|
4 days of shows + 4 nights of hanging out + a couple of OFA health tests = the recipe to an awesome trip to Orlando, Florida with Orso! Orso and I left Miami on Thursday morning, bright and early, in our rented Town & Country minivan – always a family favorite – and after a brief organization session at the hotel, headed off to the show grounds for 4 days of shows. Show 1 of 4 – Central Florida Working Group Association – Thursday June 23, 2011 – Judge Mrs. Beverly A. Vics Handled by Daniel Sanchez, Orso did quite well on Thursday, taking Reserve Winners Dog out of the Open Class. Best of Winners went to our dear friends’ dog, Blue Ridge Rocco, handled by Cindy Stroupe and owned by Steel and JoAnne Campbell for a 3-point major. Yay, Rocco, congrats on your win! Definitely a dog we were proud to lose to! Below is our favorite photo of the day of Danny giving Orso some Corso love in the show ring, plus close-ups of the same photo just below:    Show 2 of 4 – Brevard Kennel Club – Friday June 24, 2011 – Judge Mr. Warren D. Hudson Orso took 3rd place at Friday’s show but had a great performance in the ring nonetheless! He is working nicely with his handler, Daniel Sanchez, and we are happy to see how their relationship is flourishing. The real highlight of Friday was hanging out with Orso at Brickhouse Tavern & Tap, where Orso had the chance to serve as a Cane Corso breed ambassador for about 5 hours. He met at least 40 new people – all of whom were all over him – including a bunch of children. Lots of thanks go to the folks over at Brickhouse Tavern & Tap for being so cool and welcoming to our Buckethead! Below are a few photos from the day, including some of him hanging out at Brickhouse, and a short video of Orso going at it with some apple wedges at the hotel!, enjoy!
 
 Gotta take care of momma!   Apples are fun! Show 3 of 4 – Central Florida Kennel Club, Inc. – Saturday June 25, 2011 – Judge Dr. Wanda V. Spediacci Saturday was a great day for Orso and for us! Handled beautifully by Daniel Sanchez, Orso took Winners Dog out of the Open Class for his 2nd 3-point major of his AKC show career! He then took Best of Winners in the breed class! This win put Orso just 1 point away from finishing his AKC Championship! We are so proud of our little dinosaur! Danny and Vanessa, thank you so much! Judge Spediacci, we appreciate that you liked our boy enough to give him this win among all the nice dogs he was up against! Orso, you ROCK, baby boy! Today’s major win, although an awesome accomplishment, didn’t overshadow the health testing we did with Orso at the show. Winning a 3-point major is something we were hoping for but we truly were looking forward to participating in health clinics being offered at the show. We took Orso to get his patellas and heart tested for the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals and were thrilled when both tests came back normal! Orso was OFA Patella tested by Dr. Nicole Salas and OFA Heart tested by Dr. Alan Spier and is now OFA certified normal for both! To celebrate such an excellent day, Orso got a new grooming table and spent the rest of day hanging out with us. We decided to go back to Brickhouse Tavern & Tap for a little while, since the people there are so cool, and then ended up at Chicago Pizzeria Uno for dinner, where Orso was a hit with everyone and once again got to teach people how the Cane Corso is a gentle giant! Below are some of our favorite photos of the day, enjoy!      Show 4 of 4 – Space Coast Kennel Club Of Palm Bay – Sunday June 26, 2011 – Judge Mrs. Patricia Trotter Sunday was surreal for me, absolutely unexpected and amazing! Orso took Winners Dog out of the Open Class for his 3rd 3-point major of his AKC show career, then took Best of Winners in the breed class, with his super-duper, awesome handler, Daniel Sanchez, finishing his AKC Championship in just over 18 weeks of showing! Thank you, Judge Trotter, for showing our boy some ring love! For a 12 month old puppy, finishing his AKC championship with 3 major wins is a great accomplishment! We are not blind to Orso’s conformation weaknesses therefore are truly gracious to all the amazing judges who saw our little Corso-pony as the diamond in the rough that he truly is! We also want to wholeheartedly thank Orso’s handlers, Daniel Sanchez and Vanessa Lanz-Sanchez for all they did for us, for all the valuable advice they offered us and for finishing Orso! We are blessed to have met you both and for the privilege of working with you! Much love is in order for our dear friend Sheila Lieberman of Loving Obedience Dog Training in Miami for all the great lessons and guidance she selflessly offered us and for introducing us to Danny and Vanessa! Many thanks also go to all the judges who awarded Orso AKC points over his 18-week show career and contributed to him finishing his championship. Orso will not stepping paw into a conformation ring for a very time; instead, watch out for our boy in the Rally ring, starting in July! Below are our favorite photos from today, enjoy! Professional show photos will be posted as soon as we receive them!     After last weekend’s shows in Palmetto, Florida, I had a revelation: there are rarely, if ever, any Cane Corso class majors at the South Florida shows, especially with females! Cleo is supposed to be arriving at our home in mid-July to start her career in the show ring in mid-August, but there are hardly any opportunities for females to accumulate any major points down here. Knowing the financial investment, not to mention the time put in, with showing dogs, we realized that Cleo needs to be where the majors are at and it’s not South Florida! Therefore, we are very pleased to announce that Cleo will be staying with Kathi Wisdom in Colorado to start her show career out there! We are very excited for Kathi to introduce our girl to the conformation ring, especially since she has raised Cleo since birth. Along with this decision, comes the realization that we will not be meeting Cleo in person for a long while, which is no easy pill to swallow. We are anxious to meet her and bring her home to join the family, but for now, Cleo’s going to be our Colorado girl! Best of luck to Kathi and thank you for agreeing to work with our beautiful girl, Cleo!
Orso, Luna, Mouse & Cleo want to wish their Grandpa Frank a beautiful Father’s Day! They all love you very much! And while we are at it, I love you very much too! Happy Father’s Day, Dad! Cleo sends her love from Colorado, photo courtesy of Kathi Wisdom:  Orso with Grandpa Frank at 8 weeks old:  Grandpa Frank with me:   ST. PETERSBURG DOG FANCIERS ASSOCIATION, INC., JUDGE MRS. PATTI WIDDICK NEALE – 06.18.20116/18/2011 Today was a very nice day for us! Orso won the open class and took winners dog with handler Daniel Sanchez. He then went back in the ring for the breed class with handler Vanessa Lanz-Sanchez and took Best of Winners! We are very excited about Orso’s 2 new points! Many thanks to Daniel, Vanessa, Judge Mrs. Patti Widdick Neale & of course to Orso the Cane Corso! Below is the video footage of Orso in the breed class with Vanessa (yellow jacket) from today but with no sound; it’s almost 7 minutes long, enjoy! Also, here are some photos from yesterday from the road trip up to Palmetto, FL, Orso’s birthday dinner last night at Beachhouse Restaurant in Bradenton Beach and down time at the hotel, enjoy! Ready for a road trip!  Birthday dinner! 
Winding down for bed time:  After an “oh-sooooo-tiring” morning at the dog show today:  Today is a very special day for us because exactly one year ago our Buckethead was born! Ever since he came home to us, he has shown us nothing but love, loyalty and all the great things this wonderful breed is known for. On this day, we are gracious for having Orso with us and we hope for many, many more birthdays with him! He brings us big smiles everyday with his crazy Corso antics and his “Orso-style” of doing things! In honor of his birthday, below is a cute postcard about Cane Corso property laws that says stuff that any Corso owner can humorously attest to:  Great photo, courtesy of our Facebook friends!  This coming weekend, Orso and I will be heading to Palmetto, Florida, near Sarasota, for a two-day show. Orso will be showing in the open class at each of the two shows with his handler, Daniel Sanchez, which will be held both days at the Manatee Civic Center, 1 Haben Blvd, Palmetto, FL 34221.
For those of you who have been following this blog since the beginning, it will come as no surprise when I say that Orso totally abuses Luna. It is relentless! He bites her, he chases her around, he body-bumps her and even knocks her to the ground – this is every single day around here! Luna, however, has learned to defend herself by biting his cheeks. Sometimes she forgets to let go and Orso gets soooo mad – as mad as Orso can get considering that he doesn’t have an ounce of aggression in him! Below are two video clips – short ones, I promise – of Luna and Orso going at it, enjoy! Round one: Round two: I found these funny Cane Corso bumper stickers while playing on the web…    ABSOLUTELY my favorite one:  This morning, I took Orso to Kennedy Park in Coconut Grove to be tested for his Therapy Dogs International (TDI) certification. Dee Hoult of Applause Your Paws hosted today’s testing; thanks, Dee! Amaris Hess Garneau was the evaluator for the test; thanks, Amaris!
TDI is an organization dedicated to the regulation, testing, selection and registration of qualified dogs and handlers for the purpose of visitations to hospitals, nursing homes and facilities or any place where therapy dogs are needed. Click here to see what Orso was tested on; it’s like the CGC test he did a long time ago but with more steps. I always said that I wanted to certify Orso as a therapy dog so he could bring smiles to the faces of people who need that happiness the most. Orso is a very special dog who is very kind and loves people. He is our gentle giant and we are thrilled that we can use him as a tool to help others. Yay, Orso! Yay, TDI!
SACCI RADUNO RECAP – WORKING EVENTS – ORSO IS A LOVER, NOT A FIGHTER! – 06.04.2011 & 06.05.20116/6/2011 Part 2 of our SACCI Raduno Recap is all about the working events that Orso participated in, specifically Deterrent Dog (DD), Working Dog Evaluation (WDE) and CAL1. On June 3rd, when we arrived at the Dayton airport, we ran into a few fellow Corso folks, including Oscar Mora & Ron Ackerman. Oscar Mora trains working dogs and had offered to help us prepare for the working events that Orso was participating in. We made plans to meet up later at Jeff Hall’s house to practice the exercises that would be required of Orso. As planned, we headed over to Jeff’s house to meet up with Oscar Mora. Upon our arrival, we immediately met a whole bunch of Corso folks whose names we had always heard but had never actually met in person. It was very cool to put faces to names and actually be around some of the people who had revived the Cane Corso breed. We also met Roy Rojas of El Mesquital Cane Corso, who was helping Oscar introduce Orso to his working event requirements. We started to practice and pretty much went through every exercise of each event successfully, so we felt pretty good about giving Orso a chance to try out some of the fun working events being offered during the weekend! Many thanks to Oscar Mora and Roy Rojas for all your help! On Saturday, Orso went through the Deterrent Dog (DD) and the Working Dog Evaluation (WDE). On Sunday, he went through the CAL1. He was so awesome! He scored excellent on almost all the exercises he was asked to do and he was such a trooper because all of it was new to him and it was VERY hot out! We are so blessed to have a dog like Orso who has such a stable temperament and is so confident! What a fun experience it was for Orso and me! We can’t wait to do some more working stuff with Orso when he is a little more grown up! We could not have asked for a better dry run! Needless to say, we were very excited about attending these events because it was more than your traditional dog show beauty pageant. We got to see Orso participate in some very cool working events and demonstrate to us what he was bred to do – WORK! Below is a very long video clip of Orso going through the Working Dog Evaluation (WDE); it’s almost 13 minutes long. The voice you hear in the background toward the end of the video is Jeff Hall of Cherubs Cane Corsos. You can tell in the video that it was the very end of the day because Orso was exhausted! Below is a very short video clip of Orso going through the tail end of the CAL1 with me.
The two-day 2nd Annual SACCI (Society in America for Cane Corso Italiano) National Dog Shows in Ohio were, without a doubt, the longest two days of Orso’s life! On June 3rd, we took Orso out to Dayton, Ohio to participate in the largest gathering of Cane Corso enthusiasts and exhibitors that we have ever been a part of. There were five conformation shows and a ton of working events over a two-day dog show. Thanks, SACCI, for putting on a great event! Originally, when I started to draft this blog entry, it was turning out to be very long and wordy. After reconsideration, I rewrote it and cut out most of the words, LOL. Basically, the weekend was a great experience. We met a ton of Corso folks, got to see many gorgeous dogs and spent some valuable quality time with our Buckethead. Over the course of 2 days, there were five conformation dog shows in which Orso competed with professional handler Ashley Cuzzolino, who also handles GR CH PrideNJoyz Afterglow. The judges for the shows, who were to include four Italian judges, were supposed to be Dr. Pierluigi Scalia, Mr. Danilo Giorgio, Mr. Daniel Rosa, Mr. Roberto Giannuli and Mr. Alessandro Bigozzi. An unexpected emergency did not allow Mr. Danilo Giorgio to make it on his flight from Italy to Ohio, so his judging assignment was given to UKC Judge Ms. Nancy Beeman. Overall, Orso did alright. He earned two seconds, two thirds and a first place under UKC Judge Ms. Nancy Beeman. Orso could officially be considered a small pony, so we didn’t expect him to steal the show! Below are a whole bunch of photos from the conformation shows; they are all mixed up but I tried to caption them as best as possible. I want to thank everyone who took lots of great photos and posted them to Facebook or emailed them to us, specifically Ruth Surface, Ayalla Ruvio, Krissy Sauers & Sheri Ard. Some of their photos were used in this blog entry, so we really appreciate your photographic efforts! Most importantly, we want to thank Ashley Cuzzolino for doing a great job handling Orso and we would like to thank Orso’s regular handler, Daniel Sanchez, and his awesome wife, Vanessa Lanz-Sanchez, for putting us in touch with Ashley! Favorite headshot of the weekend, courtesy of Ruth Surface:  Ashley Cuzzolino practicing with Orso, courtesy of Ayalla Ruvio:   Awards up for grabs:   Show 1 – Judge Pierluigi Scalia:   Show 2 – Judge Nancy Beeman: Winner’s Class under Judge Nancy Beeman: Show 3 – Judge Daniel Rosa:  Show 4 – Judge Roberto Giannuli:  Great headshot, courtesy of Krissy Sauers:  Show 5 – Judge Alessandro Bigozzi:   Random photos & nightlife: After traveling most of the day, Orso and I finally got home! We have a break of almost 2 weeks before our next set of shows, so we truly are THRILLED to be home! As a reward for Orso doing so well this past weekend at the SACCI shows in Ohio, we gave him a big, meaty bone that his Grandma bought him. Below are a bunch of photos of him hanging out with us in the patio while enjoying his prize, enjoy! A special thank you goes out to our friend, Ileana, who took awesome care of Mouse & Luna while we were gone AND to Nichelle for constantly checking on them via text message while she was in Spain! Love you both! 
  |
YVONNE
|
RSS Feed