I have heard Mr. Mims say that on that night Snooty never had a chance. I can't remember the name but I heard once that someone offered Mr. Brewer the forfeit as Snooty looked bad mid-afternoon.

When controlling the water lots of times a dog will end up dry. If the dog is healthy with no kidney issues or tract issues he will not over-hydrate himself. I add water to the main meal as well as a broth fluid 12 hours out. When the work load starts to increase he will go tot he water bowl when he needs it. Within a few weeks he will hardly touch it as his body 'dials' itself in to a proper water weight.

At the end we count backwards in 30 hour increments from show time til 4 days out. The water intake becomes a part of the daily ration. By then he is pretty much off the water bowl anyway. The weather will also play a part in water intake so one's region/climate will factor in as well.

I would venture a guess to say water (too wet or too dry) has been the demise to a lot of really good dogs over the years. Sometimes they can do well in spite of their human counterpart but it does not happen all that often. Unfortunately, it is usually the other way around. Sometimes I sell my fellow man short, but I would be willing to guess for every dog that wins in spite of his human counterpart there are two that succumb because of poor decisions.

I have a friend that is as country as any person I ever met. His normal every day conversation has all of the "old folks use to say" phrases already included. We were talking about this very subject about CH. Caballo (Garner's Dynomite bred). He was done once on weight, once too high and once too light as the owner picked up a weight and then moved his dog to that weight. For whatever reasoning Caballo overcame all that was put in front of him, including the one person that was suppose to be behind/with him. My buddy said, "The only thing Caballo could not do was drive the truck and count the money, everything else he handled himself". (in so many words)

Not a lot of Caballo's floating around out there.

EWO