Sojourner’s very first dog show was this last weekend, in Fairbanks Alaska.
I don’t think I can come up with the right words to describe what a special weekend Sojourner and I had in Fairbanks, Alaska at his first dog show. Sojourner is 13 months old, and that is already a challenging age to introduce something as complicated as appropriate training and behavior for an AKC dog show. Sojourner and I did a lot of training to prepare him for the experience of his first dog show. But at the end of the day, there is just nothing quite like getting into the dog show ring and experiencing it all firsthand.
There are hundreds of other dogs that attend the Tanana Valley Kennel Club dog show weekend and thousands of new people. The noises and echoes inside the pole barn building on the fairgrounds can be intimidating for even the most seasoned of show dogs. And then there is the heat! During our Memorial Day dog show weekend, the temperature in Fairbanks hovered around 80ºF all weekend. Inside the building where the dogs competed, it was even hotter.
The Tanana Valley Kennel Club held four shows during the weekend. It took the first two shows for Sojourner to find his sea legs, as one judge put it.
By the third show, Sojourner had things figured out. He won Winners Dog, Best of Winners, Best Owner Handled, and the big one, Best of Variety over five champion-titled poodles. These wins in the standard poodle variety ring earned Sojourner a huge 5-point-major toward his championship! All of these wins came from the Bred By Exhibitor class. I was elated with his performance!
But Sojourner wasn’t finished after the variety ring. He went on to compete in the Non-Sporting group with a beautiful lineup of seasoned purebred dogs. Sojourner earned a group 2 placement behind the lovely dalmatian who had earned a Reserve Best in Show.
Good boy!!
The next day Sojourner repeated his previous day’s performance in the Variety ring, and then went on to win the group 1 placement over the other purebred dogs in the Non-Sporting group ring!!
I am so, so proud of this sweet boy. Sojourner has earned both his necessary major points toward his AKC champion title. His majors are the largest majors awarded, 5 points each.
The next step for Sojourner and me is to continue the summer AKC dog shows in Alaska, as we work toward finishing his AKC championship.
This weekend in Fairbanks was a great way to start his dog show career!
Galavanting The Road Less Traveled, my sweet Sojourner
