A Day at the Fair

Once more, I truly am terrible with the everyday update thing. I suppose that when there is a new post on my blog, it is a cause for excitement, seeing as it doesn't happen very often. I do have one excuse for not posting, but it is a weak excuse. I was at the county fair for two weeks and then I was on vacation for two weeks directly after, and I being such a knucklehead decided to leave my laptop at home, not being able to blog at all.

Sparkie and Blew on the bench in the Dag Barn!

In terms of the fair, we had a doggone great time. Please excuse the pun. I don't know if I had ever seen a dog enjoy being called cute that much. One would think that after hearing it so much you would get used to it and not react. But Sparkie might as well be in my school's drama program because he always has the same happy and hyper reaction when a group of fair-goers coo at him say "Oh he's so cute!" Being told he is cute is most likely Sparkie's favorite words to hear. I would say that his showmanship score proved it too. Sparkie and I got a blue in the showmanship ring. He couldn't get enough of showing off how wonderful he looked when he was fully groomed. But being told he was cute went to his head by the time that he got in the obedience ring. In obedience we got a red. But I don't really mind about our scores, 4H is meant to have fun.

My 4H club won Herdsmanship!

In total, I got a blue and a red with Sparkie, a white for obedience with Blew. We also did brace which is with the two dogs doing obedience at the same time, which we got a white in. My club entered in team obedience which we got a red in. I was on our Dog Bowl team which is a knowledge contest, our team was able to get a blue and take first place. I went to the state fair as first alternate. At state we took fifth out of the other counties. At county we also do what is called Herdsmanship. We have to work on greeting the public, keeping our area of the barn clean, watering the dogs, and taking the dogs out when needed. My club hasn't taken the Herdsmanship banner for a day at the fair in a couple of years. Luckily, this year we got to. We were in fact awarded bonus points for playing a game with the public where the kids could answer a question and get a pencil or piece of candy. Winning Herdsmanship was one of my favorite accomplishments.
After this year at the fair, I can safely say that each year continues to just get better and better. This year was possibly the best year yet at the fair and I cannot wait for next year.