Kishu Ken in the UKC

I took Nami and Fionna to their first ever UKC dog show. I've got their temporary listing numbers and plans to convert them to permenant listing numbers. This is in preparation for the JACA's "Nihon Ken Invitational" this year - this will be the first time the Kishu Ken is represented at their annual show, and I hope I can attend far into the future.

But first, I needed practice and the girls needed to see the show ring to get acclimated. Nami was a natural and took home 2 Best of Breed, 2 Best of Sex, 2 "First Place" (for her class - adult), and 2 3rd in group (the Kishu Ken is in the Northern Breed group - so she was third, in both shows, in the whole group.

Fionna essentially got ribbons for her participation. 2 reserve best and 2 first place for her class (junior - she had no competition for her class, naturally, without any other Kishu there except the ones I brought).

I also had amazing help handling Nami, since Nami and Fionna had to go up against one another for their breed to see who went to the group match, in a very nice man named Chris (whose business cards I have tragically lost to the depths of my Jeep - and will have to be found in a concerted effort later today). He was local and involved in the UKC and AKC and handled Nami very nicely.

Nami was probably a favorite, probably because she was much more willing to be handled and observed by the judge. She also tends to have very nice movement and has an excellent head/expression, so though she was out of coat, she beat Fionna. Fionna was not as happy about being handled by the judge, but did much better in her second show than in her first. 

Overall, it was an educational and fun day - and a nice way to spend my birthday. Even better, though, for both the dogs and myself, was the hike at Rainbow Falls on the way back down to Portland from the Tacoma area.

We also had a spectacular view of three of our five mountains. Rainier, St. Helens, and Hood all came out to play yesterday and were absolutely beautiful. I'll never get tired of them.

...but onto the dogs!