This past weekend was Glory’s and mine first AKC (American Kennel Club) conformation show. We have shown in UKC (United Kennel Club) this past fall and Glory receiving her UKC Champion title. I have only been to a couple of AKC dog shows in my life and they were many moons ago so I had no idea what I was in for. From talking to other handlers I got the basics on what went on all I had to do was show up and give it a go. Lucky there  were Chessie friends of mine there showing and they helped me out a lot with when it was my turn to go, what to do and what it meant when I won.

Here are a couple of links:

American Kennel Club

AKC A Beginers Guide To Dog Shows

How To Count Points

U-CH Sand Spring No Guts No Glory is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. She was being shown in the Sporting Group.

There are 7 Groups: Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Herding, Toy, Non -Sporting. One dog either Winners Bitch or Winners Dog that won the Best Of Breed class from each group will advance to the Best In Show ring.

I entered Glory in Amateur Owner Handler class since I was the Owner and Handler as well as a Amateur since I never shown in AKC before.

Saturday Glory was the only dog in her Class. She took a first place, she then advanced to compete again to see who was the best of the winning dogs in the different classes. She competed against one other female from another class. Glory won Winners Bitch for one point out of her 15 she needs for her AKC conformation champion title. She then got to advance to the Best of Breed class and went against the Winners Dog. The male won Best of Breed but Glory won Best of Opposite Sex which was a surprise to me. It was a very good day for us, to go into our first AKC show and come out with a point! This show there were 2 bitches and 3 dogs. The judge was Mrs. Cindy Vogels.

Sunday she was entered into the same Amateur Owner Handler class and was the only dog in her class. She took first and advanced to compete again against the other females. There were 4 other females in the class this time. Another dog won the Winners Bitch so Glory  and I had practice time in the show ring which is alright with us. You win some you lose some but I really don’t see it as loosing, I see it as practice and learning how to better ourselves and gain knowledge for next time. This show there were 5 bitches and 3 dogs. The judge was Dr. Gerard C. Penta.

Here is a picture of Glory’s ribbons. The top ones were from Saturday and the bottom one was from Sunday.

Glory’s first AKC show ribbons.

Congratulations  to the winning Chesapeakes and their handlers and nice job to the other’s that were showing. I had a great weekend and it was fun, something I will do again.