Deep Acres Fields of Gold took Best Puppy, Group 3 Puppy, Winners Dog , and Reserve Winners (twice) over the weekend at the The World Series of Dog Shows in Houston.
"The big news this weekend was the big numbers in Houston where the Houston Kennel Club, Beaumont Kennel Club, & Galveston Kennel Club drew over 7500 entries for the three days. That meant that Group wins were as big as many BIS this year. Even the dogs getting group placements were making serious advances in the rankings."
The World Series of Dog Shows was a wonderful show in a beautiful arena with tons of dogs and people bustling around. There were all sorts of vendors and you could even get your teeth whitened if you so desired. We ran into some handler friends like Larry Cornelius who won Best in Show on Friday with his Skye Terrier, CH Cragsmoor Buddy Goodman, and Hiram Stewart who was showing John Shaw's Halo, a plucky little Pekingese.
On the first day, our friend Stephanie took Winners Dog with Nordstrom (of Muddy Paws Kennel) and RiLee's beautiful girl Miss Minnie took Best of Winners. My little Rufus took Reserve Dog , Best Puppy, and 3rd Puppy in the non-sporting group. The next day RufRuf (that's what I sometimes call him) took Winners Dog and on Sunday he was awarded Reserve Dog. Not bad at all for such a youngster!
But I must admit, we almost didn't get that placement in the non-sporting puppy group. You see, the published start time for the group competition was 4 PM. So were we going to hang out at a dog show all day? Heavens no! We wanted to go check out Tiny Boxwoods, a restaurant in the middle of a nursery called Thompson Hanson we had read about in the New York Times. And, boy, are we glad we did. 
It was the cutest place, buzzing with activity, filled with the kind of marvelous people you would never find at a dog show. And the food, the food was HEAVEN! And there was a SNAZZY little shop where dad just had to buy a tiny little sheep made by an artist in New York with a porcelain face and four wee porcelain feet . But just as the clerks were wrapping our tiny sheep in green tissue paper, dad received a call from Shelby, our handler. The group times had been changed from 4 PM to 3:30 PM and the non-sporting group was first up. Oh shit! It was already 3:20 and we were more than 10 minutes away. But dear old dad is not one to give up easily so we flew to the car and raced to the arena. Can a dog get whiplash? We told Shelby we would meet her at the ring and she didn't look too happy as we approached. All the other dogs were already in the ring and the judging had commenced. "He isn't even groomed. Should we just forget about it?" Shelby suggested.
But dad would have none of that and Shelby and Rufus approached the judge and asked for permission to enter the ring. The judge was very pleasant and allowed them to enter. But our hopes of a placement were sunk. No one likes it when you're tardy to the party. Shelby quickly brushed Rufus out in the ring as they waited for their turn on the table and, my beautiful boy, he strutted around that ring like there was no tomorrow and was awarded 3rd in group. Now that's what I would call being fashionably late! Although, I swear, I heard some of our more punctual competitors call it BULL SHIT.
As we were leaving the arena on Sunday another one of our handler friends, who was privy to all the scuttlebutt, gave us a bit of insider information, "Pretty Boys with Pretty Pups. The Bitches Don't Like That." It was so ridiculous we couldn't keep from laughing.
