CRUFTS IS CANCELLED

 

Well, after spending hours yesterday doing a maintenence bath on Peggy, I recieved a text informing me that Crufts has been cancelled!

To be honest, I think most of us who had qualified expected as much - we are in the midst of a global pandemic afterall.

Dog shows can wait and we'd far rather people are healthy and safe than risking it all for a ribbon. 

I had COVID 6 months ago and am still suffering from a bad chest and on steroids. I wouldn't wish it on anyone!

Plus, I don't need a judge to tell me that I have the best dogs in the world, I already know!

The question now, is what to do with Peggy's coat. 

This Crufts was always going to be our last one as I'm planning to have a litter from Peggy later in the year, so I was always going to clip her off.

BUT I love the glamour of the big coat and my grooming is improving so much by having it to practice on. I also dont' want to be that person who has a kneejerk reaction and shaves their dog naked because Crufts is cancelled, then regrets it so I think I'm going to sit on it for a while.

The reality is that having a poodle in full coat and doing the kind of walks we do does have drawbacks - they need a once a week bath, condition and blowdry. Any longer and they are matted.
Beach trips always require a bath and dry immediately after too - salt water and curly hair don't mix well! The coat matts up within the 20 minutes it takes us to drive home.
A maintenance bath takes us 3 hours, plus an hour to clean up afterwards and a full groom takes upto 5 hours!
And whilst Peggy is fantastic to groom and enjoys the process, I find the drying tedious and always feel like they are hours that we could spend on the moors.

Most show poodles don't get walked properly, so that the coat isn't damaged when they run through bushes and play with other dogs but I can't imagine having a dog and not walking them properly.  I think its cruel not to walk your dog properly and actually I get far more joy from watching her running and playing and mud wallowing than I do running around the ring.

So as you can see, I'm very torn.

Peggy has a charity photoshoot coming up soon so needs to be in a bigger coat for that so for now it will remain and I think we'll see where we are after.

Whatever decision comes next will be whats right for Peggy, as it always has been. ❤