Another win!

On a spur of the moment decision, I entered Bailey in the Certificate of Conformation Assessment (CCA) at the PVGRC Specialty Match the last weekend in August. The CCA is a program run by the GRCA that evaluates the conformation of dogs against the Golden Retriever breed standard in a non-competitive format. It was set up for dogs who are otherwise ineligible to enter the breed ring for formal conformation competitions/evaluations. I hadn't entered because I wasn't sure how strictly they evaluated your dog against the standard. I know Bailey has some minor faults that would probably prevent him from getting a Championship in the breed ring if I'd kept him intact. Anyway, I decided to enter him. If nothing else, I'd have a better understanding of what his flaws are and I'd "donate" the $65 entry fee to PVGRC.

We showed up at 8:30 in the morning to check in and get photographed and measured. The dogs are photographed from the side and the front. These photos are filed with the evaluation results at the GRCA. The dogs also have to be measured to ensure they are within the height requirements for the breed. Deviation of more than an inch from the height requirements would disqualify the dog. Bailey measured in at 23.25", so he's well within the range required. Then I set up his crate, which as it would turn out, would be our hangout for the next several hours. There were at least 25 dogs entered and they go into the ring in groups of 3 for evaluation. Each group of 3 takes about 45 minutes in the ring with the judges. We were in group 7, so that meant we had about 5 hours to wait.

I think the judges got through the first 5 groups before lunch, then took a lunch break. We had the PVGRC club meeting after the lunch break. The judging began again around 1:30 and we were in the ring around 2:15 or 2:30ish. I was afraid that Bailey would be too friendly with the judges, but he was great. He also did a great job moving with me on the movement evaluation. It's like he knew I meant business and that being in the ring meant it was time to work! One of the judges even asked me if he is an OTCH dog. I just laughed because there's no way my silly little pup could be an obedience champion! Overall, the judges were very complimentary and only really pointed out the conformation flaws I already knew Bailey had. He did very well on the temperament evaluation and they said his movement was nice. At the end of the evaluation, I thanked the judges and left the ring. Then got back to my primary job of the day... WAITING!

We had to wait for the final scores to be tallied and recorded, then sorted according to whether they qualified or not. In the morning groups, only about half of the dogs qualified for the title, so I got a little nervous especially after seeing some of the dogs that didn't qualify. In any case, around 4:00 the PVGRC president came out with a large stack of score sheet envelopes and ribbons and started passing them out. To my surprise, Bailey qualified under all 3 judges and earned a new title! The judges' scores were all pretty consistent and he got a passing score of 79 from each judge. Finally, we posed for the group win picture (which I'm told will be published in the GRCA publication Golden Retriever News).





I'm so proud of my little boy!