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Posted by Karen on September 2, 2008, 7:01 am, in reply to "Looks like two new UKC Chs!"
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Why the heck do I do this to myself??? WHYWHYWHY!!!
Let me preface by saying I love my daughter - truly and dearly. But I am not sure what is worse: (1) children who throw tantrums and fuss when they get overtired and overstimulated or (2) children who become demons, imps, royal pains in the tushy, silly...
This weekend, well Saturday, I decided to give Doug a full day so he could work on the bathrooms in relative peace. There was a UKC show in Maryland, about an hour up. Sarah was in Jrs with D'Argo, Connor showed Foster and I showed Ravyn. One show that day (often UKC does two in a day but there was only one Conformation Ring so this was one show a day). I had to get the kids up by 5:30 to get out by 6:30. They were excited so up late the night before. Plus, "Total Drama Island" was on (farce of Survivor) that Sarah had to watch. She loves TDI...
OK...
The morning went well. Sarah was behaved. But a bit after lunch...
I gave Sarah my camera to play with - interesting pictures... And she was screwy and tired. Luckily I had the only Shelties entered in Conformation. Sarah very politely entered the ring, excused herself and told the judge she had to take pictures. Luckily the judge had a good sense of humor and and watched me all day dealing with tired, cranky kids. Plus they were using my table for the ring and had a crapload more table breeds coming up. I apologized profusely to the judge and then just looked at the stewards and said "Yeah, you laugh because it is not yours!" More laughs...
OK, I was maintaining...
Then a couple hours of annoying brother, send the two out with D'Argo to walk the side of the building - not a great area but a lot of dog show folk around and as long as they were together...
When they came back I got them snacks and told them to sit and eat while I ran to the rest room. Twenty steps away... No line... Less than three minutes...
I came back to see Sarah walking half nekkid through the crating area heading to the bathroom after spilling some juice on her dress.
The day was a slow spiral down from there...
Just imagine almost everything possible happening between Little Miss Photog and the Dog Show Streaker.
Add to this a group of Sibe people set up a few feet away who would not control their dogs. They thought it was cute how their dogs kept crawling over the crate (I had a LARGE) soft crate under the table the show secretary traded me for the use of my grooming table in the ring) to see Sarah. Let their dogs stare down Foster until Foster (after had to be over half an hour) finally lunged at the crate (and then had to be covered as every dog that looked like a Sibe got snarled at after that whenever Foster was in the crate). Crawl over D'Argo (who will not tolerate dogs doing that) to see Sarah, and ignored my pleas to keep their dogs in their space. Sarah could come to them to see the dogs.
And some handler with a LARGE dog aggressive dog - no idea to exact breed as the dog was in a crate covered with a heavy quilt - who was scary and the guy with his Guardian Breed (leaving breed out for privacy) who grabbed Sarah's shirt as she walked by with D'Argo (the next day the show secretary nicely told the human aggressive dog owner if he could not keep his dog from lunging at people and other dogs that he could not be there). So where was my bloodpressure?
Well finally, due to the asses with the Sibe and such and it was time to go home, I made a bad mistake. I was painfully overtired. Due to conflicts with Obed and a slow (but sweet as heck) Conformation judge, we were at the show site for close to ten hours. I sat the kids in front of the crate, put all the dogs in there and said I had to run to the ladie's room, there was no line and I would be right back.
I came out to Connor in tears, Sarah not far behind and a couple women consoling them. Well, something set D'Argo off. I had left and the kids had puppy leashes in hands with the pups at the crate door. D'Argo was in back. I did not want them out due to the Sibes and crating space was so limited I was trying to keep everything close as possible. UGH!!! Though the first words out of one woman's mouth were "You're kids are not in trouble."
Sunday... Connor and I went back to the show... No Sarah.
We were the first exhibitors there - literally opened the building. The steward said she would take my Sunday entries on Sat so I did not have to come in as early Sunday, they already had the breed order posted. But Connor wanted to try Jrs and that is always the first class... Yeah... So much for sleeping in... and there is limited parking and I wanted to be right outside the door so I was not lugging stuff up to 1/4 mile. We got in and the steward from Sat took Connor to get the arm bands, I got the wire crates out and stacked and such.
I went out to get a coffee and the woman running the desk and check-ins comment on something. I said it should be quieter today as I left the little one with Dad. She chuckled as asked if that was my little one who decided to strip in the middle of the crating area. Yeah...
And I am doing this again in two weeks...
But Sarah knows what will happen if she does not behave and I may buy her her own small play camera to go along with her games. She is actually very sweet when she can take pictures and there are kids cameras, very durable, that are digital. Her manners, all in all, are good. I have to remind myself that she is only four and gets tired faster. But if given a job, she is a different child. Connor has also offered to start helping at shows if needed.
I just think Saturday was too much for her to be able to handle at her age without a good nap. She hit the car and passed out.
Though I guess from what I heard later, they bothered me more than others.
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