Jaunt to Brum (well, Stafford actually)

A long awaited update to my blog.

Merlin’s summer championship show season began with Birmingham National at Stafford on Thursday. To say he has been a handful in the ring would be something of an understatement but at Birmingham I could not have asked more of him. He managed to stand still and keep all four paws on the ground!

He had been worn out on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the show with two long walks after work and a run around the playing fields to make sure he would settle in the ring and this seemed to work.

The 4.30am get up was a shock to his system too – another quick walk round Singleton Lake in Ashford. While we weren’t first in the ring, living in the far south east corner requires circumnavigating the M25 well before the commuter traffic and at 5.30am Merlin and myself set off with DOG WORLD’s Ed Dyckhoff for Stafford. Armed with this trip’s choice of music – the legendary Queen – and a quick comfort break (or more importantly another walk to tire out the woofer) at Oxford the Singleton lads psyched themselves up for ‘Brum Nat 09’.

Petit Bassets finally got into the ring gone 2pm and the Puppy Dog class of four entries saw Merlin placed second under Phil Freer behind another Soletrader dog a month older than him.

Merlin’s fan club and official photographer (Ed and Bonnie Scougall, DW’s reporter at the show) turned up to cheer him on.

After show after show of battling with Merlin to get him to grasp the concept of standing still he seems to finally be on track. Let’s hope it lasts…

Staying over the night in Stafford at a cottage ten minutes from the County Showground meant we had a chance to watch the groups before making a quick trip to Asda for some food and wine.

For Merlin the highlight of the day was to meet his new best pal – Bonnie’s Gordon Setter ‘Trader’. The two put the cottage’s garden to good use and Merlin got Trader into shape for the following day as he won his class – a good show for the DW dogs!

Merlin was obviously knackered as he slept for the three-and-a-half hour journey back to Ashford. We managed to get back to the DW office at 4pm where Merlin’s ‘team’ had even produced a homemade rosette for his efforts!

Merlin and I will be on the road again for Scottish Kennel Club championship show where I am reporting for DW….