Copyright 2004 Great Dane Club of Pennsylvania, Inc.
[affiliated with The Great Dane Club of America , Inc.]
GOING TO THE NATIONAL
By Yvette Kornfield
By Yvette Kornfield
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? An entry of 121 Champions and a total entry of 628 Great Danes.
Can we clear our schedule to free up a week which should be a sweater store's busy season? Can Dan get time off from work? Do we want to travel 3200 miles with 2 Great Danes in a mini van?
Next find 2 rooms in a motel that takes giant dogs. The National’s hotel was a disaster…overbooked by 2 conventions.
OK, it’s a go…12 hours per day we can make it in 2 days. We stop every 5 hours for pee pees, and one meal a day.
Next we look on line, and it’s an outdoor show. The average temperature is 78 degrees in October. OK, we will enter…Kevlar hates the heat.
We are now getting excited about our upcoming trip and keeping an eye on the weather. The weather channel announces a record heat spell for Texas. Temperatures are expected in the upper 90’s. We decide it can’t last.
We get on the road first thing Wednesday morning and stop at 11:00 at night in Memphis, Tennessee. We find a motel, walk and feed dogs. We get into bed and the weather comes on. No end to the heat spell in Texas, temperatures to hit near 100 degrees for the weekend. I can’t sleep at all that night. When Joey wakes up in the morning, I declare let’s go home! He says I never turn back.
We are back on the road again. We hit Texarkana at 7:00 at night and the temperature is 92 degrees. We only have 5 more hours to Fort Worth.
We check into our Comfort Inn, and it is a dump. It is after 11:00 at night, and I get on the phone to find everything for miles was totally booked.
Next morning I go to the lobby and demand the rooms be totally cleaned, new blankets etc. We had to make the best of it.
Friday was our day of rest and grooming. Since the place was a dump with a filthy pool we took the dogs to the pool and used their hose to bathe them. You can always find something good in a bad situation.
After they were all bathed and clean the skies open up and finally .. relief from the heat. Things were looking up.
Saturday morning and we were off to the nationals! It was cool enough to wear a light sweater. Dogs were first and Kevlar make all three cuts. In fact, he was second in line of dogs at the end. I kept thinking we were still in the running….Eddie always liked Kevlar.
After lunch it is time for the bitches to be judged. Finally dogs are called back into the ring. Now more cuts and Kevlar is getting into it and showing his little heart out. The cuts are over and my heart is pounding. Dan’s face was so red he looked like he was going to pass out. Kevlar never looked better. It was his show and he seemed to know it. First Eddie pulls Winners Dog for Best of Winners. Then pulls out Kevlar and I knew we had it!!!
It has been a few months but we still have not come down from Cloud Nine. I am not sure we ever will. The Thrill of winning The Great Dane National Specialty Show!
Thank you, Eddie; Thank you, Dan; but most of all thank you, Kevlar!
Can we clear our schedule to free up a week which should be a sweater store's busy season? Can Dan get time off from work? Do we want to travel 3200 miles with 2 Great Danes in a mini van?
Next find 2 rooms in a motel that takes giant dogs. The National’s hotel was a disaster…overbooked by 2 conventions.
OK, it’s a go…12 hours per day we can make it in 2 days. We stop every 5 hours for pee pees, and one meal a day.
Next we look on line, and it’s an outdoor show. The average temperature is 78 degrees in October. OK, we will enter…Kevlar hates the heat.
We are now getting excited about our upcoming trip and keeping an eye on the weather. The weather channel announces a record heat spell for Texas. Temperatures are expected in the upper 90’s. We decide it can’t last.
We get on the road first thing Wednesday morning and stop at 11:00 at night in Memphis, Tennessee. We find a motel, walk and feed dogs. We get into bed and the weather comes on. No end to the heat spell in Texas, temperatures to hit near 100 degrees for the weekend. I can’t sleep at all that night. When Joey wakes up in the morning, I declare let’s go home! He says I never turn back.
We are back on the road again. We hit Texarkana at 7:00 at night and the temperature is 92 degrees. We only have 5 more hours to Fort Worth.
We check into our Comfort Inn, and it is a dump. It is after 11:00 at night, and I get on the phone to find everything for miles was totally booked.
Next morning I go to the lobby and demand the rooms be totally cleaned, new blankets etc. We had to make the best of it.
Friday was our day of rest and grooming. Since the place was a dump with a filthy pool we took the dogs to the pool and used their hose to bathe them. You can always find something good in a bad situation.
After they were all bathed and clean the skies open up and finally .. relief from the heat. Things were looking up.
Saturday morning and we were off to the nationals! It was cool enough to wear a light sweater. Dogs were first and Kevlar make all three cuts. In fact, he was second in line of dogs at the end. I kept thinking we were still in the running….Eddie always liked Kevlar.
After lunch it is time for the bitches to be judged. Finally dogs are called back into the ring. Now more cuts and Kevlar is getting into it and showing his little heart out. The cuts are over and my heart is pounding. Dan’s face was so red he looked like he was going to pass out. Kevlar never looked better. It was his show and he seemed to know it. First Eddie pulls Winners Dog for Best of Winners. Then pulls out Kevlar and I knew we had it!!!
It has been a few months but we still have not come down from Cloud Nine. I am not sure we ever will. The Thrill of winning The Great Dane National Specialty Show!
Thank you, Eddie; Thank you, Dan; but most of all thank you, Kevlar!
