Today was the day!! We got up at 5 in the morning to get ready to head of to Amsterdam for the Winnershow. It takes me some time to get started so when I realized that I had to leave at 6:30 in the morning 5 was the time to set the alarm. Let me tell you I am not a morning person so when I woke up this morning the first thing on my mind was coffee and lots of it. Finally up and running shower and make up and finally getting Lance ready to go and taking all his stuff with me. Car packed, dogs walked and of we went. An hour later we were in Amsterdam and getting pretty excited and I wasn't the only one. Lance was in the car barking like a mad dog, I think to respond to all the barking of the other dogs that were also arriving and getting ready to go. We unpacked the car and started the walk to the exhibition. Getting inside was just as difficult as getting to the venue but finally we were there. I thought it would be a wise idea to put Lance in his bench, but he didn't seem to agree with me. He can howl like a wolf so that was a nice bit of unwanted attention, but when in Rome do as the Romans and just accept it. Tell him off a couple of times and try to explain (yes literally) why he is in there it will just be for a short time. He didn't understand!!
Once inside you go and find the ring you are expected to show your dog. All the other Bedlington's were allready there (wow talk about commitment) some of these people left at 4 or 5 in the morning. Lance's breeder was there as well which helped me a lot with getting him ready. Start combing and getting your starter number and most important of all ..... you guessed it some more coffee!! Once your finally convinced he looks amazing the waiting game starts.
The judge enters the ring and then all the excitement start. Too bad I didn't get a chance to put all that on my camera, but am pretty sure I can update some of my gallery with some help of the other owners. So you will get a chance to see what I am talking about.
After 11 dogs it was finally my turn to enter the ring and my luck for Lance's first big show we had a swedish judge who made the comment of the day for me. He asked my to walk my dog around again, but without the ugly tale...................... That kind of threw me off and to be quite honest I am not a professional handler so did not know what to change in my handling to make it better. Just walked around again and it was bit better he said. He looked and looked and finally sat down for his final review. He graded him a very good which was a bit of downer for me as an excellent was needed so I could go the second round.
On the other hand it was good for Lance. He was clearly not up for the challenge. He was to excited so all the other dogs and people were just to much for him to handle at that moment. We ended up spending the whole day just walking around and looking around and enjoying all the other dogs and  toys and so on. This way he got a chance to see all the other dogs and see how it's done. We finally made it out of there at 5:00 pm and having me as the driver didn't help. I so need a navigation system I ended up on the highway heading the wrong way so took me some time to find the right way back . Didn't affect Lance one little bit seeing that he crashed on the seat next to me on his new little bed I bought him today so he was comfy and sleeping. He slept all the way home and arriving home had his dinner and then decided to crash next to me on the couch. I couldn't do another thing tonight then just to sit and vegetate. Just took them for their final walk which was a rainy one so they were finished very quickly, thank goodness.
Today was just not Lance's day. In my book he is still the prettiest dog so no complaining here just need the judges to see what I see. We will start to get ready for December. We have another show in Wychen in the Netherlands for Lance to go to so training starts all over for him to make him stand correctly and now we will have to work on my handling and his gorgeous tail.  Hopefully he will get his CAC which means he will be an official Dutch Champion.
 
Till then!