18/11/2025
The last 2 months have been NON STOP for the Hariko Crew. We just finished what feels like the 2025 Southern Midwest Tour! Each week we were off somewhere and always came home by the end of the weekend, that’s a LOT of driving for the trusty ol Shibus, a 2015 Subaru Outback that just keeps doing the best it can. 🥲
🐕Week 1 - Lebanon, TN for supported Shiba entries and a Shiba Specialty hosted by Ohio River Basin Shiba Fanciers. Yuko got an amazing 5pt major as Select Bitch in our Saturday supported entry, and I couldn’t be more proud! Now we are half way to her Grand!
🐕🐕🐕Week 2 - Athens, TN for the Nihon Ken Invitational. Yup, home to Texas then back out FURTHER to the other side of Tennessee. Shiba girls cleaned up nicely with a Best Brace, ARBIS and RBIS in our show while we represented the breed, while Tango got walked in our specialty show (INCREDIBLE entries, so it was a really really tough competiton!) I guess she told the Shiba girls to hold her beer while she got an ABIS in the all breed. 😱
I’m so incredibly happy with the quality of dogs we had at our show this year and couldn’t be more proud of our club and exhibitors. All of us hanging like old friends though we see each other maybe 1-2 times a year. It’s amazing what these fine representatives of our breeds do and I’m so glad to be a part of it.
🐀🎖️Week 3 - Back home to Texas before turning around for the Barn Hunt National! Ellie didn’t get many Qs this year, but she was enthusiastically hunting and having so much fun the whole weekend, which is our number 1 goal. Bragging rights are fun, but with her creepin up on 13 this month, any day we get to play is the best day ever. 🙌 So many people from our NTX club kicked major butt this year, just incredible teams and such a fun time every year.
🐾Week 4 - OMG WE STAYED HOME!
…sort of. Off we were that following weekend to a nearby city to help run our UKC Nosework club’s trial at Hawaiian Falls! Some low level hiccups, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Tango had an AMAZING Elite vehicles run and she finished two champion novice element titles (ext and int.) I also had to realize a hard lesson of “hey, if she is licking the hide, that’s not the odor we are looking for.” 😖 Thankfully I recovered for the second day and even last weekend so I knew what to do when she started those “alerts”!
🐁Week 5 - Barn Hunt! Mostly normal, had a monster truck rally in the parking lot next to us which made evenings interesting… Yuko clicked her last run of the weekend and pounced on a live tube for the first time (but then got so excited she spent the rest of the time running laps.) We also got two Epic Moment pins for the same moment in an earlier run, Bits is absolutely a comedian!
💎🐎🥈Week 6 - Dead Steph is Dead. But yet we move forward to our longest trip this season, all the way out to Lexington, Kentucky. There we participated in UKC’s Total Dog Invitational and WHAT A BLAST! I showed off how much Tango and I had grown as a team in almost everything we did, she finished her champion novice containers title, added a leg for superior and master, and while we didn’t get our Elite leg, I was proud of how well I read my dog and could tell she was getting frustrated. I called what she indicated, which wasn’t correct, but going in on BOXES 5 runs in a row is a lot, and she did so well. We also got a rally 1 q, a leg toward RO2, a Pre-Novice Obed leg, and ran around an agility course while she thought about trying and decided no last second. 😅
While we didn’t get Ambassador of the Year, we found out we were one of the 4 finalists, which is such an incredible honor. Tango also gained a National Total Dog title for getting a group 2 in conformation the final evening, and she gave me the one thing I asked - that we go home with a “big ribbon.” It wasn’t a Top 10, but it’s a gorgeous large group placement that I will cherish!
And now, my Dog Show Extravaganza comes to a close and I plan on curling up in my sock drawer and sleeping for days. 🙃
