After a hearty breakfast at the hotel we were off to the barns to check on our animals. Brooklyn and Manhattan had fared nicely overnight, but their new fan wasn't working at all. I contacted the facilities department and they had it fixed in a jiffy.

According to the day's schedule, it looked like I might get a chance to show Manhattan, but more than likely she would have to wait until Saturday. However, Kris and Albert were kind enought to let me get my feet wet by showing their Black Pearl. We took a fifth place ribbon my first time in the ring -- I was so excited!


First Timers Q&A

Before this show, as with most shows, the judges held a question and answer session for new participants. ATTEND THIS! There you will learn:

• The flow of the show -- How you will be asked to walk into the ring, when to do so, and what to do if your animal doesn't want to!


• What the judge will be looking for during each inspection period -- Gate, posture, size of reproductive organs, teeth, fleece consistency, and crimp consistency.


• What to do if your animal doesn't behave -- And there are always those! Believe it or not, this may not be marked against you as long as the judge can view all of the characteristics listed above. If your animal is stressed to such a degree that they pose a danger, however, you may be asked to leave no matter how high the animal's quality.


• What to do if your animal wins -- It would seem self explanatory, but it is not. If your animal wins first or second in its division, for instance, it will then compete for best in class. This means instead of going to celebrate your win, you must wait to be judged again against others in the class.

The Q&A sessions are also a great time to ask questions of the judges and other participants. What is the best way to steady an animal who doesn't want someone feeling around under their tail? What is the best way to show teeth? Etc....

Practice Makes Perfect

Having now been through the experience, one more bit of advice I can offer is to practice. Practice with yourself, practice with your animal. Halter train. Get them used to being followed by other animals, and leading other animals. Get them used to, or at least tolerant of, being touched in sensitive areas with "pat" exercises.

Friday night was the big dinner in downtown Puyallup. During dinner there was an auction to support the education of a university student specializing in camelids. After dinner we went for a quick check on the animals and exhausted, went to bed.

Pulling into Krystal Acres farm on San Juan Island, one cannot help but feel relaxed. I was thankful for that as I set off to meet Kris and Albert Olson, who had kindly offered to guide me through the excitement and nerves of my first show weekend.

As I parked the van, the first thing I saw was a larger than life picture of blue-ribbon winning “Houdini” (currently bred to one of our girls) on the side of what had to have been the largest livestock trailer I had ever seen. The look on my face must have been priceless. There I was standing in dirty farm clothes parked within a pristine white storybook barn staring at a picture of a giant white alpaca.

“So what do you think of the circus wagon?” came a disembodied voice behind me, “It’s a little over the top huh? We came back from our trip and there it was larger than we expected. You must be Jennifer, I’m Kris; Albert and I are so glad you are here.”

At that moment I knew the weekend was off to a good start.

Janet and I were invited for lunch at the Olson’s home, after which Janet left to return to our Orcas farm. I went to check in at the nearby bed and breakfast and agreed to return for a family dinner that evening.

6:30 am Thursday morning and it was time to load the trailer. We got everyone and every animal in and off to Puyallup with Kris and Albert in their truck pulling the trailer with eleven animals followed by me in the rent a car.

Upon arriving in Puyallup, we were required to wait for veterinary clearance in order to enter the show grounds. The next two or so hours were spent with Kris and Albert introducing me to many people in the alpaca world of the northwestern United States. I have never met a more diverse set of people in all of my days. Rich, poor, young, old, mainstream and less mainstream -- you name it -- they have a love for the breed.

We finally had our health inspection and micro-chip check. It was time to set up our stalls, eat dinner and get some well needed rest for show day.

I am not sure what this says about me as a parent, but I have never been away from my children for more than a few days at a time. Sure -- they have gone to camp one at a time for various periods -- but that was them going away, not me!

My flight to the show left O’Hare early Saturday to Seattle. No problems. Got my car and hit the road to the ferry and farm. Everything looked different than it did last time I was here. This time I was going home and not just visiting. I stopped to visit another farm to investigate breeding possibilities on the way up. It was an eye opening experience and the owner was generous with her time.

I caught the ferry and called Janet to let her know I was on my way. The ferry ride seemed to take forever and fly by all at the same time. I drove to our home with a keen eye toward trying to become familiar with every twist and turn of the road. It was dark.

Spring Days, Teaching Ways

I woke up to a cloudy, cold day. There was much to be learned by me and the alpacas, Manhattan and Brooklyn, before our weekend excursion to Puyallup and Alpacapalooza 2008! We got everyone fed, Janet and I, the chickens and the alpacas, and then set to work.

Janet was my patient guide about how much to feed, when and how. She shared her unique insights into the personalities of each animal, and they all have personalities. We worked with the show girls -- me included -- on haltering, walking, showing teeth etc…

The weather was relentless the first couple of days -- snow one moment, rain and sun the next. Welcome to spring in the islands; I have never drunk so much hot tea! In between all of this I visited schools, hardware stores and banks getting ready for the big move.

Plan to Succeed

For three days Janet and I puzzled about how to load the girls into the van for transport to San Juan Island and Krystal Acres, the farm of Kris and Albert Olson. The van has no ramp and the girls were not going to just jump in of their own free will.

Up until a couple of days prior they weren’t going to go in and out of the barn without a fight. Alpacas, being prey animals, don’t take well to change or the unusual.

We devised a plan where we would back the van up to the wall behind the house to create a ramp of sorts, cover the rough areas, and lead the girls in, forcefully if necessary. We needed to catch the ferry early Wednesday morning. Thursday night we got everything all set with the van and double checked the ferry schedule. Fail to plan, plan to fail. We had a plan.

And They're Off!

For all my worries, the girls went in fairly easily and it was my turn to drive with them to the ferry with Ms. Janet driving the rental car.

All alone in the van, my feelings reminded me a little of taking my children home from the hospital for the first time: it’s a strange feeling and you just can’t believe they just let you take them! The whole way to the ferry I drove like a little old lady and spoke to the girls in the back -- who were honestly a little upset about the whole thing.

We landed on San Juan without a hitch and Janet prepared to hand me off to the Olson’s, who were to kindly shepherd me though my first Alpacapalooza.

* * * *
“Peace, Love and Livestock”… “Snow, Rain and Sun”
Alpacapalooza 2008!

You can now have updates to my blog automatically emailed to you! Just click HERE and enter your forwarding information. Easy as pie.

Congratulations to our beautiful crimpy girl Brooklyn, our fourth place ribbon winner at this year's Alpacapalooza. Three days of "peace, love and livestock" -- indeed!

Thank you so much to Albert & Kris for making me feel welcome while showing me the ropes, and to Janet for all her prep work and this terrific picture of little Brooky too! A full show report in four parts to come next!

The last couple of weeks have been filled with cleaning house and packing to move. Through it all, in the back of my mind has been a constant concern about and delight for the prospect of selecting potential breedings for the upcoming season.

I have been reading and asking questions from experienced breeders, soaking in everything I can find about genetic selection methods. Keep your eyes peeled - over the next couple of posts I will fill you in on what I have learned. Today, however, I will discuss what is known as “line breeding/in-breeding” versus “out-breeding”.

Line-Breeding vs. In-breeding

“It’s line-breeding if it works… it’s in-breeding if it doesn’t.”

Strictly speaking, line-breeding is any mating in which the mated animals have a common ancestor. When first-degree (mother/son, sister/brother, etc...) pairings occur, it is often called in-breeding. Line-breeding implies more distant relationships between the pair.

The reason for line-breeding is to produce offspring that are more genetically uniform with the goal of accentuating superior traits. With line-breeding, good traits hopefully become more consistent, although it can also magnify less desirable traits by making them more consistently prevalent as well.

In-breeding, on the other hand, tends to bring recessive genes to the surface by forcing them to pair with one another. With either in-breeding or line-breeding, the genetic pool becomes drastically smaller and the general health and fitness level of the off spring may suffer. To sum it up one can use line-breeding to achieve greater predictability in their breeding program but not without risks.

Out-breeding

Out-breeding is breeding of animals that don’t have common ancestors. The predictability of outcome of this method of breeding is decreased. Out-breeding can hide recessive genes in a way that they can’t be expressed. Inferior genes or traits can therefore be more widespread than the outward appearance would have you think in advance.

So What Is One to Do?

I see the merits of both and will seek to appropriately combine both line- and out-breeding. Much of our herd has great genes that I would hate to not ignore. The fear of the consequences of a breeding gone wrong seems to be a gamble. Therefore, in order to make the gamble pay off, I will try to ensure the positive traits that I seek to compliment from our Dams are ones that I can be reasonably assured will be passed down.

To increase the odds of achieving this goal, I will also research the off spring on the ground from the selected sires. Have the traits I want to pass on and see in my cria been passed down previously? Coupling this ‘seeing-is-believing’ approach with a healthy dose of caution about line-breeding should ensure an improvement on our herd over time.