Dog Journey: Dog Show Fun and Lessons

Well have a little break from everything today, so might as well do a much needed post. ^-^ I've been on and off with work and dog shows during the weekends, and school work in between everything. Today I'm preparing to leave for LA tonight for the Beikoku Shiba Inu Aikokai(BSA) show tomorrow! I'm so excited to be going this year! Sadly though I won't be able to show Kiyo in this show because she is not a NIPPO registered dog. She will just be coming for the exposure. On the up side, I might be showing a Shiba for a breeder that has a couple of Shiba entered in the show! I've never been or practice in this type of handling, but I'll do my best. I've been watching a lot of videos and articles on how to handle the dog in a NIPPO show. Hopefully this will help me. My boyfriend and I will be taking pictures, so I'll post them up when I get back(and after class.... -_-;).

Well we've gone to quiet a few shows that have been in the area and to Indio dog show where I meet up with Kiyo's breeder. That went well. I had fun showing Kiyo, but the atmosphere there with all the other breeder/handlers was uncomfortable to me. They kind of kept to themselves a bit and only talked to those they knew well. They just seemed like they were out for themselves.

Kiyo's breeder did help me out with Kiyo about how she grooms her Shiba, and mention that Kiyo needed some weight. I did notice that she was a little under but not too much. Well a month and a half after the show, Kiyo had lost 2lbs and had been vomiting and had diarrhea. Well it turns out that the grooming products that the breed used and recommended me to use(which I did and followed direction) had been causing it. Kiyo would groomer herself and would be taking in the grooming products that way. My vet and I help Kiyo get back to normal and I have made changes to her feeding regiment after suggested by the owner of Kiyo's sire. I'll go more into details about that later. So now I'm trying to decided to continue using it in more dilute dose or go all natural with brushing and using a hair blow drier like I was doing before. From what I've seen in pictures of NIPPO Shiba, what I've read about coat care for Shiba, and what people other then Kiyo's breeder, is to go natural. Shiba coats have natural oils that protect the coat and give it it's look. If you bath your Shiba too much, you will strip the coat of those oils. If I continue using the grooming product, that means I would have to bathe her after every show. I'm going to have to do some experimenting....

Ok back to the feeding regiment, the owner of Kiyo's sire is another breeder that lives not to far from me. She had very high quality Shiba in her kennel. The show that we met up at, her 6mth old female took 2nd place overall in breed, and it was the pup first show to boot! So what she told me, I really paid attention. She suggested putting Kiyo on a raw diet and to help put extra weight is to feed her Satin Balls. To help build her coat she suggested a recipe called Growing Hair on the Doorknob(GHDK). Their are so many different recipes out there for Satin Balls and GHDK on the internet, that it took a while to find the right one for me to make for Kiyo. Haven't done the GHDK, but I will post my recipe of Satin Balls later if you would like too know what I use. It's really working for Kiyo. She's almost 17lbs now with in 2wks on this regiment! For the raw diet Kiyo is give a chicken drumstick at night(skin, meat, and bone), and she eats it with no problem. In the morning she gets 1 cup of dry dog food with 2 satin balls. The breeder suggest to use Eukanuba Active Performance. Having some trouble getting Kiyo to eat the cup of dog food though.... Picky eater she is. Overall, she is at her best now, much more active, and she is really happy.

Here are some pictures from the shows in January and February. You can view more on my Flickr page. Keep in mind, Kiyo was unwell from the grooming products that made her drop in weight. All pictures taken by Trieu Tran from Lasting Fotos.