Thoughts after a dog show.
Submitted by Dick Wanner on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 6:50pm.
Speaking of dogs... http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6429566
That's the way the ball bounces. We took our dog Louie to the annual breed show at the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex earlier today. My wife, our grandson and I went to the show to see some dogs, but mostly to visit with the breeder we'd bought Louie from, and to let him do doggie stuff with his sister and grandmother, who were also at the show.
Sponsored by the Harrisburg Kennel Club, the Keystone Cluster Show this year featured 1,940 dogs representing 151 breeds. We could have made that 1,941 dogs except for the fact that we bought Louie as a pet. And one of the conditions of buying a purebred puppy from a serious breeder is that you can't use a pet quality dog as breeding stock. So Louie's been neutered. He doesn't have all his parts. And even if he'd had all his parts, they'd have had to have been the same size for him to be a serious contender in the showring.
Which means judges have to be really, really friendly with the animals they're judging.
Remind me to never judge a dog show.
Well, not to dwell too much at length on Louie's former testicles, but one of the reasons he didn't make the cut from pet quality to show quality was that one of his goodies was a bit stuck. The other reason was that at the tender age of two months, he was showing signs of an overbite. At four months, our vet was pleased to announce that Louie had a regulation scrotum, which made the neutering task a lot easier. And now, at seven months of age, his overbite has pretty well straightened itself out.
And the rest of him appears to be, from comments made by the breeder and her professional handler, quite stunning. The line of his back, his coloring, his overall conformation are what you'd expect of a show dog. Maybe a champion. And he is, after all, descended from canine royalty. His grandmother, Fairchild, is the winningest PBGV in the history of the breed. (That's petite basset griffon vandeen. It's French for something.)
So, he coulda been a contender.
I'm glad he's not.
It sounds like I'm bragging about my dog, and maybe I am a little bit, but what I'm really doing is celebrating our good fortune in being able to connect with Louie. His breed is supposed to be healthy and happy and not plagued with many of the breed-related health problems that descend on other purebreds. Had it not been for that one wayward part, we couldn't have even considered buying him. Pet quality prices can get into the rareified air territory, but the price tag on a two- or three-month old show quality dog can be stratospheric.
So, we're happy with Louie, he seems happy with us, and when we go to dog shows, we're happy to be watching from the sidelines, rather than jogging around the ring.
Bernie Sanders is at it again. The feisty senator from Vermont, wants the Department of Justice to launch a federal antitrust investigation of dairy giant Dean Foods, another increase in the USDA's support price for cheese, and tighter quality standards for milk going into processing plants. And that's not all...but you can read the whole story for yourself in the Lancaster Farming edition due in your mailbox tomorrow.
