Dog shows look like organized chaos if you’ve never tried it before. And for a first-timer it can feel like one big stage, very everybody is looking at you. Mentally it requires a lot of willpower if you are uncomfortable with being noticed.
Before August 2015, Christina had never owned a dog. She had been around them, but never lived with one every day. That changed when Maximus, a Dogue de Bordeaux, became part of our family. He is a free spirit, meaning that he has a huge personality and everything is his way or no way. The first nearly two years he pulled hard on a leash. Tried different methods to get him to stop but without success. Some friends recommended that we tried show training. Didn’t work, but we got interested in the world of show dogs and therefore needed another dog. Luckily an opportunity to get one came soon after. May 12th we drove to Dannäs in Sweden and came home with Grande Bull’s Hero aka Cassius, 8 weeks old.
Being family dog precedes everything else and being a show dog is secondary. But we started training Cassius and entered our first show on August 26th. Never having done this before, Christina and Cassius managed to get in the ring and exit with SL. In baby and puppy classes SL, Very Promising, is the best critique. What happened between entering and exiting Christina still can’t remember 🙂
The image is shot a short while after they exited the ring. In the midst of dogs, people and the clearance surrounding the ring!!!
Within 3 months they did 6 show days, all with SL, and won Best Puppy Male 2017 in the special breed club show. February 10th it’s show time again and Cassius is entered in Junior class and critiques matters more than “feels good”.
Martin Werge - Stories 