A big day for my doodles!

[Ginny Nightingale]

Saturday was the date of the first annual Doogie Days--a fund raiser for our local Humane Society. I decided to bring my two doodles, Mattie and Lyric, to give them some socialization. Little did I know that we would come home with trophies and ribbons!
It started out on a bad note when I saw a woman with a dog that looked a bit "doodle-ish". I had already met a lovely Australian labradoodle (like my Lyric) there, so I was pretty sure this was also a doodle. I asked the woman if it was a doodle and she said "oh no, I would never own a doodle". It turned out to be some rare breed of German hunting dog...I mentioned to my husband as she left that there were some dog snobs out there and she probably heard me...more on that later.
Everyone else was super friendly and commented on my dogs and asked what they were. There were no more "snobs" and we happily started entering all the fun contests they had set up. The first was an owner/dog look alike contest--I decided to take my red doodle Mattie in the ring because I was wearing a red shirt--just by coincidence. As it turned out, we won! The judges said we were both beautiful--not sure about that, but it felt good! We took our little trophy out and waited for the next event.
Next, there was a musical sitting competition, where the dog has to sit when you stop walking them (they stop the music)--Well, Mattie is a very quick sitter, so i took her in again. There were about 20 dogs and some wouldn't sit at all! It was so funny to see the owners yelling "sit" and the dogs just stood there. After about 10 rounds circling the ring, sitting when the music stopped and eliminating the last dog to sit down, there were 4 dogs left, including Mattie. My hubby was watching and thought we had it in the bag, since Mattie sits down so fast when I stop. Well, Mattie got a bit bored with all this circling and started looking around and took one second too long on the next sit! We were out!
I took Lyric in for the tail-waggin' competition, which was a lot of fun--you just played with your dog while the judges watched the tails for wagging ability!! We took third there. There were some other competitions like frisbee-catching (my dogs have no interest in catch--they would just eat the frisbee). Finally, Mattie entered the vocalist contest, since she is always barking at me for more treats. Sure enough, she barked on cue and got another trophy!
After all the attention Mattie was getting--the crowd loved her--the snobby lady came up to me to explain her earlier comment, which really was not in the spirit of the day. She said she would never own one because they cost so much to groom...huh? That was pretty lame, but i chatted with her about how easy Mattie is to groom and how Lyric is another story all together. It ended on a friendly note.
All in all, we had two happy dogs, some positive public relations work for doodles out there and a sudden need for a trophy case! A big day for my doodles.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

Congrats to Mattie and Lyric on their accomplishments and how lucky you all were to enjoy a nice day together.

[Rose]

Congrats. Sounds like a fun time was had by all!

[Adina P]

Sounds like such a fun day. Congrats on your prizes and PR work =)

[F, Calla & Luca]

Congratulations!