Home again, home again....

As they say, all good things must come to an end.  The car is long since unpacked, suitcases put away, laundry done.  We brought back many memories from our first National Specialty, but of course we couldn't leave there without some other "souvenirs" to help keep commemorate our time in Oconomowoc.  After all, there were fabulous shopping opportunities, and Frenchie stuff is hard to find!  Plus we wanted to do our part to support the artists and vendors who had booths there.  I'm great at justifying things, can you tell???

First, we had to get the obligatory win photos. I mean that poor photographer was just standing there, nice set all ready.  He needed something to do, and we had all these ribbons....

I thought it would be nice to have Brutus & Carmen together in the same photo  - not to mention that would have saved me $40 - but Brutus had other things in mind.  He had the crazy idea that the camera needed attacking, so we had to go through all kinds of antics to get the picture above (they had to hide the camera until the very second the picture was taken).  Carmen, on the other hand was perfectly happy to strike a pose!

Of course I did some shopping ringside too.  So many fun things to buy, but I was trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to stay on a budget.   I'd always admired a friend's clay Frenchie sculpture, and couldn't pass up the chance to bring home one of my own:

I think he's kind of a fun interpretation of brindle (dotted instead of striped), but Brutus is still on the fence about whether or not he likes my choice.

I don't know, mom.  Kinda looks like he has the measles...

Well, as long as he doesn't try to eat my food, I guess he can stay.

We got to meet Michele Copen, and Flat Brutus insisted we have her sign a copy of each of her Frenchie-photography collections for us to bring home.  If you love Frenchies, you HAVE to get her two books, The Heart Thieves (just released) and A Frenchie For All Seasons.

Then this was my splurge - kind of a present to myself for us doing so well in the ring.  I like it because it's kind of subtle, and is something I can wear anytime since you have to really look at it to tell it's a crazy dog person thing.  In fact if you look really close, I'm wearing it in Brutus' win picture above.

Finally, we were at a silent auction one night and saw this framed Dottie Dracos print.  It was a benefit for the French Bulldog Health Foundation, so everything that was bid went to help research that will help make Frenchies a healthier breed. 

I loved the colors, but what sold me is that it looks SO much like Brutus!

I don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about, mom.  I'm much more handsome...

Believe it or not, that's about it.  I got a sweatshirt or two for myself, but really not much of anything for the dogs themselves.  At least they got collar charms with their ribbons from obedience, so they have something of their own to show for all their hard work in the ring!

OK, so that's it.  I'm sure you've all had your fill of my ramblings about our trip.  It took us five - count 'em FIVE - posts to share it with you, so in the mean time I've gotten a chance to catch up on some of your blogs as well as capture nice mundane, normal moments from back at home.  No more shows until late next month, so Carmen and Brutus have been happy to be "just dogs" again.  That means lots of napping & snuggling on the couch, as well as a much-awaited return to daily walks now that our weather has finally cooled off.  Thanks again for being here to share it all with us!

The Wonders of Wisconsin (Oconomowoc, part 4)

Time to wrap up our posting about the a wonderful week in Wisconsin at the Frenchie National Specialty.  Even though we didn't get to spend much time outside the show site, there was no shortage of fantastic things to behold!

There was all the beautiful scenery right around the hotel,

although their swans are apparently carnivorous!

We got to witness many friends realize huge accomplishments in the ring, sharing in their jubiliation.

Our friend Lori won Best in Sweepstakes with her Pax, beating 120 dogs to do it - a once-in-a-life-time sort of accomplishment!  Look at that HUGE ribbon!

It was great to have friends there to share in our own joys as well.  We couldn't believe our eyes when Brutus got a special recognition at the awards banquet.  We had unknowingly achieved the highest scoring run at the agility trial, and got this really special trophy to commemorate our accomplishment:

No, Brutus...  That's not the award (he made me put that in for our pal, Mayzie!)

That's more like it!  What an honor!

Although it does kind of look like a wheel of cheese now that I think about it...

It wasn't all work, though.  We saw many dogs just chilling out:

Neill (Carmen's uncle) always brings along his "fan club"

And there was time spent time sunning with new friends:

That's Carmen and her fawn buddy, Teddy, enjoying a few sticks together while basking in warm afternoon sun.

Some dogs were there looking for handouts (that's Tansey, the ol' girl is really a hoot)

While others were busy striking a pose for the photographer

Our friend Sandy won the Veterans Sweeps with her girl Lola

Or just plain posing (Carmen, you are such a little ham!)

Then there were those who were just plain dog-tired.  That's Brutus zonked out ringside. 

It took some serious energy to win all those awards, you know!!!

As much excitement as there was, all too soon the Specialty was over and it was time to head back to Ohio.   We didn't have time to check out these places we saw from the highway, but they are certainly on our list of things to do if we ever drive through Wisconsin again!

Behold, the power of cheese!!

Really???

Besides, Brutus was fast asleep and I didn't want to wake him up by stopping! He really did sleep all 9 hours back to Ohio, other than 2 quick potty breaks! 

So that about does it for our big adventure.  It was a time I will never forget - my kids did me proud and we had the time of our lives.  The trip might be over, but the memories and friends we made will last a lifetime!  Thanks for coming along for the ride for our special adventure, we're glad to be able to share it with you!

Team Ohio Rocks the Specialty (Oconomowoc, part 3)

OK, I finally wrestled the laptop away from Brute's strong little paws.  My turn today!  Once you let that boy start talking, I guess he just can't stop...

As we continue our story from the FBDCA National Specialty, I suspect you are all dying to know how it went for Team Ohio.  We wouldn't have gone all the way up there to just watch after all!   I'll start by saying my frogs did me proud in the ring, and achieved and surpassed the goals I set for our first nationals!

Agility was the very first thing on tap for the week, being outside on Monday afternoon (a very strange time for a trial).  It was a beautiful day albeit it about 10 degrees warmer than I would ideally have liked.  But temps in the 70s, a good breeze and ample shade made it very comfortable for the dogs.  It was a first in two ways - agility had never been held at a Frenchie national before, and we've never trialled agility outside before.  There were many spectators on hand to watch about 20 Frenchies show off their athletic abilities.

Brutus and I were entered in two events.  Our first (Novice Standard) course went beautifully for 15 obstacles, then a small natural disaster ended our run a little prematurely- a gust of wind blew over a jump, disrupted our concentration and resulted in an NQ.  Bummer.  Thankfully our second run (Open Jumpers) was even better, Brutus running the best he ever had for me!   We had a clean, fast (well, for a Frenchie), qualifying round and which turned out to be the best run of the day.  The judge even commented that Brutus was the nicest-running dog there!  Quite a compliment considering the #2 agility Frenchie in the country was also there (the #1 dog was off getting his MACH2 title, gotta keep our egos in check!).

Here are the videos from our two runs.  Note to those of you following the blog via Facebook - these are the same videos I already posted on Brutus' wall, so don't worry that you are missing anything.  

For those of you who can't watch video on blogger, these are all on YouTube as well. 

Our other time in the ring was on Wednesday, the obedience and rally portion of the specialty.  Brutus and I had another nice Rally Excellent run (scored a 98/100, winning the Excellent A class), only one more qualifying leg to go for our RE title now!  We also braved the obedience ring for the first time, eeking our the first leg of our CD (Companion Dog) in Novice A.  

I only have video of rally, too bad since the obedience run was definitely more entertaining!  Brutus did well in most of the exercises (there are 7 parts to the test), but our heel free (off leash heeling) was pretty hilarious and the audience certainly enjoyed it.  I personally found it slightly excruciating, as I glanced back and Brutus was half a ring away from me instead of heeling at my side!  Unlike rally - where there is really no limit to how much you can interact with your dog, short of touching or feeding them - traditional obedience is much stricter.  You must walk with your hands at your side, and can only give one signal (either verbal OR hand) at most.  The dog must sit automatically when you stop, and speed up or slow down to match the handler's pace without any signals.  Brutus becomes unmotivated (to say the least) when I can't cheerlead him, so it was a small miracle when he caught up to me at the end of the heeling pattern!  But hey, we qualified and now only need 2 more legs for our CD title.  

Sorry for some camera malfunction, but thankfully I have the more successful (albeit less humorous) rally test to show you here:

Last  - but certainly not least - Carmen got her first chance to strut her stuff in the ring.  At six months and one week old, she had just become eligible to compete (6 months is minimum age for any AKC event) and was MUCH younger than any of our competition. Not to mention that she had to deal with all the distraction of noise and spectators sitting so close to the ring - a tough thing for such a young dog for sure!

No one told Carmen that apparently, because she blew almost every one of them out of the water!  We scored a 97/100 and came in 2nd in our Novice B class of 9 dogs - could have won if it weren't for 2 points of handler error!  After our run I told the judge how young Carmen was (he apparently thought she was a mini-Frenchie) and he was stunned.  Haha!  Here's the video of her short but sweet exercise.  I can't help but smile at her as she waddles along, looking up at me with those big brown eyes!

With that resoundingly successful debut, Carmen has the first leg of her RN (Rally Novice) title.  So proud of my little princess, who thankfully is NOT living up to her name of Drama Queen!  She took everything the whole week in stride, from the 9 hour car ride and crating in the hotel room to minding her manners in the ring and around all those other dogs!  I think Carmen is looking to catch up and pass Brutus before he knew what hit him!

Hey, mom - what's up with my shadow?  It's blue and has a "1" on it?

So that's it for our time in the ring at the specialty.  Even if they hadn't have placed so well, Brutus and Carmen are always #1 in my book!  Thanks for friends Andrea (who videoed our agility runs) and Hope (who was made sure our rally runs were on film), and those who took still photos during our runs.  There are some more good agility action shots floating around out there, will post them if we can get our hands on them!

Lots of other fun things still to tell you about, so I hope you'll stick with us for another few installments from Oconomowoc!  And yes, Mayzie, there will be cheese....

Frenchies everwhere! (Oconomowoc, part 2)

Let's see...  Where did I leave off??

After a good night's rest on our hotel room, we headed out to explore the grounds and happenings at the National Specialty.  Everywhere you looked, there was nothing but French Bulldogs! We saw Frenchies of every color...

No, mom not like that...  I mean every coat color!

 

Lots of them were strutting their stuff in the breed ring.  Brindles, black-masked fawns, pieds, you name it!

That's "Bru" on the left - you may have seen him win the group at Westminster on TV last year.

There was performance competition too, like the stuff we like to do!  It was so great to watch a group of Frenchies do the group "long down" exercise during obedience (this is the Open/Utility class).  They had to stay for FIVE whole minutes while their handlers were out of sight.  That's like forever!!  I think the dog in the middle might have been snoring...

For the first time ever, agility was part of the National Specialty!  It was a beautiful day for us frogs to amaze the specators, showing off how athletic we can be.  There were almost 20 dogs entered, all Frenchies!  Here's a few shots of the competitors:

Hey, wait a minute - this team looks familiar - no??

We made lots of new friends, both human and canine! 

This is mom's new pal Hope with her dog Teddy & his brother.  Carmen was pretty hot for Teddy...

 

And we got to meet Michele Copen, famous in the Frenchie world for her beautiful photography.   Mom bought a few of her books and even had them signed!

OMG - is that Flat Brutus??  Where HAS he been???

When mom wasn't shopping, we made sure to be around to root for all of our friends in the ring!

If you look close, that's mom in the foreground, Carmen watching closely from her lap.

Here's Tiffany, showing Levi

Lori (who is also my vet) with her boy Neill

Here's Lori again with Pax, who is now officially a rockstar!  They had a VERY successful week.

 

There was so much to do and see at the specialty, I'm afraid mom didn't take as many photos as she should have.  Now you have a taste of what we did and saw around the ring, so tune in next time to see what Carmen and I did IN the ring...

...you didn't think we just went there to watch - did you??

Team Frenchie on the Road!

Well hello everyone out there in blogland!  Once again we sort of disappeared!  I assure you, this time we had a perfectly good reason...

I planned to do daily posts from our road trip, but we were so busy I fear it never happened.  If nothing else you can now enjoy our travels knowing that we are already back home safely.  Guess I'll turn this particular post over to Brutus since he seems to be feeling a lot more energetic than myself at the moment.

AHEM - it's about time mom!  I offered to post all of last week, but nooo....  We have fans out there you know, they've probably been wondering what the heck we've been up to!  Let's see, where do I begin?

Last Saturday (as in a week ago yesterday) we knew something was up because mom gave us both baths - and we weren't even dirty!  Then she put our bath robes on (it does help my shiny furs dry faster after all) and took photos.  We knew blogworthy things must be in store.

Mom spent lots of time folding up stuff and putting it in bags and suitcases and packing it into her car.  I was pretty worried for a while.

Then I happened to notice that mom had printed out a sign on the computer and was taping into the car window (she's dorky like that...).  When I saw what it said I had a glimmer of hope and told Carmen not to worry.

Thankfully I was right.  Bright and early Sunday morning, mom got us up and before I knew it we were strapped us into our traveling spots

Co-pilot Brutus here!  All systems go!  Let's get moving! 

Mom punched the coordinates into her GPS (can you see it says 505 miles!  YIKES!)

We met up with some friends and fellow Frenchies, who we followed for a long, long, LONG time

Are we there yet??

We got stuck in Chicago traffic. 

After an hour of stop & go I got a little car sick (how embarrassing), but at least it got me an upgrade to the front seat!

After what seemed like forever, we finally stopped the car and got out.  Where in the heck ARE we, mom??  

Must be somewhere important, more photo ops!

Hey, wait a mintue.  That sign looks familiar.  Like I've seen it somewhere before...

OMG - it's the French Bulldog National Specialty!  We are in Wisconsin, holy cow!  It's our first time in a hotel room, pretty cool!

Looks like all our stuff is here!  And they even gave mom a sign to put on the door so that we don't scare the dickens out of housekeeping when they come in!

Phew!  What a long day it was.  Time to chill out and rest up for what is in store.  A whole week with nothing but Frenchies to see and play with.  Be sure to tune in again soon to see all the crazy things we did.  After all, what happened in Oconomowoc can't possibly stay in Oconomowoc!!