Compulsory point for Spanish Ch. We lost again, that's the third time. We have a friend who took six and a half years to get this point. If this happens to us Monty will be a greybeard when he gets the point. The judge, Karl Gustav Fredricson of Sweden, turned his big blue eyes on another dog, not Monty for the coveted compulsory point. But he must have liked Monty because he gave us the Reserve CAC/CACIB This doesn't help toward the Ch but thanks all the same. Next year we'll try again, we are suckers for punishment. In the meantime we'll keep on collecting points for the c.v.

There's no doubt that the Valladolid Exhibition Centre is a pleasant place to show, and it's a well organised event. As it is in the centre of the city, you can take a pleasant walk around this ancient part of Castilla if you've got a little time. We usually see a lot of friends there. Monty was delighted that there were no less than four bitches in season, he didn't know where to look first, and I got a few blisters holding on to his lead. Fortunately he behaved pretty well as usual. The judge, Steffi Kirschbichler, of Austria, made up her mind quickly, she clearly liked Monty from the start. It must be said that he was on his toes the whole time, perhaps because of the bitches in season. He's a passionate young man. We got the CAC and BOB. In the group we made the cut as usual , but that was all this time. We were fairly close to home for once, so the show was a great day out. Thanks to Steffi for her choice.

The exhibition centre in Zaragoza. Well organised and an excellent place, also well guarded by...a flock of geese! Very amusing and very noisy, some feathers appeared ocasionally on the lawn but for sure they had nothing to do with the dog show, which was the following day. Maybe a fox?
Two shows in the same weekend. The Saturday, Zena Thorn-Andrews, an English specialist in ribbons n' bows, said some nice things about Monty and gave us Exc 1st and CAC but gave BOB to a bitch not in the first flush of youth.
On Sunday, Renée Sporre- Willes of Sweden had no doubts, as soon as Monty entered the ring the CAC, CACIB and BOB were ours. So we went on to the group where we passed the first two cuts but didn't get a place on the podium, so we went home happy. Thanks to the judges who have seen a good FB in Monty.

Once again in Exponor in Oporto. Here we attended the World Dog Show last year. This show carried with it the compulsory point for Portuguese Ch. We haven't had a lot of luck with the compulsories for one reason or another, and it's proving a slippery point. They say fortune favours the brave but in our case this refrain proved not to be true. We entered Portugal by the IP5 road, well known as the "Entrance of Death", trucks at full speed with no brakes at times, ashphalt clinging to the moutainside, vertiginous drops, three lanes suddenly going into two. Without doubt the most dangerous European road we have seen. Monty took it in his stride but we mortals felt as if we were living a horror film. One of us was sick to her boots. All this to come home with a reserve CAC / CACIB. The judge was August de Wilde from Belgium who gave us a fabuluos rapport, but not the point. His preference was for lighter coloured dogs, as he said. Fortunately our good friend Vera and her Frenchies were on hand to lighten what would have been a bad day