We spent most of Saturday working on the Samoyed specialty show conducted by our club, the Chicagoland Samoyed Club, and much of Sunday recovering from it. Up at 4:00am, washed and dressed, pile four dogs and ourselves into the car, drive to the Lake County fairgrounds in Grayslake, pile out, feed the dogs, set up the show, conduct the show, pack up after the show, tidy up the area, pile back in the car, drive home. We were back home at 3:00pm so it was eleven hours from rising to collapse.
For those of you not in the dog fancy a specialty show is a dog show restricted to a single breed—in this case Samoyeds—in which the competitors are judged on how closely they conform to the written standard for their breed. Our club hosts this show every year.
There’s something new to contend with every year: poor weather, unfriendly and uncooperative owners of other breeds sharing the tent with us, high winds, excessive heat (a particular problem for a coated breed like ours). This year we had a double whammy. The dog show was scheduled at the same time as an antique show/flea market further complicating an already-tricky parking situation and a week of rain had reduced the field to a sea of mud. Mud is no joke for a show dog with a long white coat. We had handlers carrying their dogs a quarter mile through mud from the limited parking, owners slipping in the mud, and dogs arriving at the tent covered in mud fifteen minutes before going in the ring.
Above an ingenious handler equips the Best in Specialty Show winner, Ch. Rexann’s Casino Magic, with improvised waders for a triumphant walk back to the car after the show.
