This past weekend I took Ranger and Beau to Wapakoneta, Ohio (home of Neil Armstrong), for a UKC conformation show. My Dad met us there and showed Beau all weekend.
On Friday, under Judge Laura Frizzell-Soloman, Beau and Dad won Best of Breed and then placed 4th with me handling him in the Herding Group. In the second show, under Judge Sally Sklar, they again won Best of Breed and when I took Beau in for Group he got 3rd of 6 breeds.
Saturday went the other way–Ranger took Best of Breed in the first show under Judge Richard Klatt, giving him his third and final competition win toward his UKC Champion (he is now U-CH J Cross’ Currahee). He went on to place 4th of 8 breeds in the Group. I moved him up to the Champion class for the afternoon show and he again won Best of Breed, but was doing all of his tricks except standing still and didn’t place, but had a really good time.
On Sunday Beau won Best of Breed in both shows (Ranger was happy and wiggly, but still gave the old man a run for his money). The running comments from the judges this weekend was that once Ranger grows up, fills out, and settles down, he’ll be tough to beat. That’s encouraging!
The next time I’ll be out with the boys will be at UKC Premier, where they’ll be shown in the Catahoula Specialty, as well as Ranger being shown in all the regular conformation shows. Beau will be shown in the Premier on Saturday only, and will also compete for his Family Obedience title.
Some of my plans for the future with Ranger are varmint control, backpacking, as I did with Beau, as well as weight pull and protection sport. I hope to run him in treeing with Beau in the fall since they both enjoy treeing critters and are pretty vocal. Ranger has already been out on the trail with Beau and me, and shows a LOT of promise for being a good pack dog. He enjoys wearing a harness, so I have confidence he’ll be good at pulling (he’s very honest). I won’t be putting any weight on or behind him for some time yet (he needs to finish growing), but it’s still good to get him used to being in a harness or under a pack while he’s still excited about everything.