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Publisher’s Message: Aidan Makes His Dog Show Debut

Aidan’s number and the $8 catalog I bought as a memento of this show debut.

By Lisa Allmendinger

Aidan made his conformation dog show debut in Lansing last Saturday.

And I’ll say at the onset, he has nowhere to go but up when it comes to the results.

Yes, he’s just 4.5 months old, but the American Kennel Club instituted this relatively new competition called BPUP, for baby puppies that are 4-6 months of age. So, I thought it would be fun to enter him for the experience.

When I made the entry four weeks ago, he looked great. We even went to a class to practice around other dogs, and for weeks we worked on what he’d be required to do in the ring. He’d need to stand, trot all the way around the ring, and then trot from one end of the ring to the other on a diagonal and stop in front of the judge and stand.

Pretty simple stuff.

But as is the case with growing puppies, in those ensuing weeks after I plunked down the $15 entry fee, all of Aidan’s parts and pieces grew in different directions. And, he started losing puppy teeth, poor little guy.

His coat started its transition from fluffy uniform soft puppy texture to something that resembled a lawn in the spring before the first grass cutting – with different levels of adult fur sprouting in all directions in an unsightly fashion.

Because he was teething, his ears went all wonky, flipping backwards and folding in places that they shouldn’t.

And his growth spurts turned him into a reverse giraffe, high in the rear end compared to his front. (They are supposed to be level from shoulders to rear end.)

Let’s just say, he looked like a hot mess – a puppy put together by a committee that couldn’t agree on anything.

If this were a rally obedience competition – the type of performance event that Buzz shows in – none of this would matter. But Aidan was entered in a conformation competition and what he looked like really mattered.

And as the show day got closer, he looked worse than the day before. Truth be told, I pretty much knew we were doomed before we even stepped in the ring, but it was our only chance to show in this class before he aged out. And, I wanted Aidan to have this dog show experience as part of his development.  

For those of you who don’t know what conformation competition is – AKC defines it as: “The official term for dog shows is conformation — as in, the act of conforming or producing conformity. Dogs are not being compared to each other; they’re being measured by how closely they conform to the standard of their particular breed.”

And let’s just say, thanks to his growing spurts, Aidan didn’t conform to much of what the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever standard says he should. He will once he gets through all these growth spurts and grows up. But for now, not so much.

Aidan is No. 15. His fancy AKC name is Wildphox’s Football Phanatic.

Conformation dogs are typically bathed and groomed to the hilt by people who know a lot more about the tricks of optical allusions to cover up any structural faults than I do. Aidan didn’t get a bath because I ran out of time, but he did have his perfect little white feet trimmed. His ears weren’t trimmed, either, because he was so squirmy. So, he went to his first dog show looking like a cute little scruffy ragamuffin. 

I jokingly call conformation “stand and eat food” because that’s what the dogs do in the ring. Conformation dogs stand, trot around, stand again and get food every step of the way. I’m not diminishing what it takes to do it well, or all the grooming people do to make their dogs look as perfect as possible, but it’s just not my thing.

The judge either likes your dog better than the others. Or doesn’t. And each judge prefers certain characteristics over others so, it’s rather subjective.

Thankfully, AKC offers a large number of other competitions for dogs and as long-time readers know, I’ve landed on Rally Obedience as my favorite.

But back to Aidan’s story.   

I forgot to bring the phone to take pictures of what he looked like. For posterity. I promise you though, not a bath nor no hours worth of expert grooming would have helped.  

There were three puppies entered and when I looked at the other two before we went in the ring, I knew we were toast. In my mind, I compared Aidan to the other two and my best description was: Two nice Toller puppies and I’m standing here with an aardvark.

Aidan and I were the first ones in the ring, which is determined by what number you are assigned by the show superintendent, and in the front of the line of three, he really stuck out as, well, the one that least conformed to the Toller breed standard.

In all his excitement of being inside a gated dog show ring, Aidan was having so much fun, tail wagging constantly, looking all around, he also forgot how to do a basic part of this kind of competition — Stand.

Despite my very best efforts to remind him, he sat and sat and sat and sat again. I know that sit and stand probably sound a lot alike in a dog’s mind but, we really had practiced stand quite a bit. It just didn’t seem to work in the ring.

Thankfully, the judges don’t say much when they go over your dog to feel for structure as part of the judging and in the stand position. And I didn’t look closely at his face as I was repeatedly trying to get Aidan to stand.

About the only thing he said was, this puppy likes to sit, doesn’t he? (Well, I was wearing a vest with an AKC Rally National Championship logo on it, which, if he noticed it, might have provided a wee clue.)

I said something along the lines of we’ve been working on sit, laughed it off, and followed the rest of his instructions.

Aidan did do a really nice job trotting around the ring and going to the corner of the ring and back solo without pulling or sniffing. So, he remembered some of his training. But he was supposed to stop in front of the judge and stand and, yup, he … sat.

At that point, I praised his perfect little sit, gave him a piece of food and told him he was such a good puppy, did our last trot around the ring, came back to our spot at the end of the line and we played together like crazy while the other two puppies were being judged individually.

I’m not an AKC conformation judge but, even I would have called it the way he did.

Aidan finished third out of three and it should also be noted didn’t even get a participation ribbon.

I still brought home the cutest, sweetest puppy in the whole world. And I’m so proud of how he handled a very crowded show venue. Nothing phased him and I learned he’s a kid magnet. Every kid that approached him asked if they could pet him and of course, I said yes, thankful that they asked first.

Aidan made friends with probably a half dozen of them, and was so well behaved. Kissing them and enjoying all the attention he was getting.

So, overall, Aidan’s first dog show was a positive success. Well, other than the fact he finished last in his competition.    

But look out in a couple years when he makes his Rally Obedience debut. That’s how long it takes to teach the hundreds of skills necessary to compete at the highest levels. And I promise you, he will have a solid stand by then.

Aidan’s Rally Obedience show results will be quite different, I can assure you.

Besides, he has nowhere to go but up.

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