Finlay and I enter a competition.

Walking nicely here, just passing Mick and camera, and Mick speaks to Finlay. ! Prancing and dancing the rest of the way around the ring. Thanks Mick.

Finlay being "felt up" by nice lady judge. She liked his strong, straight legs. Yeah, they enable him to run. !

After some of the judging, we wandered along to have a look at the Dog exhemption competetions, with a view to just watching all the doggies and their owners. But being such a lovely day and with a rather nice pint going down, I asked Mick whether he thought Finlay and I should have a go ? What at ? “not doing as he’s told” competetion ? “ the dog most likely to bogger of after rabbits and not come b ack” competition.

So I went and enquired. The lady said Its just for fun, you know. I thought , well I wouldn’t be entering if it was serious, would I? so at 1 yorkshire pound a go, I put our name down for no 1- the sporting dog and no 12 the most obedient. Why do people laugh at this one ?

Quite a few of us in the line-up for the first one ( I should have put us in no2 – non-sporting dogs), a bleddy young Staffy( he kept trying to have a bite out of Finlays backside, when we walked around the ring – not Crufts size !). One of the judges( a bossy lady with bright red lipstick) had come up to the owner of said staffy and said to her “ If I were judging on my own, your dog would win, I so lurve staffies ”. Yuck. ! I looked down at my lovely old grey-faced Finlay, and thought what chance have we? NONE ! Looking around there were various appealing looking kids with their equally appealing looking dogs and pups. One lovely little black sprocker( cross twixt springer and cocker), so young that all he could do when the nice lady judge felt him up, was to fall onto his back and wave his feet in the air, your heart just melted. And then there was A LADY. She would definitely get in the line-up of 5, as she owned the park the show was in( I reckon , anyway). She was even doing all this cruft business, of holding the dogs tail up high and putting her hands under his face to show his lines. ! Huh, and I thought it was just for fun.

So NO , we didn’t get in the line-up of 5 and YES, the staffy DID and so did Lady Fancypants and her silly little dog. ! so this was all going to take some time, and after seeing that no2( non-sporting dogs) had only 4 other dogs and I just KNOW we might have had a chance, we decide to go and have a gander at something else, and perhaps try another pint. It was such a warm and lovely day.

Part 2 of Dog Exhemption – after a couple of hours, I sort of just wandered back to see how it was going, and they were judging no 11- the dog in best condition( I couldn’t have entered Finlay in this as the nice lady judge would have felt all his fatty lumps on his tummy), so do I go for it or not.? “ Can we have the dogs for the obedience tests, please?”. Come on then, Finno, we have nothing to lose, cos I just know that he will do this ok, as he just loved his lessons back in Spain.

Quite a few of us again, and we had 3 folks rooting for us, Mick and a couple with their labby + neckerchief, who we paid to cheer us on- no, not really. So it was a walk into the ring, into sit ( I put finlay into SIT and DOWN, after seeing the appealing kid before me get his appealing golden retriever to do a fancy commando roll – bloody little show-off ), and then a sedate walk back………………..except that Finlay didn’t do a sedate walk. He started prancing n dancing on the end of his lead. I heard Mick say “ That’s it, he’s blown it !”.. Yeh, and we did. But boy, did we come off to some applause from Mick, and the paid couple, plus a couple of old ladies, that Finlay had sucked up to before we entered the ring. ( he had done his head in their lap trick, whilst they tickled his ears ), and then one old lady said “ if yer not local,luv, yer’ll not win”. I think it was more a case of “ too old and grey “.

Heyho, well its all in the taking part and we enjoyed it. And Finlay got a bonus. Some time later, a lady and her hubby and little dog came up, and she said “ may I stroke your dog, I think he has the lovliest face?” aaah what a nice lady. Finlay thought so, as he gave her a good washing all over her face, and all she did was laugh like a drain. !!!