Alberta Kennel Club Dog Show
Show Report by Candise and Scott Berard
The weekend started with a bang of thunder, literally. Not only was there thunder and lightning, but also rain and even hail. Scott, Robert and I managed to put the display tent up, though the pelting hail didn't help much. The set up was successful and the display tent was ready to go at about the same time as the rain finally stopped!
It was a chilly Friday morning when we started, but luckily for us, the weather cooperated for the rest of the weekend. That morning we had several pleasant encounters before we had even entered the ring. As Robert and I were hanging around the front entrance, waiting for Ralph and Auður, we were approached by a lady who asked if she could "pet the Icelandic". Talk about surprised, I swear both Robert and my mouth nearly dropped to the floor. Once I finally got my speech back I asked how she knew what type of dog they were. Her response was, "I have done my research". Shortly after that, we had someone else approach us. This time it was his second guess at what kind of dog it was, but it was still impressive. Whatever we are doing, we must be doing something right! People are finally getting to recognize our breed.
When we met with our first judge of the weekend, Robert was bombarded with questions as soon as he entered the ring. "Are they supposed to have dew claws?" "What do these dogs do?" "How do they herd?" these are only some examples of the questions that Robert was asked.
It was unfortunate that the judge clearly knew nothing about our breed but expected. The Judge even went as far as to ask our opinion on the choice that he made for the winner. The reasoning for his pick was that he chose the dog that he felt had the most solid structure and cleanest movement. It was a interesting insight into what made this particular judge pick one particular dog over another, and with it being my first time in a ring, I was extremely appreciative of his patience.
The Best of Group event went as expected. Being an unknown breed to the judge and unfamiliar with the standard, we were not surprised to not be placed. I'm sure as the breed becomes more recognized, we will change this, and this I am sure of!
The next day was much better for the dogs. They'd finally settled down over the excitement of being somewhere new and were showing much better form! The next morning we headed back to the show, only to find ourselves with another judge who knew nothing of the breed, or it’s standard. We found out from a conversation later on in the weekend, that this judge was basing his opinion more on the handling of the dogs then any other attributes.
The third day was the day we had all been waiting for. This was the day that we would be judged by the first actual FCI judge. We had no idea whether he had judged Icelandic’s before, but he did not ask us for any information about the breed. He was very professional and thorough and seemed to know what he was looking for. To Pineridge's credit, Laski was the winner!
On the fourth day, everyone seemed quite ready to finish the show. Four days is quite a long stretch to be in high gear! As we were waiting to go in for Best of Group, we had the pleasure of chatting with two of the judges. We asked them about what they thought of the breed. Their main comments seemed to be geared more towards the handler’s inexperience in the ring. This didn't come as a surprise to us, as most of us are in fact quite new to this! When Scott got out of the ring with Vindur he had a huge smile on his face, which since he didn’t place seemed odd, but as he explained to me, I guess when he was parading Vindur around someone from the crowd said "What an awesome looking dog".
In the end, we accomplished what we set out to do. We were mainly there to have fun and bring some recognition to Icelandics. Our dogs could not have been better ambassadors for the breed! There are more people who know about them now, as well as more judges who have a better idea of how the breed should be judged. Each one of our dogs, whether a winner in the ring or a winner in our hearts, is part of an amazing Icelandic Sheepdog community.
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