was Best of Winners twice, giving her two parts of her required three for her championship.
UKC Ch. Cidwm's Goddess Athena, CGN was Best of Breed twice from the champions class (Friday and Sunday), giving her two legs (of five) towards her UKC Grand Championship! She then went on to a Group 3 in the Guardian group (out of 14 breeds!) on the Friday.
Xach and Acadia were good sports about the whole ordeal, and enjoyed the outing immensely.
Thank you to judge Lila Fast for recognizing our girl in a stunning group of Guardian dogs.
We love showing at the United Kennel Club shows, as our dogs are judged on working basis and purpose, not "showiness".
The only drawback to our trip was the temperatures! The first day, lovely, second rain (we can deal with that) and then the temperature just kept rising. When is was in the thirties on the Saturday we decided enough as enough and got a hotel room for the whole pack! They appreciated it very much - next year we are thinking instead of camping we will bite the bullet and book the same great hotel.
We could not have one any of this without the help of our dear friend Krystal Zanbergen - she was kind enough to accompany us and brought her little spit fire American Cocker Spaniel to get a few more performance titles while they were at it! Thank you Krystal!
Thanks as well to Cathie Leloff for letting us share her campsite - we appreciate your kindness and hope we were good guests.