Paignton Championship Show 2006

Hazine Takes Best of Breed!

Paignton Champ Show is the closest Champ show to us, and is a wonderful show to attend. It takes about 2 hours to get there by car, and as we were expected in the ring at 10am, we decided to get there in plenty of time.

Our journey started at 6.45am, my mum and I drove up to Sallys house (Huri Anatolians), where we met up, and then travelled in convoy to the showground, about half an hour from her home.

We had a truly wonderful day. There was a good entry for our judge, Mr Vernon Miles (Kurtkir), and judging started at 10am prompt. There were no puppies present on the day, so the first class in the ring was Post Graduate Dog. I handled a three year old male, Besici Ayi for Jill O'Flaherty in this class, of which he was the only dog present, and was awarded the 1st place. I also handled this dog for Jill in the Open Dog class, where he was awarded 3rd place. Best Dog was awarded to Rachel Ancell's Nadide Kadir, and Reserve Dog was awarded to Mr White's Cazibe Cahil.

Next up was Post Graduate Bitch. I handled my own bitch Hazine in this class, which included competition from Sally's bitch Tuzla Tulin of Huri, and the litter sister of Best Dog. Hazine was awarded 1st place in this class, with Mr White's Cazibe Ferdi being awarded 2nd place, and Sally's Tulin in 3rd place.

Next, Open Bitch. This was won by Anne Yates with her French Import Ullikumis Ridil des Shumagins of Asalet, with her partner, John Field in 2nd place with their other French Import Ugarit Yacat des Shumagins of Asalet. 3rd place went to Rachel Ancell's French Import Raspa Du Val De La Boisserie.

Anne and I then competed for Best Bitch. The judge awarded Hazine with Best Bitch, and Ulli with Reserve Bitch.

Crunch time! Best of Breed. Hazine then had to try and beat Rachel Ancell's Kadir to win. A tough one in any situation, but against such a superb young male, I was sure he would get the Best Of Breed. After moving the dogs again for the judge, he awarded Best Of Breed to Hazine! I couldn't believe it! My first ever Best Of Breed showing my own dog and not someone else's!

It was an amazing day, and we decided to stay and compete in the Group Ring at the end of the day. We had quite a few hours to wait, and it was an incredibly hot day, with very little shade at this showground, so we found a quiet corner in the collecting area of the big ring and set up 'base' in the corner.

The dogs were hot, so wet towels and cool drinks for them, and cool drinks and lunch for us!

We were finally called in to the Group Ring at about 5pm. Every Best Of Breed from the Pastoral Group was present, and there was great support for every dog at ringside. Anatolians tend not to get anywhere in the group ring, and true to form, we didn't! However, it was a pleasure to have taken part, and to have been able to represent the rougher coated Anatolian in the big ring. The Group was eventually won by the Australian Shepherd Dog.

Happy with our successes, we packed up, and left the showground. The traffic leaving was quite heavy, so several miles of traffic jams before hitting the motorway. Half an hour along the way, Sally peeled off the dual carriageway to go home, after much tooting and flashing of headlights we continued what would usually be about and hour and a quarters journey. WRONG!!! A couple of miles down the road, one of our back tyres blew out in the fast lane of the dual carriageway. With smoke and sparks flying, we managed to stop fairly safely, and a bit shaken up, we got out to inspect the damage. We got Hazine out of the car, and I decided that I would try and have a go at changing the wheel myself - frantically trying to remember what my dad had taught me years before, I managed to change the wheel to the 'space-saver' spare wheel, which seemed to be about half the size! We got ourselves together and continued home at about half the speed as there are restrictions on how fast you can travel on these little frizbee wheels! So finally, at about 10pm we limped back into the driveway, tired, a bit shakey, but still so very very happy with what had happened at the show earlier in the day!

Below are a few snapshots of the day:



Above: L - Besici Ayi in PGD & R - Huri Hazine of Hisar in PGB.

Above: L - Huri Hazine of Hisar in PGB & R - PGB Class line up.

Above: L - Best Bitch & Reserve Bitch & R - BOB with Judge Vernon Miles.

Above: Tulin and Hazine cooling off while waiting for the Group Judging.

Above: L - Hazine in the Group Ring & R - Unscheduled stop!

Above: L - Frizbee wheel goes on & R - Who says women cant change wheels!

A very big thank you to our judge, Mr Vernon Miles for awarding our girl Hazine Best Of Breed. You can see Sally's Huri Anatolians at http://huri-anatolian-shepherd-dogs.blogspot.com/ where you can meet some of Hazine's family. Hazine also has her own family photo album at the Hisar Homepage www.kehlibar.netfirms.com