Within a few weeks of Sierra's arrival, we headed to Arizona for the Canaan Dog Nationals, a two-long-weekend, nine-show extravaganza I had been planning and saving for since I'd first learned it was going to be that close to our home, Tucson, Arizona, The fact that my brother-in-law and his lovely bride had recently moved to Surprise, Arizona, made it twice as sweet because then we'd get to visit with them as well. Since they weren't as close enough to the shows to actually stay with them and commute, I'd budgeted to rent an RV for the entire duration, both so we could stay right on the show grounds (eliminating the need to stay in an area motel of questionable atmosphere, commute, pay for parking every day, and worry that traffic would keep us from being on time) and so we could try out RV travel to see if that was something we could or should plan for our future as retired people. What I had NOT planned for was our car deciding to lose a bearing at least 100 miles from my brother-in-law's, meaning we had to limp the fully-loaded car with an unhappy husband and three bored dogs through the desert and into the Phoenix suburb going about 20 miles at a time, about 30 miles per hour, and then stopping for several minutes to let the bearing cool before we could start up again. What should have taken about an hour and a half took us six. Which of course meant arriving in the middle of the night (if I had to guess, 2am?) and our gracious hosts waited up for us and actually let us come in, potty and crate the dogs, and get some food and water into us before we showered and fell into bed for 2 hours of dozing.
Because we still had a two-and-a-half hour drive to Tucson the next day, we had to leave at 4am to limp the car that entire way, arriving at the RV rental place mid-morning (around 10, so not horrible, right?) and spent our time trying to find someplace to repair our car because, of course, the pandemic and subsequent shutdown had put all the shops far behind schedule and we were being quoted dates in mid- to late-December of that year, at the earliest. That was obviously not going to work as Mark had only taken two weeks off and this was the second week of November. The RV rental place was kind enough to make a couple of suggestions and one shop referred us to another who referred us to a third who referred us to a brake place that said he could do it that weekend - yay! And fortunately for us, the brake shop was literally across the street from the racetrack where the show was going to be that weekend, so we were set. After limping to the grocery to stock up the RV with food and water, we limped the whole production to the brake shop, dropped off our car, and headed over to the racetrack for a long weekend of shows. Parking was haphazard but we got lucky and a sympathetic gentleman parked us where we had easy access to the grass for the dogs, the porte-loo for us, and electricity.
At this point Mark is not a very happy camper, to say the least. He'd added up the repair cost of the car issue (and griped that we were paying more than if we'd done it ourselves, but what can you do, right?) and the food and fuel and let's just say I had to make sure we had his favorite snack foods to make it a more pleasant weekend for him. But we had fun, and this was not only Mark's first show, because I was not up to the running around the ring, it was his first foray into the show ring at the same time. What a trouper, he went in with Riley every show every day and managed to get quite a few awards, including a couple of Select Dog ribbons and an Best of Breed Owner Handled at the designated speciality on Sunday.
He did get the chance go get into the Owner Handled Group judging ring, where the first day he learned just how conniving and rude other competitors can be when there was a gal with a Bouvier des Flandres kept crowding him and Riley, pushing into them, spinning around and around and resetting ever farther forward, edging in front of him to show off for the judge. She could tell Mark was new and passive and walked all over him but I knew he just didn't realize that she was being a bully, he was busy being a gentleman and staying out of her way. Riley, of course, was not fazed and basically stood there ignoring the pair as they shimmied their way around being awful. Meanwhile, on the sidelines, we all were frantically signaling Mark, trying to not look like we were double-handling but making it clear that she was doing something wrong. He didn't know what we were trying to say, bless his heart, but he was out there with Riley and watching the judge and for a first-timer, that's all we ask. All in all, a learning experience and it showed the next day when, back in the OH Group again, Mark made sure he was standing solid and wouldn't let her push him around, so YAY.
Mirage was expertly guided around the ring for all the shows by her sire's owner, the wonderful Keith Shank, who (with his gorgeous bride) were kind and helpful and just generally good people, as were all the other Canaan Dog people we saw those weekends. All in all, I think including Sierra there were (I heard someone say) 23 Canaan Dogs all in one place, and to me that was huge. It meant majors, of course, but it also meant I got to meet people I'd only ever talked to on Facebook, and see people I'd met once or twice in person (waving at you, Annette Israel, the owner of Mirage's dam, Galya, and who I had met on a previous drive cross country) and of course get to enjoy the fellowship of others who truly love Canaan Dogs.
I also got the great joy to see Mirage compete in the ring under the hand of someone who knew what he was doing and it was enough to garner her some truly nice wins, and of course the second weekend of the trip it was enough for her to finish her championship, which to me was a fabulous bonus. Additionally, having Keith staying in the adjacent RV spot at the second weekend location (the Pima County fairgrounds) was the best as we learned so much more about the ins and outs of RV lifestyle and it really helped us narrow our list of things we did and did not want in our future dog show camping vehicle.
On the last day of the show we were lucky to be able to pick up our repaired car (and not that expensive, considering he had to rush order the part and work on Sunday to install it the week before Thanksgiving and as a last-minute repair) and off we went, to the location of the second show, where we spent the week bemoaning the fact that it was so lovely but the area for the dogs to potty and have a recreational run was overrun with thorny weeds. Oh, well, at least it was pretty. We also attended a herding trial but, with Mirage in heat and both of our dogs going last (high heat, sheep that were 'over it' by then) all they ended up doing was Riley watching for Mirage and Mirage taking the time to empty herself (twice!) in the nice, sandy arena before deciding she wanted to be back in the car. Meanwhile, though, Sierra was having a blast watching the dogs to sheep stuff and what was really precious was watching Mark take her into the arena after the last dog and give her some paws-on experience with her power over the sheep.
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