Highland Open Show

Highland Canine Association held their open show at Dingwall auction mart on Saturday 28th July. This is a nice venue with great scenery, a good cafe and probably the biggest strawberry cream cakes around!

With space being limited, only two rings are indoors and the majority of breeds are judged outside. The rain held off for most of the day but there was one heavy, prolonged shower and judging was suspended until it was over. Pity the poor whippets who were caught out in it! They could have done with their coats then.

Club members had a very good day, most notably Joan and Bo who won his AVNSC class, then best AVNSC, followed by the group and then best in show! Good going for a youngster only just out of puppy. Congratulations!

Sue's Pansy won the toy group so there were two club members in the best in show line up.

Best puppy had a representative from the club as Lorna's Lottie was best terrier pup.

When it came to best veteran we did even better with three Spey Valley dogs present - Morag's Arran, June's Brodie and Sue's Louis.

Arran was also BOB and Pastoral G2, Heather's Sasha was BOB and Hound G3 and Sarah's Sasha was BOB and Terrier G3.

Linda and Ron's Leo did well in the utility group by winning his AVNSC junior class and Elizabeth's Bronni took BOB. Well done to everyone.

As there are a lot of photos from Highland, you will need to scroll down and go to older posts to see them all. Don't forget you can left click on the photos to see them full size.

Bo flying high at Highland

BIS and RBIS

Best in Show line up

Best puppy

Lorna's Lottie was best Terrier pup. Best puppy was awarded to the Border Collie and reserve to the Lhasa Apso.

Lorna's Lottie

Best puppy line up

Best Veteran

The club did very well when it came to best veteran in show with three members winning through. Morag's Arran continued his successful veteran career by winning Pastoral, June's Brodie won Working and Sue's Louis Toy. The eventual winner was the vizsla.

Hound group

Heather's Sasha was best of breed and G3

Joan's Bo won AVNSC and then the group.

Group judging

Bo and Sasha, G1 and G3

Terrier group

Sarah's Sasha was best of breed and G3

Toy group

Linda's Nesa won her class and TJ was best opposite sex. Sue's Pansy went on to best of breed.

Sue and Pansy, BOB & G1

Group judging

1st to 4th in the group

Working group

David had a good day as both Jake and Danny won their classes and Danny took BOB.

June's Barney was best AVNSC and went on to G2

June and Barney

The group being judged

1st to 4th in the group

Take them round please

Some shots on the move

Good Citizen Dog test night

Our test night was held on the 10th July and with Puppy Foundation, Bronze, Silver and Gold to get through, it turned into quite a long night. A big thank you to Alison Robertson for kindly agreeing to be our examiner, especially when she had a major detour to add to her already long journey. Hope you managed to get up for work the next day!

The tests went very well with the majority passing with flying colours. Congratulations to all those who passed, we look forward to seeing you in the next class up. As usual, the biggest stumbling block was the stay exercise so, for those that didn't manage it this time, keep practising and you're bound to get through it at the next test in December.

See you all on 21st August.

Puppy Foundation

Younger pups had fun doing their Puppy Foundation.

Bronze

Bronze passes

Patiently waiting their turn

Show dogs can do stays too

Freya and Chance make the stay look easy

Cody politely goes through the gate

Silver

Silver passes

Jenny and Alison prepare to take the 'roadwalk'.

Be bright, be seen - you can never be too careful on those Keith pavements!

Gold

The Gold test has some difficult elements so well done to Diesel, Jay and Ozzy on passing.

Frances and Diesel

Steve and Jay

Lisa and Ozzy

Beauly does a perfect 'send to bed'

Diesel takes to the stage for his idea of the 'relaxed isolation' test.

Bon Accord

Bon Accord Kennel Association held the second of its two annual shows at the usual venue of the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre on the 7th July but this will actually be the last time the show is held there. It seems that the cost of hiring the centre has risen dramatically, making it unaffordable for the club and forcing them to look elsewhere for a suitable venue. Thainstone was mentioned as a possibility and at least that would bring the show a bit nearer our end of the country - perhaps the catering might be an improvement on the AECC!

Quite a few of our club members didn't make the show for one reason or another (don't relatives and friends check out dog show dates before booking their weddings?) but some did manage to get there and do well. Karen was jumping for joy as Ceilidh took BOB, G1 and then went on to RBIS! Quite an achievement for a Glen to get such a high honour, a first in Scotland Karen thinks.

There must have been much celebrating in the Forbes household as Caitlin won Best Junior handler and not handling her usual Westie but an Australian Shepherd.

Lorna took RBPIS with her Lakeland pup.

Morag's Arran took BOB, G2 and followed this with another success in the 'oldies' section by winning Best Pastoral Veteran.

Congratulations to you all!

It would have been great to have had photos of these wins but, unfortunately, nobody seems to have been around with a camera. Next time!

ACTS Open obedience show

Aberdeen Canine Training Society held a two day open show at Hazlehead park, Aberdeen on June 30th and July 1st. The weather during the run up to the show was not good and there were concerns that the show might not go ahead, especially since the council had cancelled a charity event at the same venue the week before. However, the sun shone on the Saturday and even the return to rain on the Sunday couldn't stop the show being a success.

Gladys had another great weekend and not just with Danny this time, Niki got involved too. They came home with an armful of rosettes having achieved (over the two days) 5th and 8th in pre-beginners and 9th in beginners with Danny plus 2nd and 6th in pre-beginners and 7th and 8th in beginners with Niki.

Colin and Beauly also competed and were placed 10th in pre-beginners.

Jenny was particularly pleased to win out of pre-beginners with Brint on the Sunday. This was his very first attempt at an obedience open show and it also means he is now entitled to have 'Pre-beg ex' after his name.

Well done everyone!

A very wet Pre-Beginners line-up on Sunday.

Jenny, Gladys and Colin are in amongst those waterproofs somewhere.

Last training night

Don't forget that tonight is the last training night before we break up for the summer. Next week is the Good Citizen test night - hope you're all practising!

You can keep the blog up to date with any results and photos from shows during the holiday, just email them in.

Have a great summer - let's hope the sun shines at some point! See you all when classes restart on 21st August.