Big dog on show at big event

Well known Haydon Wick resident Blue, the rescued Bouvier des Flandres, made several appearances at the UKs top dog show Crufts at the NEC in Birmingham, from 7 to 10 March.

Blue appeared in the traditional show ring and having already appeared at Earls Court last November as part of the Kennel Club Good Citizen Gold Teams, Blue was picked again as one of nine dogs for further demonstrations. But as Crufts is the big show, he still had to go through an even more demanding selection process.

Proud owner Janet Garrett describes how Blue showed off his big heart at the big show.



Blue was in the show ring on Thursday in the traditional sense where he got a 1st, which is a major achievement by any standards but a real Cinderella story for a rescue dog.

More importantly for us Blue became the darling of the Kennel Club Good Citizen Ring by performing/demonstrating on Friday and Sunday - five times on Friday and six on Sunday. He excelled in everything he was asked to do and looked gorgeous all the while which meant he was always surrounded by people at his bench and mobbed on the way to and from the ring every time.

He was asked to get involved with events that he hadn't done at Earls Court including photographs with Pam St Clements, who when Blue laid down because he thought he could "commando crawl" his way over to his Mum who was standing behind the barrage of photographers, laid on the floor with him!

He was an absolute credit to his breed, not only by his behavior in the ring but by the way he allowed all sorts of people (and I mean all sorts of people!) to cuddle, stroke, play with his ears and even throw their arms about his neck without an element of irritation (or boredom when he heard his Mum answering the same questions over and over again) showing on his handsome face.

Friday I kept (in vain) trying to protect him a little but by Sunday I gave up trying and decided to let him govern when he was tired but he just looked up and said I might never do this again Mum, so let's make the most of it!

It was a wonderful time for both John and myself too although by Sunday evening after three days we were more tired than we ever remember being before in our lives. The days were very long for all three of us - getting up at 4.30am every day and not getting home until well into the evening. Blue slept in the car both to and from London so he had a bit more sleep than us and arrived home as fresh as a daisy hoping for a game of football.