I am second generation, not that that means anything. I found a dog I thought would be a great dog. I showed her while she was too young to win. I hoped some judge would see her potential and give her credit. She came close several times to getting pointed at tiny shows with local known handlers. She lost a lot. Some times I thought she lost due to the judge's lack of understanding of the Standard, as many shows were all breeds with judges who come from other groups or breeds that are very different from GSD's. I also thought that she blew all her best chances with bad behavior. She still does sometimes. Every now and then I thought she lost due to pure political plays. But not often!!!! The worst was taking care of my club's needs then searching for a handler who would be at my club's shows and would handle her for me. No such luck. Maybe it was because I was blacklisted, maybe not. I cannot say for sure, but I do know that my club's shows in the past were controled by others. I am now in a position to be sure the only person with any real control over who wins or loses is the judge. And I work hard to be sure the the judge's selected by my club members has every chance to select the dog of his/her choice for wins. It seems to be working, because while I continue to loose, the dogs that are winning are dogs of quality that I cannot complain about. I have not shown, except to support the sport, in 2 years now. Liddy may be back to hunt for her majors, I am hoping to find the means to get her back in the ring. Beyond that I have no plans to show any dogs until they are ready to win. I had planned on using my pups to support every regional GSD club I could get to. But I see now that I may well not have the funds necessary to be that nice. I cannot show my own dogs anymore, so there is no savings there. My kids are not interested. And Juniors must be interested to be any good at all. So no point bothering my boys. So, I have been a happy loser for 2 years, when I have been able to show at all. I go for the friendship, as many here do. I love the people, as long as we don't talk about which judge is crooked. I can put myself in a place where that does not matter. But I still read the standard with some regularity. When I have a dog that meets the Standard completely, and loses, you will know about it. When I can spend $500 a weekend for rather local shows with well known handlers and I continue to lose, you will know about it. I want to remain in a position where I do not enter dogs at my own club's shows, but sometimes we have to show dogs to keep the entry high. Well I want to stop that too. I am hoping that I, along with my other club members, can create shows that will draw enough people down here that I don't have to fill out classes with whatever I can dig up. And I want to keep my own dogs out of my 'own' ring so that I can enjoy the day with NOTHING to lose but sleep and nothing to gain but a few pounds from eating too much. Some day I want to be a winner. Maybe I have 2 pups that can win for me. Maybe I don't. I will not speculate about their quality here. If they are my own breeding, their wins are mine, their losses will be mine too. Mom finally got her champion. Thanks go to Fred and Ellen, Tom and Sandy and Deb, and the Girlz. Mom finally got the $$$ to buy into some really good lines and some really strong pull. It all came together for her. G-d love her. Yes, she got a really great dog to start with. But $$$$ had a lot to do with her success. I am still paying for private school for my boys. And the more dogs you have the bigger your vet bills, unless you are the vet. So for now I have healthy dogs, but no one in the ring. If anyone wants to see my bitch and help me decide how to finish her, I will welcome the help. But $$$ is tight now, and she is just coating up finally from her small litter. She is getting more excersice than she did before the pups, they keep her going, as they do me. She needs conditioning time at a kennel and a handler who appreciates her quality, who will go to the trouble to find the best judges for her and get her the majors so I can say I have ONE champion. In the meantime I continue to lose when I enter a dog, but I lose with the understanding that I will still have to run the to little girls room as soon as judging is done, making me look like a sore looser, when I really just have a small bladder. sheila Sheila of Miami Mernydex GSD's Loving Obedience Dog Training __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2006. 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