My time at Discover Dogs: Day 1

Hey everyone, sorry for not blogging for a while, I have been so busy!
Last weekend, I went to Discover Dogs in Earls Court One, London. One of my owners is a member of the Young Kennel Club, which is a part of The Kennel Club that is for people aged 6-25. The Young Kennel Club holds qualifiers for Crufts (a big dog show in the NEC, Birmingham) and I was taking part in two at Discover Dogs! You may remember me blogging about a Dogstable qualifier, well this was the same thing but in two different activities: Grooming and Handling. My owner has groomed me before, but not in a big competition! I was in the Clip/Strip and Trim class, which is where the human is allowed to cut my hair, not just brush me.
 On the Saturday, at 8am, my owners packed the car and left for Earls Court. I was very excited because I have never been to a BIG dog show like Discover Dogs before! When we arrived, I saw lots of other doggies who were all brushed and looking their best. I said hello to a few and introduced myself and then we went inside. It was massive! There was hundreds of dogs with hundreds of humans and lots and lots of things to buy and watch. It smelt good so I had a good sniff around while we found our bay. The Young Kennel Club had reserved a special place for us to put all our stuff, like my crate and grooming table.
At 10am, it was time for me to enter the YKC arena and begin the competition! A grooming competition is where the human grooms their dog in whatever way is allowed in their category for two hours. Two hours may sound a long time, but trust me, it flew by! A judge watches you being groomed and judges you by the way you are being handled and how you look before the makeover, and after. My owner started brushing out my coat. It felt nice so I kept rolling over! She then went onto trimming my ears- making sure the hair was an even length- and trimming my tail. After that, she started clipping my coat and then back to trimming behind my legs and around my paws. Whilst this was happening, loads of photographers took photos of us and I even saw Barney and Barney from Blue Peter! Once the two hours had whizzed by, my owner was asked to stop grooming and the judge inspected me.
At 2:15pm, the results were announced! All the competitors lined up and our name was called out as we entered the arena once again. They announced who qualified and then we had our photo taken all together. We didn't win our way into Crufts but it was a great day and such a great experience! I would definitely do it again! Talk soon, Jasper x