And now..

       Nia is nearly 1 year old. She grew into a real beauty, nicely shaped, firm body, good hair.

 So we decided to go to a dog show with her. We love Graz so it seemed to be a good place for her first exhibition (and mine as her handler). The appplication process went smoothly over the internet. The excitement about competeing for the first time in a dog show grew day after day untill we finally set to go. It was  Saturday the 2nd of March, one day before the show. We packed all the brushes, shampoo, hair dryer, box for dogs, chairs for us and passports for all 4 of us. And the dogs of course.. First thing we did after checking into a hotel was going for a nice, cold Austrian beer. The whole city center was full of show dogs and their owners.

Next morning was a very busy one. Getting up early in the morning, shampooing, drying and brushing the dogs (Gioia was not competeing but she had to look nice, right?) and rushing to the place of the show. Coming to our destination we noticed that people around us were better organised with their stuff. It gave us plenty of ideas for the next time. After we found our ring ( No.13 by the way :-)) and settled, we relaxed a little bit and started preparing for our turn.

When it finally came, we were calm. After all, it should be fun for all of us! We did a nice walk in the ring, it turned out better than I excpected. The judge gave her an excellent mark even she did not continue the competition. We were happy  with a job done.

At the end of the show we took the opportunity to have their portraits shot. That was fun! It felt like the two of them were a movie stars or something! 

Our conlusion was that the indoor shows are less attractive than the outdoor ones. But this was our first show as competitors and hopefully not the last one because we will come back!!  And yes, we have already made plans for the next one.. And we LOVE Graz!