The team this year consisted of Niina - Ch Sibermoon Niina, Odin - Ch Lapinlumon Velho (Imp Dmk) & Laika - Snofyre Alluring Apollo, on his first overnight trip away from his family since he was 8 weeks old. A huge thank you to the Hansson family for allowing me to take Laika for a few days and Greg Hunt for helping groom this massive coat out of him for at least two hours. Laika had decided that at 17months of age it was time to do his Jnr drop!! Thank you also to Elle McKay for helping to groom out still more of this coat on the day of the show and help with handling.
First up was Laika, who won the Jnr dog class & then Odin won the Open dog class. I was hoping that Laika would give Odin a bit of competition and was thrilled when Laika was awarded the dog challenge.
In the girls, Niina won the Bitch Challenge and so Elle, handled Laika as we ran off for Best of Breed. When the judge, Mr B Spoljoric (Croatia) awarded Laika, Best of Breed I was stunned and couldn't hide the smile on my face. Another 10 points towards his title!! Woo Hooo !!
I had said all along that the Lappies wouldn't get anything in group as they rarely do at Royal's and had made plans to drive home on the Saturday. Even when we were in the ring for Junior in Group, I was just going thru the motions with Laika, he was responding beautifully to my commands, tail up, solid stack, felt lovely and light on the lead when moving. Hard to believe that this was the dog that had only been shown four times and entered the ring for the first time when he was 10 months old, never been formally trained and he had just won Best of Breed. I think I was in my own little world as the judge started to walk towards the GSD behind us and it wasn't until he put out his hand for me to shake it that I realised we had just won Junior in Group at Canberra Royal!
As an exhibitor it is always great to win BOB at a Royal but as the breeder of this gorgeous young dog, who gives his all and never fusses, I truly can't describe what a wonderful feeling it was to win a class in group. Thank you to Anders, Nicole, Tobias & Annika for raising Laika to be such a calm and gentle soul who just loves the social side of showing and is willing to do whatever I ask of him.