It's April 15...this must be the blog post for...JANUARY 31st, 2010

Raise your hand if you think I do all this dog stuff for the thrill of the big prizes, fame, glory, professional photographs and nice suits with pockets (stuffed with liver treats)?

Judge Klaus Anselm, and "Cali" Ebbtide As You Wish with me handling. Miss Cali won BEST OF BREED BRED BY EXHIBITOR, AND FIRST PLACE IN THE HERDING GROUP BRED BY EXHIBITOR COMPETITION at Golden Gate KC 2010 show.

Ooops - she also won WINNERS BITCH and 2 points toward her AKC championship that day! Cali is owned by Judi Scherrer and yours truly. We are a great team!

Back to my question: The answer - Hell NO!

I do it for FUN! And this was, quite possibly, the most fun I'd had EVER! You see, I never went to a summer camp as a kid...sniff...but I camped, alrighty! YOU bet - with my parents and 4 sisters and our little trailer all over the USA. It was great! But never a CAMP CAMP...you know: two weeks away from your parents, matching t shirts, and other stuff I'm not quite sure of...But I realized the people who've recently (past 5 years, I'd say) bought some Ebbtide dogs and go to dog shows with me, and all our shenanigans, could qualify as an All Year Long Summer Camp. So that was part of my inspiration. Then I saw THIS:

Michael Miller is an exciting fabric manufacturer - you can check them out here: http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/MMF/Swatch.cfm?&Kwds=flowers

They designed this display for a fabric show (FABRIC show?! who knew?). Of course, the teardrop trailer caught my eye, but it was the sign that set things in motion.

After about 10 hours working on my own Camp Ebbtide handmade sign (you think I'm kidding?!) , purchasing 6 Coleman doggie sleeping bags, bribing family members to take the kayaks to the lake (during one of the rainiest months on record),

sing around a campfire (between rain storms)

and make s'mores (during a clearing),

we were able to create our own CAMP EBBTIDE (in the dry indoors):

Yes, those ARE doggy-sized pillows and pillowcases with the doggy-sized sleeping bags! omg.

We need to add the stars of the show - on the right side:

Cali, Spencer, Beau and JJ (left to right, above)

Add 5 Aussies and one "honorary Aussie" and you get the totally completed Ebbtide bench:

Jack the Sheltie, Gotcha, Cali, Spencer and Beau (JJ didn't fit in this shot)

Yes, that IS log cabin wallpaper behind the dogs. No, smarty pants, I did NOT have to Overnight Shipping to get it here. Or anything else I ordered this year - THAT is a BIG WIN!

What did we win? Who cares! We looked AWESOME and we had a BLAST!! Isn't that what matters???

More results next post! But a clue: Gotcha and Fennel win in Obedience, Beau is undefeated, JJ learns humility and Spencer and Jack have fun, no matter what!