Tampa Shows - September 2020 - Dog Shows in the time of COVID-19
After a long dry spell where we weren't allowed to have dog shows, I finally attended the shows in Tampa at the Florida State Fairgrounds 9/23/2020 - 9/27/2020. The shows were so well managed with plenty of space for social distancing around the rings. Everyone wore masks and behaved safely. Ring times were spaced so that there weren't too many people congregating around the rings. It was a very successful show and it was so nice to see all my show friends and have a bit of normalcy! I took Traveler and because he became show age just as COVID-19 was becoming a problem, he had never been to a dog show before. Usually when I am training a new dog to show, I take them to shows with me as a puppy so they can experience the show atmosphere but this wasn't possible for Traveler. When he arrived at the show grounds, he thought it was a big party thrown in his honor and he was just so happy to be there. He was meeting people and so alert to all the sights and sounds. While this is all positive, it makes for difficult showing so he didn't do any winning but he got lots of ring experience. I was proud of his confident and friendly behavior. This is exactly the temperament that the Papillon standard describes. I look forward to seeing how he does in the ring when he settles down a bit. Here are some photos from the shows.