Discover Dogs 2008, Earls Court

Saturday 8 November 2008

Discover Dogs is an event in London involving representatives of all KC recognised breeds, important showing events, agility, flyball and heelwork to music demonstrations, vast amounts of stalls with anything you could imagine for your dog, fun competitions, and much much more. This year, Ellie, as a member of the KC Companion Dog Club, was shortlisted to appear in the Waggiest Tail competition. So on Saturday 8th November, the two of us, and a friend from dog club, set out for our chance to shine on the green carpet - almost like being at Crufts!

The 20 shortlisted dogs enter the Companion Dog Club ring

The judge, Annette Conn, assesses all the waggy tails - Ellie is getting into the spirit of it!

We are among the initial shortlist of 10 dogs from the starting number of 20

The tails continue to wag furiously...

And we are very excited to be pulled into the final shortlist of 5 dogs!

We are narrowly beaten by a lovely waggy cocker - the judge didn't then place 2nd to 5, but gave us each a large and colourful rosette to mark our achievement

All the finalists do a lap of honour to much applause

After all the excitement, we make a visit to the Cavalier stand, where the breed representative dogs are doing what Cavaliers do best - being stroked by people!

After a good look round the stalls and enjoying some of the events, we made our way home, where unfortunately a pedestrian in busy London traffic caused a motorcycle to swerve directly into our path. Luckily we were unharmed and the bikers and pedestrian got away with some scratches, but the car had to be towed home! A rather dramatic ending to a nonetheless highly enjoyable day! Many thanks to Averil Robbins for the photographs.