I’m writing this on Sunday night after the Agility Invitational and Eukanuba show. We drove down with Chili, Salsa, and Muse and did agility and breed. Everything is in one building, but it’s a really big building so this was a tiring weekend.
Friday morning started with the first of two PBGV specialities. Muse showed nicely and was best bred by exhibitor at both shows. Her second major remains elusive, but she seemed to enjoy coming along on the trip and handled the travel and hotel beautifully. She even got to visit with the public at the Meet the Breeds both for a while today.
On Friday afternoon there was an open show with a large GBGV entry. I didn’t get to stay to watch judging, but was disappointed by how large and heavily boned many of the dogs appeared. This reminded me of the early days of showing PBGVs when “petit means small” was taken to the extreme and toy sized dogs were rewarded in the show ring. I’m concerned that in the effort to distinguish the grand from the petit, size is being taken to the extreme rather than focusing on the other differences in breed type. The GBGV is larger than the PBGV, but is still the second smallest of the Griffon Vendeen hounds and should not be a large breed dog. Since the GBGVCA has made it abundantly clear that it will only be promoting the grand as a show dog and not concerning itself with retaining the function and working ability of the breed, I fear that the American GBGV is in the way to becoming another Americanized show dog that will not be physically or mentally suited to perform its original purpose.
Chili and Salsa both represented PBGVs at the AKC Agility invitational. This is my favorite agility event because it’s the one time when the spotlight is turned on the top dogs of all breeds. Not everyone chooses their agility dog based on speed and ease of training, and the invitational is a great opportunity for those of us who may have to work a little harder with our breed of choice to show off what our dogs can do.
Both of my girls ran beautifully for me. They are softer dogs and the invitational environment is challenging for them, but they gave every run their all and did their best for me. Of the five runs (counting Time to beat), Salsa was clear on 4 and Chili on 3.
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