2018 American Whippet Club Mid-West Specialty
Our July highlight is always the American Whippet Club Mid-West Specialty in beautiful Madison Ohio. This year was a hot one, but with the lakeside show site, a record high entry of beautiful dogs and friends reuniting from across the country, it was summer at its best!
My personal goal for the weekend was for Minnie to win Winners Bitch just one day. That may not sound like a lot, but that’s actually incredibly ambitious at a show like this with over 89 class entries and breeders from all over the country showcasing their best. But one win at a show this large would be enough to finish her American Championship, so I was crossing every one of my fingers and toes that we would show well enough to earn that coveted top spot just once!
We didn’t have to wait long. At the very first show of the weekend under breeder judge Shelley Hennessy, Minnie won not only Winners Bitch but Best of Winners as well, for a thrilling 5-point major to finish her AmCh!! Her daughters Angel and Grace took 1st and 2nd place respectively in a large 6-9 month bitch class, so Angel was actually in the Winners Bitch competition against her mother with Gracie on deck, which was pretty exciting in itself!
The rest of the weekend the pressure was off, which was great. Minnie moved up to the Specials and we focused on having some good ‘big ring’ experiences with the youngsters, who received some nice recognition as well. Gracie took 2nd place in her class four times over the weekend, and Donnie took 1st place four times, and was awarded Best of Opposite Sex in Sweeps on the Saturday. I also had the opportunity for a photo session with Julie Poole Photography, who captured the gorgeous shot of Donnie below.
As a final word, I need to give special recognition and thanks to my friend and travel partner Karen Spisak for all of her help and patience over the weekend. Karen and I have been friends since grade 1, though she just recently got her first whippet, one of my keeper pups Angel. The deal from the start was that Angel would live with Karen day to day, but that I would show her as dog showing was way outside Karen’s comfort zone. Well you know what they say about ‘the best laid plans’ ... after just a few weeks with Karen, Angel decided that she only had eyes for Karen and didn’t want to go in the ring with anyone else. So my ‘non-dog-show’ friend jumped on board hauling crates, helping groom, running dogs back and forth to the ring AND showed Angel entirely herself over the weekend. She did an amazing job!! I am so proud of both Karen and Angel, and look forward to watching these two continue to learn, grow and have fun together.
