Jack Russell Terrier Club of America nationals is the only show I go to. I attend one day, for a few hours, and then go hunting on Sunday. As always, I traveled incognito with bald cap, plastic nose, and novelty glasses.
The JRTCA works hard to threat the needle between work (first pole position, at least in theory) and show. I am not a fan of dog shows or most dog organizations, but I am a fan of the JRTCA; they try very hard to get it right with a lot of competing and conflicting agendas. Hats off to the no-doubt large and dedicated team that put this together and pull it off year after year. Not easy, and a thankless job for the most part.
The JRTCA national show has been held near Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek for the last few years -- a location where over 22,700 Americans died in a single day trying to put an end to slavery. I dig my own dogs not far from here on battle fields once drenched in human blood.
You can't have just one. This is a pretty normal stack of dogs peering out from a wagon at JRTCA Nationals.
Greg Mousley making three people happy. A lot of dogs on a long day and he still has a smile!
One of the several go to ground setups at JRTCA Nationals yesterday.
Lots of pretty dogs Enough working people and working dogs to make me keep coming back every year, at least for a few hours.
Those are two fine-looking working dogs owned by Ted Ely and bred by Char Smith. Not a great picture of either dog -- Ted was off somewhere and the dogs were talking smack to me. I have long admired Mac (Sumac) the dog on the left who is small with a lot of bone. His mother, Torch, is on the left and has always been a small solid dog with great looks, bone, and a small frame.
This is me spanning Torch a few years back. Note the complete finger overlap. Span means different things to different folks. This is what I am looking for if I can find it! I think shortly after this picture was taken, Torch was made the JRTCA's 30th Anniversary cover dog.
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