To the dogs

Once we arrived that the dog show, we headed immediately to the benching area, where the dogs, groomers and handlers hang out. Some of the dogs are out and available for petting and the groomers and handlers who aren't busy are usually happy to chat about how wonderful their dog is and what a good breed it is. It would be difficult to get any of these people to say anything even slightly critical about them- the worst we've heard is "not a good first dog," describing the PBGV, which isn't known as being easily  trained.

You can get a little more information from the PA announcer who introduces each breed. He never says anything bad, but while he'll say a beagle "is great with children," if he says "with early training and socialization, the Sheba Inu can make an excellent companion" you should see red flags waving everywhere. Other little clues might be "will have you trained in no time" or "requires an owner at least as smart as he is."

The show itself was fun- lots of cute dogs. The crowd is very polite and cheers for their favorite dogs- everyone seems to have a special fondness for dogs that act up, act like regular dogs really. Barking, jumping, sneaking off to get stray treats dropped by other handlers- that all gets the crowd going. The only time the crowd seemed hostile was when the standard poodle, who was definitely not one of the arena favorites, won its group. You could almost feel a vibe in the room- is it okay to boo at a dog show? Probably not. I think the way the audience should show disapproval is to howl. Wouldn't that be fun?

The show was over at 10:55 leaving us plenty of time to go down 4 escalators to our 11:15 train. As we turned to leave, I noticed that the very pleasant people who'd been sitting next to us (we'd commiserated over the peculiar lack of knee room in our row- I'm only 5'8" and my knees were right up against the seats in front of us) had left their camera. I grabbed it, saw from its luggage tag (good move, Bob!) that the owners were from Kentucky, so rather than give it to the lost and found I decided to bring it with and ship it to them.

We got down to the train in plenty of time and I texted the owner to tell him my plans. Then I went to the bathroom and midstream, get a call asking if I could please bring it to his hotel. Sorry, I said, I'm on a train. We had a pleasant texting conversation where we debated whether I should courier it to NY and ultimately I shipped it to him at home.

Got home at around 1 AM, but it was a fun day.