The Jamaican Brood Bitch Team

We're baaaack!!!

It was a fun but VERY exhausting week. If you want to get an idea of the kind of schedule we kept up all week long check out this post I made to the SCA 2004 blog.

Over the next few days I'll post some highlights of the week. First is the story of our entry into Brood Bitch...

Both of my girls were asked to be in the Brood Bitch class representing their respective mothers. Kelly was easy. I just handed her off to my friend Lindsay Ragsdale. Ilsa's entry into brood Bitch was a little more "interesting".

For those who've never seen a large Brood Bitch class it most closely resembles organized chaos. The purpose of Brood Bitch calss is to award the bitch that has most consistently produced outstanding puppies. The bitch is actually entered in the class, but it is her children who are judged. Each bitch can be represented by 2-4 of her get. That means while the entry in the class may be only 28 there will actually be a total of anywhere from 84 to 140 dogs inthe ring depending on how many get are in with each bitch.

Judge Jan Cherne had a very organized way of judging the class this year. She called in all the bitches at one time to check armbands. She then called in each "family" one at a time and judged them individually. Then after all the families had been gone over she made a cut calling back into the ring the 7 or 8 families she wanted to see again. From this group she made her final placements.

The problem with Ilsa's family arose because her breeders, Bo Gloster and Doug Haldeman, had entered two family groups. First there was Ilsa's grandmother Tasha, represented by her son Jimi and her daughter Smilla. Then Smilla herself was also entered as a brood bitch, represented by her daughters Ilsa and Yuki. Everything was going along fine as first Tasha entered, handled by Doug, with Jimi handled by Bo and Smilla handled by Lisa Robertson.

Then Smilla entered the ring handled by Bo with me handling Ilsa and Doug handling Yuki. Meanwhile Lisa also had her own brood bitch, Lexxon, that she took in with her get.

The problem arose when Lexxon, Tasha and Smilla ALL MADE THE CUT. We now had lost Lisa as a handler as she needed to be with Lexxon's family. So there we were outside of the ring.... Bo has Jimi and Tasha's leash in his hand, Doug has Yuki and Smilla, Ihave Ilsa. # handlers for 5 dogs. Bo grabs a guy in jeans who is standing around watching and hands him Smilla's leash. I grab a guy in shorts and t-shirt and hand him Yuki's leash and say "Follow me! Her name is Yuki!" and off we go into the ring.

Once we get in the ring the judge wants us to line up in "family groups". She wants Mom-dog facing out and in front of her kids. She wants the get about 2 steps behind. What do we do with Smilla????? She is both get behind Tasha but a brood bitch in her own right!! Do we put her forward or back. Bo sort of puts her in between...

The judge gets to us.... and it take about 5 minutes to explain to her what is going on... we have a brood bitch, then a get, then a get who is also a brood bitch and then her get. We have to explain at least three times. At this point Bo dubs us the Jamaican Brood Bitch Team.

Smilla gets moved to a placement, Tasha does not make the cut and so there I am in the ring with Ilsa, a clueless guy in front of me trying to handle Smilla and clueless guy behind me trying to handle Yuki. Smilla and Yukie have no idea what's going on and are spinning in circles. I am trying very hard not to laugh myself silly. Hey! We ended up in 3rd place! Not so bad for the Jamaican Brood Bitch Team... the Bob Sled team should only have done so well!

Meanwhile Kelly's family was 2nd and Lisa with Lexxon's family were 4th.

more to come.....