So far

When I first had the thought of getting involved with dog shows and dog sports, I assumed I would need to purchase a new puppy. I felt sure that I had let Bowser get into a condition that he would never be able to come back from, and there was no way he would ever be presentable or respectable in a ring. The idea of adding an additional critter to my list of beings that demand things from me stressed me out though.

My husband, upon hearing the price of one of the puppies I was looking at, turned to me and said
"Can't you just use Bowser?"
I balked at the idea. I explained to him that Bowser was far too old and he would be laughed out of the ring, probably after peeing on everything and pulling my arm out of socket trying to get to another dog.

But the stressful thought of adding an additional dog to our family made me rethink what my husband had said. I decided to suck it up and purchase a copy of Bowser's five generation AKC pedigree to see how badly bred he was. I was sure it would confirm my view that Bowser's breeding and lack of training would make him a worthless dog for the show ring or dog sports.

The Dogue de Bordeaux is a new breed to the American Kennel Club, so when I looked at my dog's pedigree, none of the names were the red text color of champions. "Just as I thought..." I mumbled to myself. Out of curiosity I pasted his great grandsire into the google search bar and clicked 'search'.
The results surprised me. The dog was an international champion. I pasted more dogs into the search bar. More champions!

I was pleasantly surprised. Bowser's pedigree was not entirely made up of champions, but he did have quite a few. Maybe his breeding wasn't as bad as I feared it to be. The next step was to compare him to the AKC standard for the breed. He had no disqualifying faults or major faults, and while there was room for improvement in some areas, I really started to believe that he might have a chance.

So I had made my decision. Even if Bowser wouldn't get me to Westminster, we were going to take this journey together. I discovered a class near me that meets weekly to teach conformation showing that I intend to take. I found a great dog trainer that will help me undo two years of training neglect for a pretty penny. I ordered some books on how to get involved in dog showing. I intend to take Bowser for a checkup at the vet this weekend. This is just the beginning, but the dream has started to take shape!