Rose City Classic - Doberman Specialty

Today was our longest day at the Rose City Classic and it did not disappoint. Nim was a champ. I was pretty overwhelmed at times, but he did amazing.

Let's get some complaining out of the way. If you are new to the venue be prepared for there to be clear signs telling you everywhere you are NOT allowed to be without a clear sign telling you how to actually get in. Being a new exhibitor to an unfriendly venue was further complicated by my choice to take a shuttle and not drive myself.

After getting dropped off in the dark I proceeded to wander aimlessly around the building lugging a heavy crate, a chair, a pack, and a very hyper dog. It was awful. By the time I found a propped door to actually get in I was greeted with rows and rows of rings, but still no clear signs of where to go.

I finally found our ring, set up, and took an emotional break. Keep in mind, I also didn't get any paperwork for this show that I normally would have and I am new enough that I didn't even know how to look up run times online until the night before. I was frazzled.

Now the fun stuff. We were surrounded by Dobermans all day long. Most of the exhibitors were kind and supportive. The dogs were fun and Nim had a lot of social time.

We did 4 runs for the day, all against Dobermans only. The sponsoring Doberman Club (Mt. Hood) did a great job and I got to be around a lot of really nice people.

1 - Novice Obedience - Not pretty, but qualifying. This should be our AKC title (CD) run. I wish it had been better, but for an AM run given my stress level it was just great to be there with Nim.

2 - Rally Advanced - first leg. I was a little caught off guard what went wrong on this run, but we still had fun and I gave some thought on what we needed to try for the next run.

3 - Rally Advanced - second leg. Best run of the day for us. I caused us points. I made a call that was the wrong one. But he was happy and we worked well together.

4 - Novice Obedience - NQ. In many regards this was actually a better run than the first run of the day, but when he blew the heeling section he went big. Hahahaha.

After the final run he immediately got his frog which he held in his mouth for the rest of day. We went down to check out he confirmation Dobermans so he could pace in slow circles and show everyone his frog.

This was the lowest crowd day from the sounds of it, and still such a show jump for me. Tomorrow opens "All-Breed" so the hotel is already way more packed with dogs. Once I calmed down and got the lay of the land I really had a good time walking the circuit with Nim and checking out all the vendors.

It was incredibly hard for me to get photos of other confirmations rings. The Newfie ring on the other hand was huge. Majestic. The Akita ring was also beautiful to watch. The Dobermans, Akitas, and Newfies were all next to each other so that was a lot of gorgeous large dogs to watch.

For Nim it is all about the toys. We are both unbelievably tired, but what an experience. Great things learned and experienced today!