Lansing, MI is for lovers....right? (Or is that Vermont...)

Who DOESN’T want to spend their anniversary in Lansing, MI?

This was a big(ish) year for our anniversary, 5 years since we first combined our Brady Bunch dog households (Brad had 2 dogs when we met, I had 4). In past years we have celebrated our anniversary in New Orleans, on a Mediterranean cruise, in San Francisco, and in Arizona. The next logical locale was definitely Lansing, MI….right? The choice of Lansing was the result of a few things. First was Brad telling me “all you actually want to do is go on a roadtrip with the dogs, so let’s just plan something they can come along on”. Well, he isn’t wrong, per say….so I planned a fun trip to hit a few of the States that we hadn’t yet in Southern USA. 

Then Hazzard qualified for the dock diving championships held at the AKC National Championship dog show in Florida in early December – so after much discussion we decided to cancel the anniversary trip and go to Florida instead. Then a fellow Dalmatian friend sent me info on the Dalmatian Specialty being held in Lansing, MI, over our anniversary weekend. So we booked a romantic room at the Red Roof Inn (haha), packed plenty of water (sorry, Flint) and off we went.

Lansing is actually a pretty cool city. They definitely are having a bit of a revival and downtown recovery. They have a very hip brewery, Lansing Brewing, with exceptional food. This was where we went for our “official” anniversary dinner. Craft beer and chicken and waffles? Yes, please. Across the street from Lansing brewing was an also hip craft distillery. Well done, Lansing, well done. We made a trip over there and got a bottle of their vodka to add to our bar. They are obviously a new distillery as all they had for sale were clear liquors, the ones that are distilled quickly, no bourbon/whiskey, or rum (yet).

Day one at the show (Friday) was awesome! There was a Dalmatian sweepstakes, a just for fun event held at some specialties, and Hazzard won it! Sweeps have the BEST prizes, and this was no different, awesome Christmas themed prizes. At the “real” show Hazzard took Winners Dog for a 3 point major win – our third, and thus superfluous major. (to achieve an AKC Championship you need to win 15 points, of which at least two must be “major” wins, 3 points or more. This is to prevent you being able to collect points one at a time. It helps to ensure you truly have a quality dog, not just a dog that you enter at shows against another mediocre dog and collect single points). This brought us to a total of 13 points, agonizingly close to finishing our CH. With no obedience/rally offered at this show, Random was along for moral support, primarily, and for another entry of “Brace of Chaos” in the Specialty 😊.

Day two we got reserve winners, which is a nice way of saying “your dog is nice, but no winning for you, today”. But Day three brought a VERY exciting win, Winners Dog, followed by Best of Winners (when all the champions go in the ring to compete for Best of Breed, the winning dog and winning bitch are also back in. “Best of Winners” is the dog who is deemed to be better, either the Winners Dog or Winners Bitch). That meant we earned….wait for it…..2 MORE POINTS AND FINISHED OUR CHAMPIONSHIP. Wowza, finishing that weekend was seriously unexpected. What a fun an exciting end to our show! As Brad said, he could feel me smiling from across the arena 😊. 

Winning at a Specialty is particularly exciting as Specialties draw larger entries. To win in a ring full of really awesome dogs is super special. This was the end of our trifecta of Championships, first we finished our UKC (June) then our CKC (July), and now the AKC. There are titles beyond Championship, in conformation – various Grand Championships – we will pursue our Grand in Canada (we are already about ¾ of the way there) but will not in AKC. We will show occasionally, for fun, at specialties, but will now focus on the other side of sports, the performance events. Hazzard has been training in obedience/rally, weight pull, and nosework. We have begun entering shows and achieving titles, but now we will make this our main focus.

Hazzard is my first real show dog. Gecko, the IG, has his CKC CH, and I took him in the ring a couple of times, but it was the kindness of friends that got him his CH, I never did earn any points on him. Most people do not get such a quality dog for their first conformation dog. I was lucky. I had already “proven” to my breeder (the amazing Pam Fisher) that I was serious about working with dogs. She was clear with me from the start that Random would not be a show dog (toooooo spotty), so we have only ever focused on performance sports, and Random is AN ABSOLUTE STAR. One of those super rare dogs who is up for any sport, any event, any time. In the 1.5 years I had Random prior to Hazzard joining the household she had achieved 14 titles in 6 sports across 6 organizations. The other lucky thing was Pam having not one, but two show potential male pups in her gorgeous litter – so she kept the liver and let the black come live with me <3. Many, many people in the Dalmatian breed have remarked on how lucky I was to get Hazzard. I wholeheartedly agree. But I was also incredibly lucky to get Random. I just want to live up to the potential of these two amazing dogs. They are awesome. My job is to not hold them back 😊.

Speaking of a 5 year anniversary….we are also really lucky to have Brad. He loves me, and the Spots, even when we aren’t all that lovable. He supports my crazy dog show addiction, comes to watch when he can, shares in the wins and losses, and encourages us every step of the way. The Spots adore him, which is really the true test of what sort of human being you are. I divide my world into “good humans” and “not good humans”. I do not have a lot of gray area. But Brad is the best human.