Czechoslovakian Vlcak meet the breed booth at Eukanuba
 

I know it's been a very long time since I posting but I figured I'd let the community know that for the first time the Czechoslovakian Vlcak had their own meet the breed booth at the Eukanuba National Championship in Orlando, FL a few weeks ago.

I had a table (well, for 1/2 a day each day) last year but this year AKC was very nice and gave all the FSS breeds their own booth.

I got to talk to a lot of people about the breed and even though she wasn't the most social dog she never acted inappropriately - even kissed a couple of people early on and spent some time just lying in the booth area - people could see her but she didn't like all the strangers coming up to her.

The funny thing is that no one seemed to have a problem pronouncing "Czechoslovakian" but almost no one could pronounce "vlcak" (one person could but she cheated -she was from Czechoslovakia :lol: ).

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...23731166_n.jpg

Also, for those of you who were following him, Pongo / Pollux is doing extremely well in his forever home. His owner could not get the time off for the weekend - Pollux would have loved it (he is quite social). Hopefully they can come next year.

Maybe I have other idea of good PR, but proud and courageous Czechoslovakian vlcak, descendant of wild and free Carpahian wolves squeezed in a tiny crate does not appear a nice advert for the breed. :cry: I only hope it's a matter of bad photo and the poor dog didn't have to stay there long:?

That crate is actually a good size for her and she wasn't in there long. She was in there while I set up the booth.

She had a lot of time out of there during the show and wanted to go in there a few times for a break.

We actually let Luna decide whether she wanted to be in the crate for a break from time to time. For most of the Meet the Breed experience, she was up on the table at the front of the booth - that way she was more comfortable with strangers staring at her - she was not in a submissive position but on almost the same level. I find that a lot of sensitive dogs do not like being "dominated" unintentionally by strangers who lean all over them or are agressive in their body language. Vlcaks can be sensitive to that, especially when those people are staring, too.
She got lots of high-value treats to make the experience pleasant, but it still was stressful from time to time with the amount of people she attracted. So when she would purposely jump off the table and open up her crate door and go in and lay down, we knew she wanted a break.
20 minutes "refreshed" her enough to do some more meet 'n' greet time.
Right across the aisle was the Labrador Retriever booth - which illustrated for a lot of folks - that Vlcaks are not the breed for everyone. Someone asked me if I thought it was a "good idea" to show off Vlcaks - the concern was that by showing Luna off, there would be even more people interested in the breed... I actually think the opposite - we informed the public all about the breed - the good, the bad and the ugly. Most Americans want a pet dog with the personality of a Lab - something very different from a Vlcak. I think those people initially interested in getting a vlcak saw for themselves that they are NOTHING like a Labrador! Better they learn that now, before they get one as opposed to getting one and then dumping it into rescue because they didn't realize that vlcaks are not what they expected them to be.
So I think it was a success overall - Luna did very well despite the stresses of the event - and we not only got to educate the general public, but also had professional "dog people" stop by - judges, mostly, who had never seen one in person and were curious. It will probably be a long time before a judge sees them in the breed ring in AKC shows, but it's nice to create interest and show them a nice representative of the breed.

Good Work Ed !!!

And nice to hear that Pongo / Pollux are tipp topp :)

Very best regards / Mikael