rainbowshowdogs.com Blog

Ok – everyone knows dog shows are my passion and life. Holidays or weather does not normally deter me from my love (other than my hubby – grin) I normally make the best of any show situation. However – this is one show I can not speak kindly about.
Claremore, Ok – they have a 2 day show every year. 10 years I attended this show – two seperate buildings, always seemed to rain, messy. Then, they got a new show site. We had to groom on dirt – but good grass and plenty of room. Their entries increase and we loved going to the show. This year – they touted a new show all on concrete. HAHA – what they didn’t tell us is that yes, the groomin is all on concrete – but half of it is under a circus tent.
My good friend and client Barbara came out to the show site on Friday at noon to wait for the door to open to get us “free grooming”. She was tenth in line, waiting an hour to get literally a 4×4 spot for 8 dogs. We had sent in for reserved grooming but they had sold out. Then, Miss Barbara had to sit and hold our spot until 7 pm when we got there with the other crates. People kept trying to force her to double stack big akita size crates – I don’t think so.
Ok – so on top to the bad grooming Oklahoma decided to have a rare March snow storm. Everyone was watching the weather to see what the weather would do, we had the rain for sure – which meant the big circus tent of grooming was a total JOKE! Can’t you just see using electricity on wet concrets??? That is what they had to do!
Jessica and I ended up traveling up together – safer with the bad roads. After changes in my show string, we only traveled with 3 dogs, Ayden (Chinese Crested), Cedar (Cardigan Welsh Corgi), and Jasmine (Long Hair Dachshund). We arrived fine, set our space – already looking over the mud building up and were groaning. Got to the hotel, relaxed had a good evening. When we woke up Saturday – it was raining – miserable and cold. When we got to the show site, I left the two bigger dogs out in the car – there was no way to get them in the building without being wet and dirty.
Our day started off cold and got the first dog in the ring – Ayden – and YEAH, he went Winner’s Dog and Best of Winners for his 1 pt! I am so proud of Jessica for this win! The judge really liked Ayden and that made Jessica really happy. I helped in the Great Dane ring and My client Zee showed her Bred By bitch to Winners Bitch for her first point – so more success!!!
After these two wins – we looked outside and SNOW! TONS of SNOW!!!! We couldn’t believe it! My Siberian Client Ruth was so sweet to let us put a grooming table up and to borrow her dryer in the main show building. There was no way to groom in the side building. Jessica was sooooo sweet and got the girls in for me and helped get them groomed as fast as we could – this was NOT a show for serious grooming.
I showed the Siberians and got 2nd out of 3 with Feather. Then showed Riley, Ruths Champion to a Best of Opposite Sex win! Then, got to the Cardigan Ring where Cedar went Winner’s Bitch, Best of Winner’s for 2 points! Then, Jasmine followed up with Winner’s Bitch/Best of Opposite Sex for 2 points too! Showed my Akita, she won her class but nothing else.
All day we watched the snow come down and down and down. We enjoyed taking photos of the snow – at one time we had quarter size snow flakes. It was wet and MISERABLE. To just make it worse, in the afternoon, they told everyone to evacuate the Circus tent grooming area. The snow was so heavy they were afraid the tent would collapse. As you can see from the above photos, where these people were going to move their show gear – no idea?!!! We were that packed and crowded.
By the end of the day we had 4 inches of snow still on the ground – good snowball making snow – ask Jessica – I got her twice with snowballs! The roads were fine.
I realize the kennel club may have not had a choice about this facility but I have not heard from one person who is going to attend this show site again. We were blessed with some wonderful wins for the day, but with 3 weekends of 3 days shows all surrounding this show circuit, I don’t plan on attending this show site again!
OK – off to bed! Lets see if we can have another great day tomorrow!

I really need to head to bed – but you know – sometimes the silly computer just calls and you gotta do work. The Rainbow Gang just got back from 3 days of shows in Fort Worth, TX. On Friday we had specialties in Great Danes, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and Golden Retreivers. Saturday and Sunday were all breed shows. I traveled with my assistant Ren Jordan. We missed her JR’s entry so she just traveled to work with me. We also had Jessica, Lauren, and Tonya with us. Sharing our set up was Elizabeth and Lisa. A BIG HUGE THANKS TO ELIZABETH for setting up for us. The Fort Worth shows SUCK for grooming – if you don’t get there very early on Thursday, you end up stuck out in the pig barn to groom – NOT our idea of FUN!

The weekend was successful. I got a major reserve on my Rhodesian, Stella, at the specialty! My Viszla, Milo, earned his 2nd major!!! Cedar, my Cardigan got a reserve. Ray my Great Dane earned 3 1st place ribbons. Jasmine, the Long Hair Dachshund won her class one day. A new Golden we are working with made the cut in a huge open class one day. Lauren Moore earned a 2nd and a 4th in Open Intermediate Junior Showmanship. Elizabeth got Boomer’s, Cardigan, first major and a reserve! First weekend for this young boy! Don’t think Lisa did much with her Belgain Sheepdog, some placements if I am correct. Jessica had the only Chinese Crested in her class, so she did win that.

Ren did get to show some dogs this weekend – Thank you to Lyn Buck, Jim Baum, Elizabeth Macnair, and Bruce/Joanne Barnes for trusting her skills in the ring. Ren got to show a Cardigan, Long Hair Dachshund, and a Siberian. On Sunday, she did go Winners dog with Sonic, the Siberian for 1 pt!

Ren has turned into an awesome assistant! I was in the best of care this weekend – she ran my set up like an old pro! Dogs were groomed, cared for, she even knew where stuff was in a crammed set up, PLUS kept me in line with my ring times. She has such a natural skill at this sport, it is such a joy.

Other dogs that are attached or have been attached with the Rainbow Gang also had an awesome weekend. Hailey, Great Dane, got back to back Winners Bitch and Award of Merits at the two Great Dane Specialties for her first two majors! She also went Best of Opposite Sex in the Puppy Sweepstakes. Abbie, Australian Cattle Dog, earned her final major and finished her Championship. Zander, one of our Cardigan puppies did beat competition in his class.

On Sunday the Cardigans had a Meet the Breed: Elizabeth, Lyn, and I took our kiddos over to help other Cardigan fanciers show off our great breed. The kids enjoyed the attention from the crowd. Lyns and my baby “Bonner” just laid on the table acting like all this attention was nothing new!

Three families that I know finished dogs down in Fort Worth – CONGRATS to Frank and Brenda for Yonah, Great Dane, finishing his Championship. CONGRATS to Juhree, for Zora, Great Dane, finishing her Championship. CONGRATS to Barbara for Dottie, German Shorthair Pointer, for finishing her Championship. CONGRATS to Bruce and Joanne, for one of Cosmo’s Sisters (IO I think), Siberian, for going Winner’s Bitch on Saturday for a point. Hillary had her Bordeaux down there – her boy Bogie went Breed both days and if I am correct Skylar earned a point on Sunday.

I also got to see one of my Curly Babies – Katie this weekend. Her dad Phil and his daughter Adrian came up from Houston to show Katie and their older boy King. I know King earned reserve to the major on Saturday, but sorry to say I didn’t see them on Sunday, so don’t know the outcome. This was Katies first show, she has some really nice potential and it will be great watching her grow up!

I also want to thank Ashlynn Rose for her help with ring conflicts – she and I helped each other this weekend when we had tight times. Her friendliness is much appreciated!

And, Thank you Miss Tonya for getting our lunch Saturday and Sunday. It was very sweet of you to bring us in some hot fresh food. Ya’ll may not think going to get hot food is a big thing – BUT it IS!!!

I know we have pictures from this weekend – I look forward to showing the good ones off. But, first, I want to crash and get some well needed sleep!