As some of you know, my wife and I got a beautiful Rottweiler puppy back in late November. He's now just under 6 months old and growing rapidly. We got him from some excellent German lines with all kinds of titles but he is our pet first and foremost. As he grew out of his early puppy characteristics we noticed that he was developing into quite a great looking dog and not just that, he also has an amazing personality. Anyway, our breeder and our trainer saw something special in him and they encouraged us to try showing him. We wanted to see how we liked it and see how he handled himself, and really just for the experience of us and our dog being around so many other Rottweilers. We figured it was something fun to do with our new dog.
This past weekend he was entered in the United States Rottweiler Club Southwest Regional Sieger Show. It's a German style dog show and it does differ from AKC shows. I think these show are less prissy than AKC shows and one major difference I like is that German shows do not allow hand stacking of the dogs. That means you can't pick up their feet and place them like they do in AKC. The dogs have to stack naturally. The judge was visiting from Germany and represented the German Rottweiler Club (ADRK). How's that for traditional? (He was pretty tough. He flat out disqualified several dogs that day, including one with eyes that were too light colored. :eek: ) Our boy Heiko, was entered in the 4-6 month male puppy class and he took first place! He was given the top rating in his class of VP1, or "Very Promising 1st place". (That's the rating for pups that young. The ratings change as they get older.)
He did so well. His behavior is outstanding and he showed it off this weekend. Our trainer handled him and he totally keys in on her. She's sort of a "Dog Whisperer" for Rottweilers. Heiko looked great and more importantly, handled himself so well. He was attentive, obedient, and just shined. He almost took "Best Male Puppy" against some much older puppies but just narrowly lost out. The judge even had the trophy placed in front of Heiko but seemed to change his mind at the last minute. Oh well. We're very proud of our little guy.
Here are some pictures from the day and one from when he was just over 8 weeks old, hanging out on the center console of my X5. Incidentally, he's awesome in the car. No whining, crying, vomiting, or anything. He just relaxes and usually falls asleep.
