Moving right along to mid-June, I was ring stewarding at Little Fort KC of Waukegan when a shiba got a placement. Unfortunately I did not see him until afterward because I was still stewarding :-/ but managed to a get a photo right after!

Brenda and Ku victorious at Little Fort

I have some more photos from that show up at http://lyndabeam.zenfolio.com/p365087757

That shiba would be Ku, aka Ch. Roscka’s Bit Jutsu No Sosaku who picked up a Group IV from judge Judy English Murray. She’s a dal breeder and so not so influenced by breeds because they require lotso grooming <grin>

A little bit South, Katrina Nielsen was having a lovely weekend with Draco (dare I mention new Ch. Kanani?) who won his first group placement under Mr. Pete Dawkins at Rolla MO KC. I had to look up his name because AKC did very interesting things to the spelling. Draco’s full name would be (ahem!) Ch. Kobushi Justa Draco Rosso. It might actually have been Gr Ch by that time, but I’m not sure!

Gr Ch. Kobushi Justa Draco Rosso (from Kobushi website, hope Katrina doesn't mind!)

and waaaaaaay to the West, somewhere on the Left Coast, the defending National Specialty Winner known as Buddy to his friends, and Ch. Jogoso’s Fool for Love to everyone else picked up two big rosettes over the weekend at Bahia Sur KC 1 and 2. The first a Group IV was awarded by Mrs. Brenda Newcomb and the other was a Group III from Mrs. Monica Canestrini.

BISS Ch. Jogoso's Fool for Love (courtesy of his owner)

No wins this week “North of the Border” as far as I know from Canada, Patricia, let me know if I’m wrong!

Shibas Down Under (from Orienta)

June 19, 2010
Mackay Kennel Club, Judge: Ms M Hoy, R/U BEST IN GROUP (Group 2), Orienta The Benchmark

Ch Orienta The Benchmark (courtesy of his owner)

Thanks again to Pat & Debbie for their help reporting on shibas in the group rings! Still looking for a European correspondent to send me wins from that area of the globe!

I missed one and it was even in the AKC page. I quite remember seeing it actually … but somehow it didn’t make it to the blog, so here goes and apologies to Mickey’s great great grandson!

Ch. Mo’s Grand Thunderstorm took a Group III at Ashville KC (2) under Christine Salyers Anderson. Nice sized group too!

Ch. Mo's Grand Thunderstorm (borrowed from Mo's FB page )

In the U.S. we saw a total of 6 group placements this week, including a Group First and the return to the ring of a blast from the past.

On June 12th, the reigning Top Twenty winner, Ch. Trynyty Cayenne of Thunderpaws, came out from retirement to take a Group IV at Colorado Springs KC under Judge Donna Buxton. Showgirl that she is, I am sure she enjoyed another trip around the big ring!

Ch. Trynyty Cayenne of Thunderpaw, a shibaweb.com photo from the 2009 National Specialty weekend

Also on June 12th, Kenneth Miller awarded a Group IV to Mamiya’s Diamond Jo. No photo available of this shiba, please send me one of you have it!

Flagstaff KC 1 and 2 were lucky for Ch. Copperdots Rexlas Kaching with a Group II awarded by Col Harold R. Brizee on Saturday and a whopping Group FIRST on Sunday from Mrs. Elaine E. Mathis. Need photo for this dog as well.

Last but not least, the O So Handsome shiba (Ch. Taichung O’so Handsome) is back to his winning ways with a Group II under Noreen Cartwright at Tacoma KC.

Ch. Taichung O'So Handsome (Photo courtesy of his owner, Laura Perkinson)

Shibas North of the Border (contributed by Patricia De Geus)

On June 11th and 13th at the Comox Valley Kennel Club show in Black Creek, British Columbia, Ch. Takehiro Akashima De Namiko took a Group 1st under judge Valerie Gervais and a Group 4th under judge Carol Graham. Also need photo of this shiba!

Shibas Down Under (contributed by Debbie Bexton (Orienta))

Ch Orienta The Benchmark

Orienta the Benedict (courtesy Orienta Kennel website)

Orienta Devils Keeper

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When his family is faced with having to leave home, Turbeaux takes charge, as only a Shiba can. Turbeaux oversees the packing of his bag, complete with toys and treats; the packing of the van and of course all social activities! Along the way he helps another dog and in the end, Turbeaux is successful in keeping his family safe! A must for Shiba lovers and all pet-owners. Funny, yet informative.

The first in a series of Shiba related “tails”!

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Address to send checks:
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Only one shiba successful in the AKC group rings on this weekend, and it was Ch. Mo’s Grand Thunderstorm continuing his winning ways with a Group First under judge Jim Frederiksen and a Group II under Mrs. Charlotte Patterson at Albemarie KC (1 & 2 respectively).

Ch. Mo's Grand Thunderstorm (borrowed from Mo's FB page )

On the other coast though, Austin McCarty did pick up a Best Junior Handler handing a (I assume) a shiba inu. Judge was Dr. John Shelton.

Austin and "Buddy" (a Shibaweb photo from the 2009 National Specialty collection)

Shibas North of the Border (courtesy of Patricia De Geus)

On June 5th at the South Shore Kennel Club show in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Kyree Flight of Fancy At Grunfeld took a Group 4th under judge Geraldine Taylor. (no photo available)

On the same day at the Club Loisirs Canins in Beauport, Quebec, Arisu’s I’m Your Man took a Group 3rd at the first show and a Group 4th at the second show under judges Cec Ringstrom and Elaine Whitney. Cohen is owned by Laura Matheson.

Arisu's I'm Your Man - from the Arisu Shiba site

I always go to this show … not because it’s particularly lucky … it’s not. Not because it’s particularly lovely … it’s not, usually at least once during the weekend we have a downpour and then it’s not only hot, but hot and humid. No, I go to this show because it is literally 10 minutes away from my house. That’s driveway to parked in the parking lot, takes 15 minutes if I get lost (which I did the first time I went there after I moved here because I turned North on Route 47 instead of South … who puts  a fairgrounds in the middle of town?!)

This year was no exception. I had Mr. Trouble in his summer underwear as a move up, mostly just because Holli Levine had entered Edward. Trouble (as you may remember) had finished his championship the week before and probably deserved to be pulled due to lack of hair, but he needed the practice because he was generally acting like a horse’s butt on the table.

So we get to the show nice and early and show in my LEAST favorite building there, which is dark and rather dirty and ring runs right into the wall which does freak out some dogs. At least that wasn’t a problem on this day.

Our judge was Mrs. Rita Holloway and the entry was Holli’s Edward (Hi-Jinx Sirius Black), Yori’s male Daiko (Daiko No Kyoutenmaru Go) and Trouble moved up to BOB. That was it! So I show Edward in his puppy class, Yori shows Daiko in BBE, and Edward is Winners Dog. I go back in on Trouble who was clearly embarrassed to be shown in his summer underwear, Jonathan comes back in with Edward because Holli doesn’t really want to show Jonathan wins the breed from the classes. He loves to beat me

Daiko No Kyoutenmaru Go (a shibaweb.com photo from the 2010 Nippo Classic)

Fortunately due to the short distance to and from the show, Jonathan and I return home because it’s hotter than you know what at the show. Poor Holly went to the Farmer’s Market because I said she couldn’t come over because the house was not company ready (which is pretty much true most of the time), although I did tell her if she got desperate to come on over. She managed to survive.

I returned later to show Edward in the group and he showed very well for being a puppy and his second time in group, AND outdoors and very hot. He was a good boy.

Edward in Group ... very tall grass

The following day, we were back again with the addition of JT and MaryAnne Vogt and their new little girl Nara (Tobishi’s I’m Such A Hottie At Nekatzuki) who goes back to the Mouseman which makes her perfect in all ways. Even more perfect than JT’s Hanako

Nara who was beget by Shiyann who was beget by Toby who was beget by Harlot who was beget by Mickey which makes her perfect

Our judge on this day was Mrs. Sandy Wheat who seems to judge here every other year. Fortunately though, she is a very nice. My only problem with her was that she wiped her hands with antiseptic just before going over Trouble and he wasn’t happy about it, so it was 1 step forward this weekend and 2 steps back for him … but I digress

Edward was WD once again (and we finally got Holli into the ring for BW woohoo, she has these neat shorts that zip bottoms on and voila! pants!), Nara was the only bitch and so she was WB. Trouble was there … Evidently Mrs. Wheat agreed with me that Nara is perfect in all ways because she gave her the breed at her very first show, duplicating what she did two years ago when she gave Nara’s dam a Best of Breed from the classes (2007). 2 years previous to that she gave my Jimmy the breed (2005) but he was a champion so she doesn’t dump specials all time and you can see I was quite serious about her judging shibas there every two years Nara was also obviously Best Puppy. Edward was BOS, so unless you looked at the results online or read my blog, no one can prove he was there!

I decided to hang around and give moral support to MaryAnne in groups (I think she was hoping I would take Nara in for her … yeah me show on grass? I’d really rather not!). So hung all with JT and Mary Anne all day while we were waiting. Trouble did too! Had my handy dandy camera there and shot some of the groups and decided I rather enjoy taking photos. You can see them at http://lyndabeam.zenfolio.com, go to All My Photos, then click on the Fox River Valley KC shows.

At my recommendation, Mary Anne elected to only show Nara in the Puppy Groups. I felt that considering it was her first show and she really wasn’t completely trained, her best shot was in the puppy group and there was no sense in having her melt in the adult group and have nothing left for the puppy group. Yes, it was still quite warm. I was hot and I wasn’t even standing up, much less running around! And a storm was coming!

While Nara did not place, I think she may have finally become lead broken by the time she was done in the group. Pretty much she got out of group, and the downpour began. Ran back to the car (ok, walked fast) and zipped on home in 12 minutes (due to the weather it took a tad longer).

The lineup for Puppy Non-Sporting Group

As far as facilities, there are several buildings there, most are kinda dark, and the one that shibas are usually in is dingy as well. The outdoor rings are nice and big, although lumpy. Bathrooms are those portable things, although I believe there are some indoor facilities if you wish to walk around and look for them. There is really only one food vendor that I can recall, although there are a fair amount of other vendors. There is a McDonald’s nearby though, along with other restaurants.  This fairgrounds was supposed to be sold, and a new one constructed nearby. Hope it happens, but have heard that the deal fell through, so we may be there yet for a few more years!

But she did learn to move nicely on a lead!

Overall, it’s a really close show and I have fond memories of the site because I have won there sometimes, but I sure will be glad if they build a new one with A/C!

It was a bit of a hassle doing this show this year for sure. At the time I was working at Kraft Foods and we were off on Friday to make it a four day holiday so decided to go ahead and enter this group of four shows. To make it even more tempting, Katrina Nielsen was coming up as well and we were going to make it a girls’ weekend out!

However, the week before I noticed that Trouble had a little sore on his mouth which was not going away and he was blowing coat severely (and I had thought he was done the week before!).  I ended up taking him to the vet on the absolutely worst day of the year LOL and had to wait 3.5 hours to get it checked out. It isn’t usually that bad, except that there were many people coming in because they were going away for the holiday and needed immunizations before they took them away or to a boarding facility. Plus one of the vets had to leave early, and then 2 emergencies came in and it was downhill after that. By the time I found out people had been waiting so long, I already had an hour invested and by golly, I was going to see it out. Several hours later and having found out it was nothing serious, just needed some antibiotics to clear it up, I was back home and trying to get ready for the show.

Left the house bright and early on Thursday morning and made it to the show in about 3 hours, which left me plenty of time to find grooming, etc. However, there were SO many spots taped off that even on the first day it was hard to find a spot. Fortunately Jane Chapin’s friend Joyce had taped off space for herself, Jane and Leslie Anderson (who was also entered), but Leslie had to back out until the last day so I took her space for me and Katrina. And a lovely space it was! Very close to the air conditioning vents, loved it!

I would talk more about this location which was pretty nice, except next year they won’t be there as I believe it’s been sold and is no longer available for the dog show

The first day there were only 3 shibas entered, Trouble was in 12-18 under Jim Reynolds, Rexann’s Buffalo Bill was in Open. Trouble was Winners, and then went in for Best of Breed against Brenda Richardson’s Ku. Ku was Best of Breed.

Ch. Roscka's Bitjutsu No Sosaku "Ku"

After judging I did a little shopping at the vendors and bought Trouble a belly band to just be SURE that there were no “accidents” at the hotel, and then I left around 3ish to go get the hotel room.

Trouble in his fancy attire (belly band)

We stayed at the Country Inn which was probably a whole mile away from the Interstate Center. Very nice hotel, lots of dog people there, very welcoming to the dog show in general. Had baggies in the lobby in case they were needed, but also chocolate chip cookies and a small library of books to read. The breakfast room in the morning was also really nice and appreciated by both me and Katrina and it was FREE! Free is good…

Katrina arrived later that evening and we had plenty of room for all three dogs with their crates. We spent a little time exercising the dogs and then hit the sack as we were on fairly early the next day.

Our judge on the second day was a provisional, Mr David J Kirkland. He was nice to exhibitors, checked for full dentition. Unfortunately that apparently disturbed Trouble because I suspect he aggravated the sore on his mouth when he looked at his molars. It made for an interesting few weeks as I retrained him to stand still for exam, but that wasn’t really the judge’s fault. On this day there were a few more shibas. In addition to Trouble and Rexann’s Buffalo Bill, Yori Green had joined us with her BBE Dog, Daiko.

Daiko No Kyoutenmaru Go (a shibaweb.com photo from the 2010 Nippo Classic)

Much to my delight (and surprise) Trouble was again Winners, with Yori’s boy going Reserve.

There was a major entry in bitches, but due to many circumstances, that broke all the way to 1 point with only 2 bitches being present. One was Katrina’s Kanani (co-owned by Kim & Bill Fletcher), and the other was Cleo owned by Rebecca Powell and Jane Chapin. Kanani was WB. I had to grab a handler ringside to take her back in, because the original intent was for me to show her for BW, but then Trouble won so that wasn’t possible.

Kanani (Kanani Hauoli Shiba) showing to Mr. Alexander

Two champions were entered, Katrina’s new champion Draco and again Brenda Richardson’s Ku. Draco was victorious, Trouble was Best of Winners (!!!! I was VERY surprised), Kanani was BOS, and Ku was Select Dog.

Katrina and Ch. Kobushi Justa Draco Rosso in group on Saturday

That evening Katrina and I went out for sushi that night and found a great place not too far away. Unfortunately now I cannot remember the name of it! But it was really good Maybe Katrina will remember …

Waiting to go into the ring. Katrina with Kanani, Joyce (our honorary shiba person) and Rebecca with Cleo.

Up early again for the third day in a row, fortunately we slept well … our judge on this day was David Alexander, another provisional. Only 2 males, as Yori was only entered the one day. Really enjoyed Mr. Alexander’s judging even though we lost to Kathy Bube’s Rexann’s Buffalo Bill. The judge took the time to explain to me (without me asking of course) why he placed the other dog over us and he had the right reason.

Rexann's Buffalo Bill

For bitches, Jane joined us today with her Ziva, so it was 3 bitches. Cleo was Winners Bitch, and Ziva was Reserve.

In the ring for Winners Bitch: Cleo (J-Ann's Queen of the Nile), Kanani (now Ch. Kanani Hauoli Shiba), Ziva (J-Ann's Exotic Beauty)

Same specials, same ring, same result … Draco was Best of Breed again. Cleo was Best of Winners, and Ku was Select Dog.

J-Ann's Queen of the Nile (from the http://www.tsukeagarushibas.com/ website)

My dad and Carol came to watch, along with Letha Gast (great to see you Letha!), and Katrina and I went to lunch with Dad and Carol to a Chinese Buffet that had sushi(!). Again really really good, and again cannot remember the name! I need to do these in a morely timely fashion (I can see people probably nodding their heads). In my defense though, I left Katrina at the site for some reason, maybe to take photos? or help someone? There was a place listed very close by, but it was closed, then went to another one, it was no longer there (the hazards of looking for restaurants via GPS). Found another one, that I called and they were open, so sent my Dad and Carol off because I was going back to get Katrina. By the time we were on our way, Dad had called on the cell and had found yet another one they wanted to go to. It WAS a very nice place though.

By the third night, Katrina and I were pretty well done in … so we just went to Cracker Barrel for a light dinner (after Chinese buffet, we needed just a little!). I watched TV and downloaded photos from the group while Katrina worked on ads for the Shiba E-News, she spent quite a lot of time on that!

Katrina in her endless quest for perfection on E-News ads...

The last day we fortunately had later judging because now we had to take everything out of the room, and get it back into our respective cars. Somehow it always seems to take up more room on the way back, I don’t know why!

At this point Trouble only needed one point to finish, but he also had to be Best of Winners because the other dog was not entered … I was extremely nervous for some reason. Probably because I hate needing BW, would rather just compete for the points, and then I just wanted to get him done so he could sit back and mature for a while.

Our judge on this day was Kent Delaney who has an interesting sense of humor to be sure. People were having difficulty remember what he wanted to do on the up and back so there was much fun made of that. He’d say take them down and back, and some people would make a triangle. By the time I got there, he said “go down one of the mats and come back to me, it’s your choice”  :)
Today we added yet another bitch (but major was still broken) as Leslie Anderson joined the party with her bitch Peach. After a lot of back and forth, Mr. Delaney selected Ziva as his Winners Bitch with Kanani as Reserve from the puppy class.

Hi-Jinx Momosa (borrowed from Leslie's website http://www.lesandshibainu.com)

Onward to Best of Breed, where Draco and Ku battled it out once again while I just was nervous (and I think that was traveling right down the lead). Happily the judge said at the end, everyone gets a ribbon! Draco was again Best of Breed, Ziva was BOS and Ku was Select Dog. And Trouble was BW!

J-Ann's Exotic Beauty (photo courtesy Jane Chapin)

Oddly, I finished my very first show dog, Meska the Alaskan Malamute, on Memorial Day in 1978 needing BW for a major, I’m not sure I was much less nervous!

Apparently her finishing photo hasn't yet been scanned, but this is me and Meska in 1977 about a year earlier. How time flies when you're having fun!

Packed up quickly as a storm was coming, unfortunately it got there before I was packed, so I was a bit wet on the way home and it was a bit of an adventure driving through it. I should have just stayed and watched group because Katrina said that it was fine when she left …

Overall, a pretty nice weekend. Liked the show site, the hotel was great, company was great, and Trouble managed to pick up 4 points total to finish. Can’t beat that!