Today I went to the NIPPO Chiba Regional. I did this on limited sleep, and with work in the afternoon, only because my mentor could not show his dogs due to his duties as an assistant judge. There's a female that is just over a year old now named Koharu that's turning out really nice. I've been able to watch her mature from when she was a few days old, and the plan was for me to show her this season.
This is the first time that my schedule has matched up properly, so I got down there bright and early, and gave Koharu a long pre-show walk around the park. She gets carsick, is a bit skittish, and hates the car/crate, so she's got a ways to go before the whole show atmosphere is a comfortable environment for her. Last week at the Tokyo Regional she got spooked by an engine starting up next to her just before showing, and forfeited.
I seem to do really well with handling dogs with confidence issues, and she did well for the most part, though I'm out of practice and my handling was pretty atrocious. We completely messed up the trot around the ring, and in the final judging stage I had trouble keeping her in her stack. Amazingly enough, we were called into first place, and managed to maintain position. All credit goes to Iwahori-san for having her in such great shape, my handling really was terrible. Anyway, a great learning experience, and a great result. No pics since I was busy, other than one consolation picture I took of a rolypoly Shiba pup as I was hurrying back to Tokyo for work.
