By Skittles
Our time in the Phoenix area wrapped up with some much needed time on the bikes at McDowell Mountain Park followed by our first ever big time dog show in Scottsdale. The riding at McDowell was fun. I particularly enjoyed the competition trails they have there for the Arizona State Championship MTB circuit. There are two race loops, both about 2 miles long that are, for the most part, fast and fun! There are lots of other trails out at McDowell, and it was too bad that we didn’t have more time to spend riding.
Playing on our bikes quickly turned in to preparation for our first real dog show, the Fiesta Cluster at West World in Scottsdale. 
In the weeks prior, we really didn’t know what to expect. What kind of customers would we see at the show? Were people there to buy, or just watch? Was Torr going to like it, or hate it because he would have to be on a leash the whole time? What would be the most ridiculous dog we would see? We pulled up to West World around 8:30 on Wednesday, the night before the first day of competition and OMG, this place was HUGE! And it was all for the dogs!!! David and I immediately looked at each other and said, “we didn’t bring enough stuff to sell!”
It was a big adjustment to get into the groove of things the first day. I think the hardest thing about it was that we just aren’t the typical, crazy dog people that were the majority of folks at the show. We don’t brush Torr unless he’s going thru his bi-annual shed. We don’t bathe Torr unless he just rolled in poop or dead animal. There are belly trims and butt cuts, but the grooming stops there. No fancy sheers or brushes. No every day shampoo or conditioner. And you can forget about the shining mist! It really doesn’t go much further than lake water and Costco shampoo where we’re from and Torr couldn’t be happier! 
And we usually don’t keep much of an eye on Torr while he is at shows because he just wants to tell everybody HI! But apparently if you are a show dog, you don’t talk to non-show dogs, and Torr thought that that was totally annoying!
Despite that and having to move our booth after the first day since our location was terrible, our sales were great. We sold lots of TazLab Aqua Fur Bowls, JTree Pet Salve, Sun Sticks and Lip Balms. The surprise was in the sales of our JTree Herbal Tea! 
It turned out to be a hit (especially due to the poor weather on Friday and Sunday)! Right when we were on a sales roll, in rolled the rain clouds! Boo. Do you know what happens when it pours over a dog show? Cold, wet, muddy mess that smells like…….! So we tried to make the best of the wet weather by sticking it out. We made Top Ramen in our JetBoil with rain water. We drank lots of hot tea. We did the penguin dance to stay warm. Then we gave up.
Before I sign off, I would like to give a shout out to the Trash Doctor and her Sidekick of the AZPyrs Rescue Group who were friendly enough to invite us to share dinners, drinks and their golf carts! These ladies definitely made our first dog show an enjoyable one!
First up on our February itinerary, the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo back at the Salt Palace. For us, the largest difference in going to this show was that it was a consumer show, so we were selling to the general public, instead of retail buyers and it was a 100% hunter demographic attending the show. It was really really hard to schlep our Sportsman’s Salve to those hunters! We got lots of “what is that?” and “no thanks” to our offers to try a sample of the Salve. However, once they came in to check it out, and we could see the state of the dry cracked skin on their hands, they saw the potential of the product. We met lots 
of folks in construction and concrete who were impressed that the product wouldn’t mess up their good calluses - hopefully we made some in’s with those folks! 