Puttin’ On The Dog……Jan. 18, 2005

It’s getting to be that time of year, when I start thinking ahead to dog shows.  Every year, we take a family vacation in Colonial Williamsburg, VA.  It is an educational vacation for the children, and it just happens to be where Cavaliers of the Northeast holds it’s annual March dog show.

Getting dogs ready for serious dog showing takes a lot of preparation.  Now…..I am not the kind of person who buys all kinds of beauty aids for myself (Lord knows I should…though..haha)…………but look at the array that the dogs have.  You have your shampoos, your conditioners, your whiteners, your finishing cream. Cowboy magic gives us shine and slicker brushes help manage the curls. 

I will start giving the dogs that I will be showing, weekly baths now and will add good things like flax seed oil to their diet.  They will be walked and trained until they can’t stand the sound of that damn clicker.  Actually, it is a sound that they love, because they know a treat follows.

This March’s show team will be Max, Bliss and Max’s daughter, that cute little Dora. 

Here comes the fun part………………………………………

Into the tub they go……..neither Max or Dora are lookin’ very cute right now……….hehe

Look at how the same eye wanders when they are a bit nervous and mad at me for photographing them, when they look more like chipmunks than dogs…. 
Hard to believe they are show dogs, eh?

Then comes the endless blow drying………and yup…….a little more humiliation……………..

When you only have 2 hands….these drying coats really help those flyaway hairs stay still while I am working on getting those ears nice and straight.  Cavalier’s ears have a tendency to want to curl up like a perm when wet.

Dora is little enough, that she dries up quickly, so she was spared the drying coat…..but she wasn’t very sure about the forceful blowing air from the metro dryer.

Hard to believe she is the same dog in the sink, isn’t it…LOL?  She is feeling oh, so much better about herself!

At the end of the day however, it is not just about winning, it is about having fun and spending time with your dog ………but ………winning is nice too!

This was Max’s BIS picture at a match show last year.

After all that beauty spa treatment…….Max was ready for a good ole’ doggy snooze.

WOW……….Elann

All’s I can say is wow, wow, wow!!  Waiting for me at the Post Office was this package from Elann.  I am amazed at how fast it made it’s way to me from Canada.

What lovely yarn this Peruvian Highland Wool is!!  Now I am wishing that I had done what I was originally going to do and made my xo’s vest out of this nice yarn.  It is very soft and the color is vibrant.
With great service and yarn as lovely as this for such an incredible price…….I will definitely be back for more.  (self control……..she whispers……self control)

An Addum

My blogging friend Jean gave us this link today and let me tell you, it is the best laugh I have had all week……..OMG……I watched it a half hour ago and it is still playing and I am still laughing……..hahaha.  The scarey part, is I haven’t a freakin’ clue what he is saying……but I am still laughing…LOL.  Maybe the brain got a wee bit soggy from washing the dogs.   Thank you Jean!!! 

BTW…….Jean is an amazing knitter.  I can’t believe how fast she knit her son’s sweater!!  Go visit her blog, you won’t be disappointed.