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A Quick Recap from Butters' First Dog Show

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Butters practices her stack.

Butters practices her stack.

Partial results from today’s Purina National Dog show in Tillsonburg, Ontario:

Judge Bud Haverstock

BOB — Belboulecan Mystic Winddancer
Best puppy — Evita Minimolos
WB — Rob Isle n Foxmoors Juanita

Sorry for any misspelling.

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Dog Show Temper Tantrums

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French Bulldogs have always been a popular ‘second breed’ for breeders and exhibitors. Downsizing from Mastiffs or even Bulldogs to something more compact makes sense – easier to carry, easier to show, less room required. What has come as a shock to many of these transitioning exhibitors is how downright nasty the French Bulldog ring can be from time to time. Oh, don’t get me wrong — all rings are competitive, that’s a given. Everyone showing on any given day is there because they expect to win – it’s just that, in the Frenchie ring, we seem to have more than our fair share of people who don’t take losing with anything approaching grace.

In fact, there’s an awful lot of similarity between some losing Frenchie exhibitors and a spoiled, tantrum throwing seven year old who’s just been told that the party is all out of chocolate ice cream.

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Dog Show This n' That

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Hope took some really fabulous photos at the IKC dog show in Chicago this past weekend. Most ring side photos are blurry messes, but Hope managed to get clear shots of all the competitors.

See them on her Flickr account —

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8700540@N02/sets/72157614226282873/

If you live in or near the Dallas Fort Worth area, make plans to attend the FBCDFW Specialty show. Details about the show are below.

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Kentucky Frenchies in the Big Apple

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The Examiner newspaper ran a story on popular French Bulldog breeder Bill Schaefer, of “RB” French Bulldogs. Bill, who is from Kentucky, sold French Bulldogs Oliver and Rocky to owner Stanley Zirlin, of New York City, where they lead dual lives as pampered house pets and competitive show dogs.

Bill traveled to NYC to be present for Rocky and Oliver’s debut at the Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Gardens.

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Westminster French Bulldog Results Are In

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Results are in from breed judging at Westminster — Kudos to all the winners!

LeBull’s  Midnight Confessions  — Best of Breed
Robobull Fabelhaft I’m On Fire  — Best of Opposite Sex

Awards of Merit went to —
Raindrop’s Justus Life’s A Game
Femme De Puisance
Jauger’s Clairice Jamel
JustUs I’m Your Man
Fabelhaft Robobull Too Darn Hot
LeBull's Midnight Confessions

LeBull's Midnight Confessions

Best of Breed (or BOB) winner LeBull’s Midnight Confessions – aka Lola –  is a bitch, which is always nice to see taking breed. If you watch the Westminster group judging tonight on television, it’s her you’ll see in the group ring representing French Bulldogs (update: Lola took a Group Second).

Lola was bred by Arlie Alford, Kennel Le Bull, and publisher of the world’s longest running French Bulldog Magazine, the French Bullytin. Arlie also happens to have been the co breeder of my own Westminster Best of Breed winner, Ch Bullmarket Versace (who just so happens to be the sire, via frozen semen, of our Delilah).

Lola was the winner of the 2007 FBDCA National Specialty. Winning ‘breed’ at Westminster is a big deal, but winning Best in Specialty Show? The biggest. Westminster is just the icing on Lola’s already well frosted cake!

The videos don’t seem to be operational yet, but eventually you’ll be able to see the breed judging via this link —

In the meantime, here’s a video of Lola at the Eukanuba shows in California:

French Bulldog entries at Westminster were scarily high this year, with French Bulldog entries second only to Labs (or some sporting breed or other – I’m too lazy to go look it up right now).  Unusually for this year, the weather doesn’t seem to suck too badly, thus spoiling a long standing tradition of shutting the city down with a great big heaping pile of snow.

I notice that WKC is doing some sort of remote broadcast that they’re calling “All Access – Inside the Hotel Pennsylvania”.  My past experience with the Hotel Pennsylvania (which the Benny Goodman swing tune “Pennsylvania 6500 was written about) is that it more than earned its not so affectionate nickname of “Hotel Pentagram”. Mold on the walls, rat bait in the hallways, carpet with disturbing stains on it, and comforters that a CSI lab would regard as a final entrance exam all add to the ‘charm’ and ‘ambience’ of this long standing Westminster Tradition (chosen mostly for the fact that it’s right across the street, dirt cheap, and allows dogs).

I once spent a pleasant hour or so trapped in a Pentagram elevator with my two kids, a half dozen handlers, and various show dogs. After pushing the emergency button repeatedly, we were finally answered by an irate hotel employee who angrily demanded we ‘stop pushing the alarm button’. I responded that we’d “stop pushing the button when you get us out of the f*cking elevator, you worthless sack of shit!”. Or words to that effect.

Oh Westminster, the show we love to loathe… and yet we all want to win there.
Oh, and do NOT ask me why the formatting on this post is so incredibly freakin’ bizarre. Man oh man.. I love wordpress, but sometimes I am truly nostalgic for good old fashioned, plain written html. I think that’s what we call “Old Web Designer” syndrome, symptoms of which include sentences that start with “In my day, web designers had to hand code, in note pad.”