Saturday

Today has been a good day

This morning I found a very nice ball whilst taking my Mum and sister Traffy for a walk. It was so nice that my friend Brodie also wanted it - luckily his Dad took it off Brodie and gave it back to me.

Then we went to a school fete - Dad won two bottles of something called Cava and to celebrate he let me have a lick of his ice cream (but I'm so quick I managed to eat it all before he could stop me).

Then we went to Bletsoe Village Fayre and I found another ball (a tennis ball this time) - two balls in one day is very good. Dad also won a bottle of wine, so he was happy.

I was going to stay for the dogshow but it started to rain and Mum doesn't like rain (plus Dad wanted to get home to play with his wine) - so we left early :-(

I did get to have a chat with the man who reads something called lottery numbers on the TV:

mum was in the photo but Dad 'photoshopped' her out - can you see her?

South West Essex Canine Association

Yesterday I took Dad to to the South West Essex Canine Association (SWECA) dog show. A show is a special doggy get-together where lots of dogs gather together to show off their parents - the dogs who's parents behave best (and give them the most treats) get a rosette. The show is judged by someone who is an expert parent to many dogs and should know how to behave really well.

I entered Dad in three classes - Novice Puppy, Gundog Puppy and the Charity Puppy Stakes. I the first class Dad got 4th place; afterwards some people gave Dad some pointers on how to walk and give me treats and then in the Gundog Puppy he got a second place (which came with a nice blue rosette); Unfortunately he didn't do very well in the Charity stakes class.

I was particularly happy that none of the gun dog puppy had a gun with them - I don't like things that make load bangs.

I think I'll let Dad have a rest next week but the weekend after that he'll be taking me two two shows (Windsor Championship show and Berkshire Downs Golden Retriever Club show).

Canine Partners Fun Dog Show

I’m really excited today - I’m off to do a fun dog show in aid of my friends at Canine Partners.

At 11am I’ll be at the Crown pub in Northill, Bedfordshire walking my dad up and down; hopefully they’ll think I’ve got the best parent and give me a nice rosette.

Hearing Dogs Summer Fete

Today I took Mum and Dad to the Hearing Dogs for the Deaf summer fete. I was really excited when Dad told me the fete was going to be opened by a famous boxer called Frank Bruno. One of my friends, Bruce, is also a boxer, so I was expecting to meet someone who looked like him, but instead of someone furry with four legs, a squashed nose and a waggy tail, I met someone with two legs and no fur - a big disappointment.

don't know who this is.

After he met me he didn't hang around long - dad said if he'd moved that fast when he was in the ring he would have retired undefeated. I'm not sure what he was talking about but Mum seemed to agree.

One of my favourite bits of the day was a gundog demonstration. I especially liked the fact that gundogs don't do anything their person tells them to do: they just sit there whilst their person says they are going to find a dummy or a rabbit  but then they just do nothing. Perhaps I should be a gundog.

the gundog is hiding behind the man.

Southern Counties Dog Show

The Southern Counties Dog show was easily the biggest I've been to; To be fair I've only been to two shows before but the other dogs there told me this was a really big one and it was easy to believe them.

Other dogs having their owners judged.

For people that don't know, a dog show is when Puppy girls and boys get together to show off their owners: we must make them trot up and down, give us treats and get them stressed-up because we don't seem to want to stand to attention; while we do this someone stares at us and decides who did it best.

Today I took my Dad, which in hindsight was probably not the best idea - most of the other puppy girls took their mum and seemed to do much better than I did.

Isn't Dad useless?

I entered Dad into a couple of classes but didn't do too well. Afterwards I went into my portable house whilst my Dad watched other classes - hopefully he has learnt something from them.

I do like my house.

Some of the time I let my sister Lois share my house, but often she'd poke her head out to have  a look at the other dogs.

Put you head inside Lois!

Lois did much better in the ring than I did but neither of us got a rosette this time.

Lois with her mum Debbie

 I've got another show next week - hopefully Dad will have improved.

Eastern Counties Golden Retriever Club Rally, Fun Day and Show

I'd got no idea that there were so many puppy boys and girls who look like me until this weekend when I took Dad to the Eastern Counties Golden Retriever Club (ECGRC) show.

I had loads of fun particularly because my sister Lois came along too. They said I was so pretty that they gave me 3 rosettes and I'm quite proud of them. They also said that Dad let me down because he couldn't walk up and down in the correct way to show me off.

One of the rosettes was for a first place in a class. Unfortunately this year they weren't presenting things called trophies otherwise I would have got one of those too, so that's disappointing; Dad says the same thing happened to him when he was my age - he won the egg and spoon race at the school sports day and they decided not to give out coloured ribbons even though they did the year before. He says he's still a bit upset about it, so much so that we can't eat soft boiled eggs in our house because seeing an egg and a spoon together brings it all back. Never mind Dad, you can wear one of my rosettes anytime you want (except the red one which is my favourite).

This Friday I'm going to take Dad to an even bigger show, hopefully he won't let me down this time.