I should know better

I`m back to showing again after a lapse due to illness....back on the old white bus rumbling into the night with a load of cramped people and a swaying array of little dogs in containers.

But before the journey comes the preparation. The prewash, the Show Bath, the grooming.

Between the second stage and the third, Shelby quietly took himself off into the kitchen. There, unknown to me, he liberated a packet of gravy granules. Chicken, With a Hint of Sage.

By the time I found him he had interacted quite intensively with this product. I think that he hadn`t really eaten much, but he can get a bit damp about the face when he is excited and I was confronted with a panting flat face covered by a gluey brown mask, from which happy goggle eyes twinkled.

Several intensive washes got rid of the colour, even from the dreaded wrinkle.

But not the smell. Every time he walked past me, there was a faint but definite hint of Sunday dinner.......

There was no more time. We packed up and left.

In the showring, Shelby received many admiring glances. Most of them were from other dogs. Clearly they admired his perfume, and would love to know where he got it. Had it been a Christmas present?

Chin are what is known as a "head" breed. In judging, the head is studied intensely.

As the elderly judge bent down close to do this, a strange, puzzled look spead over her face. She sniffed thoughtfully. Shelby, not to be outdone, sniffed right back - in dog circles sniffing is a very sociable act indeed, and he could see that this was a very civilised person.

She smiled, and placed him quite well.

Personally I think it was the Hint Of Sage that did it.