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Post by KeyGlyph on Jan 7, 2023 0:10:50 GMT -5
Well, it’s a brand-new year, and here at Wood Panel Rescue things are feeling pretty cozy. We managed to finish cataloging the long family history of our first selective breed, the Snowshoe Scottie, right before the calendar rolled over, putting a figurative bow atop a project that had consumed us for fifteen months. With that done, it seemed the only thing left to do was sit around a fireplace with our plethora of pups, sip some tea, and relax. So of course we found ourselves wondering if we could learn how to show. So much for taking it easy! The idea was almost certainly born from the fact that I’d already given some of our Snowshoe Scotties show names, just for fun. The pups had loved them, loved how their titles captured a special sentiment unique to them. Never in my life had I thought I’d attempt to show, but bestowing those titles put a sort of contagious magic in the air. Somehow we all suddenly knew we were actually going to attempt this. The immediate question was, how on earth to choose whom to train first? The answer: train them in groups! At WPR, we’ve decided that showing will be a team sport. Cohorts will grow, learn, and bond together. The goal is for the crew to have a great experience as a whole, regardless of who wins which types of trophies. And why not document the process while we’re at it? We’ll use this thread to record the growth and progress of our team along the way, naturally raising them and celebrating their antics, relationships, personalities, and spirit. The last order of business (after helping an eager group of puppies choose a team name) was to put together a group photo to commemorate the moment. Behold, the crew that will take their first steps with me into the showing community: The Pups of Atlantis!
Just look at everyone trying their very best.
Our next post will introduce each dog individually so that we can get a sense of their personalities and emotions as we start down this path together. More to come!
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Post by KeyGlyph on Jan 9, 2023 16:15:11 GMT -5
It’s been a few days now since our cohort started socializing, and a lot of interesting dynamics have already sprung out of the woodwork. Please, feel free to stay a while in our snowed-in cabin and make your acquaintance with these pups!
"Cooler Heads Prevail" Scuffle || "Full Fathom Five" Pelinaion || "Wood & Water, Bones & Gold" Mackenzie
These three are an interesting group, because they’re actually all siblings! Scuffle, Pelinaion, and Mackenzie all entered the world on the same day, in that very order. They, and the rest of their littermates, were all named after sunken shipwrecks.
Ironically, Scuffle is the only dog in this group who gets along with everyone else. (Their youngest sibling Mackenzie has a problem with them, but that frustration only runs one way.) Scuffle has so far been the least consistent with learning to pose, but it's not because they’re not talented – it’s just that they would always rather be doing tricks! Snap a photo and nine times out of ten Scuffle will make eye contact, pause for a moment, and pop a handstand. It remains to be seen if they can be bought out with treats.
Pelinaion’s show name comes from a serious passage in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, but she’s an absolute goofball who loves to poke fun at any and all types of self-important pageantry. Her favorite thing to do during training is to overpose, puffing up and flaring her Scottie eyebrows at ridiculous angles in a perfect imitation of arrogant buffoonery. I highly suspect she will pull this expression during a show at a critical moment one day, just to get a laugh. I’ll let her enjoy herself.
Mackenzie, the youngest, is named after a line in the poem “What If?” by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, a piece that mulls over the possibility of never discovering one’s hidden talent (which, in the poem’s case, is the fantastical ability to sense where sunken ships are). Its description of these wrecks – all “wood and water, bones and gold” – evokes the beauty of forgotten treasures glittering quietly with potential. Mackenzie is, it turns out, the best natural poser among his siblings (and, random sidenote, the pickiest with friendships). Is posing his hidden talent rising to the surface?
"Heart of the Castle" Keep || "As Long as We Try Our Best" Kolya
Keep is a special little pup. She was the first of my selective breed to be given a showname, and was also half of the inspiration for this show team’s group title; juxtaposing the theme of castle architecture against sunken ships immediately brought to mind the city of Atlantis. Sadly though, I think this favoritism of mine has predisposed most of her showmates against her — Scuffle, Pelinaion, and Mackenzie are all her cousins, but only Scuffle is kind to her. I’m relieved that those two have been fast friends, at least. Kolya is a very interesting final addition to this group. Not only was he an adoption from Rho , but he is the child of two Supreme Grand Champions! Part of Rho's application process involved promising that he would be shown, and I decided that he and I could help each other learn how this whole process works. He captured my heart when I saw his adoption photo, which was a snapshot of him tripping and falling on his face. My feeling was that he and I would have a good time competing together, however imperfectly, “as long as we tried our best.” It’s no surprise, though, that he’s proving to be incredible at posing – whatever clumsiness he has, it’s wearing off quick! And that's our roster. They're still puppies with a lot of growing to do, but they're in absolutely no rush to grow up.
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Post by KeyGlyph on Jan 27, 2023 10:13:39 GMT -5
The kids’ voices have dropped! We’ve officially entered adulthood! At this point in their training, the Pups of Atlantis have settled into two distinct cliques. Keep spends her time exclusively with her cousin Scuffle, who is still the only one in the group who doesn’t pick on her. Kolya, Pelinaion, and Mackenzie all get along and mess about as a small pack. "As Long as We Try Our Best" Koyla || "Full Fathom Five" Pelinaion || "Wood & Water, Bones & Gold" Mackenzie
A few observations about the trio. For one, Kolya and Pelinaion tend to gravitate towards each other, tossing stuffed toys and instigating tugs-of-war. Kolya is noticeably more attached to Pelinaion than the other way around; a little crush, perhaps? We’ll see if these feelings progress as we march into adolescence!
And if you’re worried that Mackenzie might feel like a third wheel in all this, he doesn’t. At all. He’s perfectly happy to tag along as a follower and doesn’t feel neglected by his sister or his friend one bit. That said, he’s super sensitive to my wandering attention. Mackenzie is the only pup in the bunch who feels lonely if I stop watching closely, which makes me think he might be really hard on himself if he doesn’t do well in shows. I’ll have to be sure he understands we love him no matter how he places.
"Heart of the Castle" Keep || "Cooler Heads Prevail" Scuffle
There’s no drama between these two, but their paling around together has inspired Keep to pick up Scuffle’s handstand habit. I’m glad they get along so well. It’s a shame that Keep is ostracized by the others, but she’s never been bothered by it -- probably due to her cousin’s steadfast support.
I’ve started keeping the shots I take of Scuffle goofing off instead of posing, so here’s the latest gallery (plus Keep)!
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Post by KeyGlyph on Feb 11, 2023 5:58:43 GMT -5
Folks, we are putting in the work here at WPR right now. Each pup of Atlantis has begun supplementing their overall group training with individual focus sessions, and I’m starting to see the spark of determination in some of these eyes. Two dogs are pulling ahead of the pack in terms of their dedication to the dream, so let’s start with them! "Full Fathom Five" Pelinaion
Pelinaion remains the most wonderful combination of grit and goofballism. She is now my second most eager poser, but still loves being an agent of chaos. When she’s not overposing, she’s waiting for the perfect photo moment to hiccup or bark. When I coached her in the wisdom of “the higher the nose, the better the pose,” she took those words as literally as possible.
Just look at that smug little smirk! She thinks she’s so clever.
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"Cooler Heads Prevail" Scuffle
Scuffle has been absolutely smashing our posing sessions out of the park lately. Despite all the rebellious handstands of childhood, they’ve committed themselves to being my number-one poser. Another interesting thing about them is how quickly they move from task to task. Scuffle doesn’t have a lot of “activity inertia;” when they’re done posing, prancing, or whathaveyou, there is very little downtime before they’re ready for the next shutter click. It makes training very snappy and productive! (Still making time for those handstands, though.)
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"Wood & Water, Bones & Gold" Mackenzie
Mackenzie started off as my most reliable poser, but nowadays he's really into staring wistfully at the camera and tilting his head this way and that like we’re shooting for a magazine cover. It’s hilarious. I’ve been calling these moments “the many moods of Mackenzie.”
I’ve also noticed that I think he has an exceptionally stubby tail and I love it.
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"Heart of the Castle" KeepKeep has earned her own special superlative: Least Likely to Concentrate. For our one-on-one training I have to put every single toy away and close the travel case to get her to pay attention to the task at hand – and even then her attention isn’t guaranteed. She likes to trot up to the closed case and bash away at it like that’s somehow going to get her yellow ball back. I guess it works in a certain sense, because I give in and we play fetch instead.
Zooooooms!!
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"As Long as We Try Our Best" KoylaKolya has been so amazing at posing that I’ve admittedly neglected his training somewhat. He’s like the kid in class who always finishes his tests early, or the obedient sibling who gets through the entire grocery trip quietly while the others make a fuss. I’ve got my hands full sinking my energies into the pups who need more direct help, and Kolya’s so good he doesn’t even complain about having to play his Game Boy in the corner for half an hour. I’m going to make it up to him soon – and I’ll start by pointing out one of my favorite details about him: his two-toned nose! Did you notice it before I mentioned it? I’ll be sure to forward him any adoring comments about his snoot. He'll love the attention.
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Post by KeyGlyph on Mar 11, 2023 0:53:10 GMT -5
There has been a lot of excitement among the Pups these past few weeks. We were delayed in updating because we were on the road — and we were on the road because we’ve officially entered the show ring!!1!1one!!` Here’s how it happened. As I was describing last time, our cohort of trainees — much like the members of any after school club — have settled into their own distinct attitudes toward this extracurricular adventure. Mackenzie clearly loves the camera, but not so much posing; he’s kind of like a theater kid who actually wants to be in movies, but is enjoying the atmosphere of a high school production nonetheless, because why not. Keep is just here because she wants to spend some extra time with her favorite cousin; we could be learning how to watch paint dry and I bet it wouldn’t make much difference to her. But Scuffle, Pelinaion, and Kolya — these are the ones who have really embraced the whole affair, and so they are the ones I sat down with for a chat. Kolya wasn’t quite ready to compete yet. All that Game Boy playing to pass the time apparently got him involved in some RPG he wasn’t willing to part from (this is my own fault, really), and it also looks like someone has been encouraging him to bust out handstands instead of poses. But Scuffle and Pelinaion were excited to make the leap.
Really Kolya?
I admit that Scuffle and I had some nerves going on as we hit the road, but Pelinaion marched into our first one like she owned the place and threw her patented The Higher the Nose™ pose, cracking us up and breaking the ice. With a Poppy Hill (nebula ) honorable mention thus smugly secured, we three relaxed into the routine of being an active show troupe.
Pelinaion's The Higher the Nose™ pose (again)
Since then, Pelinaion has secured four Best in Show ribbons, which is absolutely amazing to us. One of those awards was even for a standard Dane show of Arie 's – a competition that Scuffle placed in, too, I might add! Scuffle has a Best in Show ribbon of their own, but their performance is much more affected by the events of a particular day than Pelinaion’s. That, and they also love entering Dali pose shows filled with actual dalmatians. I don’t think Scuffle notices they’re a bit different from those competitors, despite being a foot or so shorter.
I mean, just look at this incredible lineup from a Mythic Silence (ECRose ) show! Here we have Scuffle alongside Xoops' Ilija (Szmantha ), Alohomora/King's Trickster (Pollypup ), Wild Road's Bear (nightwish ), and Cargo/Gin's Morganna (gingerade )!
One of these things is not like the others.
While our two Scotties close in on their Supreme Grand Champion titles, Kolya has just entered his first show and placed first! We’re all very excited for him because he comes from an impressive show lineage of Rho 's, and we know how important it is to him that he does well. He doesn’t talk about it much, but we know it’s on his mind.
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Post by KeyGlyph on Aug 31, 2023 0:02:35 GMT -5
This is an extremely overdue post, but I'm pleased to say that the Pups of Atlantis have officially retired as a team after producing three Supreme Grand Champions! Let's start off with the pup who hadn't even started showing the last time we checked in: Rho/WPR's
"As Long as We Try Our Best" Kolya
Shows: 8 Points: 31 Pt. Average: 3.87
SGCh Achieved: 03/29/23
Kolya was such a natural. Serious, yet not overproud. Stately but not overbearing. I'd say he's lived up to his family's impressive lineage, and I hope Rho is pleased! I still can't get over that beautiful two-toned nose.
KeyGlyph's
"Cooler Heads Prevail" Scuffle
Shows: 10 Points: 30 Point Average: 3
SGCh Achieved: 03/09/23
As we saw, Scuffle had a hilarious habit of being the only non-dalmatian or non-tamsin in a group of competitors. They were super chill about this whole showing thing, yet we couldn't have been more thrilled when they nabbed honorable mentions in two standard dane shows!
KeyGlyph's "Full Fathom Five" Pelinaion
Shows: 12 Points: 49 Point Average: 4.08
SGCh Achieved: 03/07/23
And then there's Pelinaion. This pup just smashed it out of the park. Her 4.08 score is already higher than we could have hoped for, but when you consider the fact that she also deliberately overposed in a few shows and earned immediate honorable mentions... wow! And although the team has disbanded, Pelinaion hasn't retired herself just yet; we're gonna try for some higher titles when we get back into the swing of showing. I just revamped my website's showroom page to keep track of everyone's stats, so her log will continue there.
And that's it! We learned the ropes, and the Pups (for the most part) are going to go back to their regular lives, pursuing the tricks some of them would rather be doing than posing. :D
Thanks for reading!
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