[airplane]

I went to watch, just as a spectator, the regional and national specialty shows in NYC this year. I had paid I think 20 bucks or so to get a reserved front row seat. It was really good. I liked being able to see a lot of yorkies in person that I've only ever seen in magazines before. I thought it was kinda cool that Cheryl Rangel came up to me and gave me a little talking to about recording the show. I setup my camcorder on a tripod to record the show and that definitely got her attention and she came by and gave me a little talking to. Lol. I feel like I've learned a lot. Truthfully, in my own mind, I feel like I was a little bit disappointed with the quality of the yorkies there. There was definitely some that stood out in a really good way, but at the same time there was a number of yorkies competing there that just didn't really get me or get my heart beating if you know what I mean.

NYC is amazing and there's so much to see and do there. It was my first trip to the city. At the show I must say that I was really disappointed to see a few yorkies whose coats were dyed blue. That was something that you could kinda pick up and see with your eye, but funny enough, with my camcorder, maybe because it's through a lens or something, but it's clear and obvious as day when seeing it through my camcorder. There was no doubt about it when seeing it through the camcorder. To me that's a shameful abandonment of a very important verity of competition. And so, to win, it's not a real win. It's nothing more than cheating. I personally believe that you have to draw the line somewhere. It's one thing to flat iron the coat and apply a grooming spray, but it's an entirely different thing to apply chemicals or whatever to change the color of the coat. That's wrong in my eyes. And shame on the few people who brought a yorkie in the ring with a coat that's been artificially made to look like a dark blue color. I understand why they do it. We all know that as a yorkie gets older, many of them will have their coat lighten to perhaps too light of a silvery type of color. It's against the rules if I'm understanding it correctly, although I am mostly familiar with CKC rules. And I also understand that many judges can and do recognize a coat that's been dyed blue, but are simply afraid of penalizing a yorkie for that because they're afraid of possible legal action against them. Anything for a win I guess. I wonder if people feel any sense of shame or despise what they've done in order to win. The win has been tarnished.

I myself am a student of the handlers I see in the ring, the breeders I chat to at dog shows, etc. I have ambitions of one day, hopefully soon, breeding yorkies and hopefully breeding many champions and yorkies who can have a real positive effect on the breed as a whole. And I'll end this post with a quote:

"If we teach our students by example, then we only have ourselves to blame for who they become."