Well, the show was quite the learning experience....
First and formost, for any of you who think I am annoying normally, you ain't seen nothin. When I get wound I get WOUND... and I'm pretty sure I annoyed the hell out of everyone.
I always realize I was being a pain in the neck after I have calmed down... Demo always tells me to go have a drink
Anyway, Saturday was our first foray into the show ring. I told the judge I was new to showing, but left out that Riggs is a working dog and that is the reason he is so lean. He came in second in adult male. After we were done, the judge asked me if he was a weight pull dog and when I told her yes she said "Ooooh". Obviously I should have told her before we started the class, as the dog that beat us was very good looking but a bit on the larger/heavier side. Chris and Megan did some coaching after I got out of the ring and that helped a lot.
Riggs didn't pull like a mad man and managed to not barf in the ring in any of the shows. He sniffed a lot when we were going around the ring which I will work on for the next show. All of the judges said he has excellent movement.
The second show was a little more difficult. We had already started pulling and they hadn't decided if they were going to move the Pits to the end of the show or keep them at the beginning; so we kept getting conflicting information. I ended up taking Riggs' harness off and on a few times and just got more and more anxious/nervous about what was going on. I'm perfictly fine with chaos, but it has to be directed chaos. If I had to go back and forth, that was fine, but I had to know and not have it changed on me over and over. Big kudos to Megan, Jess and Bobbie for taking care of that one for me! More about the pull later...
We finally got things straightened out with the show stuff and I trucked up there. I was out of breath when I arrived and the judge actually directed me to wait in the shade and collect myself and my dog. The other handler was in the ring already with her dog standing in the sun. I was amazed at the patience of the judges and competitors. Not that I assume that people are going to be mean/rude but it was so far in the other direction that it was remarkable. We took best adult male in the second show and then got reserve male.
The third show was Sunday, and Riggs and I got it together for that one. We got best adult male and best Male, earning one more leg towards his champion title. We didn't get best of winners though.
The third judge was interesting to show under. In the adult male class the judge suggested I worm him, as tapeworms were common in my area. In the best male catagory she referred to Riggs as "malnourished". He's thin, but he is fit. If he was malnourished, he wouldn't have muscles sticking out all over the place.
The pulls were very frusterating for me. I haven't done a lot of pulling, but Riggs is perfictly capable of pulling the starting weights. On Saturday he earned his second weight pull leg, pulling 430 pounds. He wouldn't pull 510. His first foul was with the empty cart, lovely. Once we got him going he was much better. Like the other dogs that got taken out of the pulling to go to the ring, he did not sucessfully pull again.
Sunday's pull was a defeat for me, though I have to admit I was angry/frusterated/upset with Riggs about it. In the morning he pulled 800 pounds. In the afternoon he refused to pull 350 - which would have completed his weight pull title and earned him a "Total Dog" award (winning in the ring and earning a weight pull leg). He just looked at me and basically flipped me off. It was a long day for both of us, but he was absolutely capable of moving the weight, he knew what I wanted, but the training wasn't there.
A few people spent a lot of time with me explaining how to do the training he needs to have sucessful, willing pulls.
Chris, Megan and Karen did very well in the ring, pulling and racing. I'll let them post about their acheivements though.
I have a lot of pictures, I haven't gone through them yet. I'll try to get some up today or tomorrow.
I met many more "Pit Bull people" (Megan, Chris and April know
everyone). I can't say I remember everyone's names though
I handed out a ton of PitBullTalk cards as well, so I'm hoping some people will stop in!