NAMAA Nationals: Conformation Day 1

Before I get into the details of the first day's events, I thought I'd give a little bit of background on how this event came to be. I have a lot of good friends in the Silken Windhound community (if you don't know what that is you can Google it), and every year the local breed club hosts a regional specialty around Halloween time, which they appropriately dubbed "Boofest". Boofest started out as just a gathering of Silken pet owners and fanciers, and it eventually grew into one of the largest specialties for the breed in the United States. The specialty takes place over two days; each day there is a conformation show in the morning, and in the afternoon there is a performance event (lure coursing on Saturday and sprint racing on Sunday). Our Magyar Agar breed club (NAMAA) doesn't have much of a treasury, so the prospect of putting on our own specialty event was simply out of our budget. It was through the generosity of the Silken Windhound club that we were invited to host our Inaugural NAMAA National Specialty alongside the Silken regional specialty.

The setting for our specialty was the beautiful Kirigin Cellars winery in Gilroy, CA. The lawn is always kept in pristine condition, with short cut grass and excellent soft footing; perfect for showing and field events.

Saturday's conformation show was judged by Lorraine Marchant, a Borzoi breeder who has recently switched over to Silkens, and who had at one time worked in a racing Greyhound kennel in England. I heard through the grapevine that Ms. Marchant was looking forward to judging our Agars, so I wanted to make sure we put our best feet forward for her. We had eight Agars entered in the conformation show; Pi in the Bred by Exhibitor class, Gil and Gator in Open Dogs, Peshamba in American Bred Bitches, Luna and Patti in Open Bitches, and Belle and Fecni in Veteran Bitches. Ms. Marchant was extremely thorough in her examination of each dog, and she even had a little tape recorder that she would make comments into about each entry.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Pi was the first dog to enter the ring, and I could tell that she really liked him from the beginning. I didn't catch all of her audio comments, but I did hear her say that he had all the correct body proportions called for in the standard and that he moved very well.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Next up were Gil and Gator in Open. Gator hasn't been shown much, but he took to it like a pro and Ms. Marchant was very impressed with his overall body condition. In the end she picked Gil. Between Gil and Pi, Ms. Marchant picked Pi without hesitation for Winners Dog.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Peshamba was next in American Bred, which normally isn't a class that gets a lot of attention, but given that there has only been one recorded MA litter born in the USA I think it's particularly appropriate to have at least one dog entered in that class. Unfortunately, Pesh was fresh out of season, so she wasn't in good weight and her muscles were squishy. Nevertheless, she showed herself well.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Patti and Luna were entered in the Open Bitch class. Patti still needs some work on her show training, which made her no match for Princess Luna who's always ready for her moment in the spotlight. Between Luna and Peshamba, the judge went with Luna for Winners Bitch.

Photo by Ed Sakai

And last, but certainly not least, we had Belle and Fecni entered as Veterans. Usually veterans are not considered for Winners, but they can be considered for Best of Breed. Ms. Marchant seemed quite captivated by Belle, remarking that she was "sound as a pound" after watching her on the move. Mama Fecni has put on some excess weight in her old age, but she still moves very well for an old lady. Between the two of them, the judge went with Belle for Best Veteran.

Photo by Ed Sakai

That left us with three dogs in the Best of Breed ring; Winners Dog, Winners Bitch, and the Veteran Bitch. The judge had been quite pleased with each of the three dogs, so I wasn't sure who she was going to pick for the top honors. She had us move around the ring one more time, and on that final go-around I decided to showcase Pi and let him free stack himself while I baited him with cheese. He looked great, and in the end Ms. Marchant remarked, "He has so much presence. You're going to be my Best of Breed." I was thrilled to say the least! All the judge had to do now was pick a winner for Best Opposite Sex. She said that she really liked both, but that there was something about Luna that caught her eye, so she was awarded Best Opposite.

Photo by Iola Stetson

Photo by Iola Stetson

Stay tuned for Part II of Day 1!