Joaquin, the Love Machine

In the post yesterday, Betty reported the fun day she had visiting Judge Julie and her dog family.

About four years ago, Julie purchased Joaquin as her companion pet. She named him Joaquin the Dog for "walking the dog" that she would do everyday. Joaquin then was a pure breed AKC Portuguese Water Dog puppy, but was considered as the "runt of the litter" thus a pet.

When Joaquin was about 8 months old Julie made an appointment to have him neutered.

Three days before the appointment, Julie and Joaquin went to the Beach in Cambria. Being a water dog, Joaquin loves the beach. Julie and Joaquin were having a good time as shown in photo 3, the lives of Julie and Joaquin were about to change.

A stranger approached Julie on the beach asking whether Joaquin was a show dog. Julie said, "No, just my pet." The person said, "You should show him, this is the total correct confirmation of the breed and he could be a special. I know, I am a dog judge."

Julie was puzzled, called the breeder to re-evaluate Joaquin and the breeder agreed that Joaquin, with Julie's loving care, had grown into such a handsome young man that he should go into the show ring. Julie also learned that the word "special" in the dog world means that the dog has potential of winning top honors.

The first show Joaquin was entered, he won the title of Best Puppy. In the second show, he won the Best of Winners out of 50 in the breed. A couple months later, he became a Champion.

Needless to say, the appointment to have Joaquin neutered was cancelled for good.

In three years, Joaquin went on to win Best of Breed 75 times, Best of Group 6 times, and Best In Show in both specialty and open shows. The top picture was taken when he won the Best In Show in the open show.

In 2005 Joaquin was placed #8 in the nation and in 2006 he was placed #5 in the nation.

Joaquin has now retired from the show ring and has become a "Love Machine" both to his mom Julie and to the pretty girls in the breed. On March 4, 2007 Joaquin was married to pretty Savana in a romantic wedding ceremony on the beach. The second group of photos recorded this happy event. Now they are expecting their first puppies in May.

There is a website devoted to Joaquin http://www.joaquinthedog.com/index.html.
His dad Bruce, a renowned statistician, is his Webmaster.