| USA holiday 2010 and the Irish Water Spaniel Club of America National Specialty Page 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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From Ginny Spencer
bringing our Bentley into this country in 2006, she had been asking us
to visit them in the USA. So it was arranged that we would fly out to Wilmington, North Carolina to Ginny and Larry’s, and from there we would travel in their camper van up to Frederick, Maryland and visit the Irish Water Spaniel Club of America “National Speciality 2010”. So we got the passports, booked the dogs in at our friend Jack Gretton's, which I did not like doing, as the dogs have never been left with anyone, as they always come with us. So this was a big thing to leave them, even though I knew they would be well looked after and I knew they would be safe, but still, we did not like leaving them. We should have flown out on the 20th April, but unfortunately for us we had the “Ash Cloud” problem, courtesy of Iceland, so did not fly until the 25th April. We flew from Manchester Airport, and from entering the airport it was a learning curve for us, all the new rules and regulations for flying, but we dealt with it all quite well. We flew to Georgia, then on to Wilmington, to be greeted with “welcome” balloons, with Ginny hanging on to the end of them. I cannot tell you the enormous pleasure we got from seeing Ginny again and meeting her husband Larry, who is a wonderful man, a real gentleman and a pleasure to know. It was 10.30 Sunday night when we arrived at Ginny’s house, where we finally got to meet Cruiser, Gracie and Tibbot. They have fantastic temperaments, and they all disappeared to fetch their favourite toy, just to show us! Ginny had prepared a wonderful meal, and as time went on we found out that she is indeed a great cook! There was a lot of chatting and catching up, and then thankfully it was bed time. As the length of time travelling was starting to catch up with us. The next morning we were treated to a full American breakfast which we enjoyed tremendously, then it was packing up time and off in the camper van up to Maryland. Larry was also towing a Golf buggy, so we could get about in that, without having to take the camper van everywhere. It was an education travelling through the different states, everything is so big, and so well thought out, such as being able to get off the highways to go and eat at a selection of restaurants. One of our overnight stops was in a Wal-Mart car park, which you can do with no charge and which also saw us in the Wal-Mart supermarket shopping at 7.30am the next morning! For breakfast Ginny and Larry took us to the Cracker Barrel, which serves “good ole country style food” , it was absolutely great, there was just everything you could ever imagine to eat and we were all definitely full to bursting when we came out of there! Tuesday April the 27th and we were at the Holiday Inn car park in Frederick, parking up the camper in between the other campers that were already there.
I have just got to say this here before I go on to try to tell of our experience at this Speciality because that is exactly what it is a SPECIALITY. The work that the committee put into this comes with 2 years planning!! We would like to say a great big thank you to the Committee of the 2010 Speciality, because these people were on the go all day every day, and it all went off like clockwork - absolutely brilliant! We really enjoyed the whole of it. A lot of things that we had at the speciality had been pre booked, months ahead, we had ordered merchandise, and Ginny had ordered food for the 5 days we were there. The first place we visited was the Hospitality suite inside the hotel, they had all of the ordered merchandise there, and free coffee and nibbles, and other merchandise to buy, and pick up our catalogues, with everything for the week in them, also our names tags which had our address and 1st speciality on it, and it also had in code our pre booked meals for the week, and they came on a lovely lanyard with “2010 IWSCA National Speciality, Frederick, Maryland written on it. There was also a tote bag for everybody that attended full of goodies, it was great! This room was open every day. Wednesday April the 28th and we were off to the Lilly Ponds, where the WC/WCX (gundog work) were held. It was a very different way of gundog work than we have here in the UK. They have blinds, (like a windbreak) to stand behind while waiting for the previous competitor to complete their test, all of the tests were on Duck, and it is either a pass or a fail. Unfortunately for Larry and Tibbot, they did not pass this time. Every dog entered in this got a tote bag with goodies in it, which had in it balls, pens, pencils, treats for the dog and handler and a lead, and much more. We had pre ordered lunch, which came well packed with lovely fresh sandwiches, cake, fruit and a drink.
It was great being able to put faces to names, and we must say what a friendly bunch of people the Americans are. We, (and I know I keep saying this) thoroughly enjoyed the day, (and yes I will probably say it again through this article, but I make no apologies for this). That evening everybody was invited to Houlihans bar, for a meet and greet, it was an open bar for the first drinks, (thank you to whoever sponsored that). Then it was a sit down meal for those that had ordered it. A great way to end the first day! Thursday April 29th we watched a handling seminar (show dogs) by a professional handler, which was quite informative. Then we saw the Independent Conformation Show (Dog Show). Then another pre ordered lunch box, a little time to chat.
It was the Irish Water Spaniel Club of America AGM that afternoon, which we attended as we have been members of the club for about 8 years. In the evening it was off to Dutch’s Daughter for a pre ordered Buffet Dinner, and the Silent Auction. Before dinner, it was time to walk round the room to look at amazing IWS merchandise, we have never seen so much IWS stuff; there was all manner of things with IWS on, and lots of other doggie stuff. Every item has a piece of paper with it, and you are to write an amount of money on it, to put in your bid for it, through the evening, you are to keep having a look at the item you would like to see if anyone has placed a higher amount of money, then you can place a higher bid. When the auction has been stopped, you will then find out if you have been lucky enough to get the item you put bid on. Another fun packed evening, to finish off a good day. Friday April 30th at 8.00am the Agility Trial started, we did watch a little of this but then had to leave.
We attended a Repro Seminar given by Robert S. Dove DVM. This was an excellent talk about reproduction, mostly insemination, and the bitch’s cycle, very informative. Then we had another talk given by Mr. Dove about First Aid for dogs, with an excellent pamphlet on the subject. We had an onsite lunch, and the rest of the afternoon more or less free. The evening meal was not planned, so we ate with friends around the camper van, it was an international gathering, of Holland, Canadian, England, and American. It was a good social time and a lot of fun. Saturday May 1st It’s Showing day, and the grooming marquee is full of IWS getting ready to be shown, generators are on the go for the dryers, and people are snipping away with the scissors, getting ready to go in the ring, there is a buzz of voices and a lot of laughing! But all of it was very interesting for us to see.
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