12-18 Month Puppy Dog Class

On Wednesday morning we went back to try one last time in the regular 12-18 month Puppy Dog class. By that time I was feeling much better, and I even took some bait from Charlotte. Mommy was so nervous that I don't think she even watched me! I knew that I was doing pretty good again when me and Charlotte made the first cut, because there were 30 dogs entered in the class that day and they were all really, really nice. Even my little "cousin", Dusty, was entered in the class and he is such a good show dog that he has almost finished his championship already, and he is even younger than me! Mommy was especially nervous because the judge was Mrs. Paula Hartinger and she was the same judge who had been at the show in St. Paul when Mommy got so nervous and messed up and we did not win. But Mommy thinks that Mrs. Hartinger is a very good judge and she really wanted me to do well in her class, so I tried really hard.

After the judge had looked at every dog, she started moving us around. Some dogs got excused, but we got to stay! Then she looked at us all again, and moved us some more. Finally, she lined up the four dogs she liked the best, and guess what? I got picked for third place! Boy was Mommy happy about that! I don't think she could have been any happier if I had gotten picked for first place. And to top it off, my little cousin Dusty got picked for fourth place! So we both got to take home a ribbon and a race car bank! It was a great day for us Kwetu dogs!!

Mommy says that one of the very nicest things about the whole day was when me and Charlotte were going around the ring and so many people clapped for us. Mommy said that most of those people don't even know who we are, and they were clapping just 'cause they thought I was a nice looking puppy, and I think that was very nice, too. I liked it when the people clapped, even though I didn't know who they were, either.

After we finished dog showing, me and Charlotte had to go and get our picture taken with the judge. Just like last year, I had to get up on a box for the picture, but this year I wasn't even scared a little bit- I remembered how to do it from Pencilvania and I just hopped right up there on that old box, and here is my picture:

The people in the picture are Judge Mrs. Paula Hartinger, in the dark brown dress; my friend and handler Charlotte Fielder, in the green dress, and Jane Missemer, in the red dress. I am the Red Wheaten boy in the picture.