Ever ongoing discussion

Right after the clubshow there was a sort of seminar about breedtype given by one of the judges. I did not attend as I do not want to listen to the ever on going discussion about the 'correct' type and most of what is told is the same every time.

First let me say that I think it is a shame this discussion is still held so furiously and too often gets personal.
I also think it is a shame that in these kind of presentations lots of pictures are being shown but it is always the bad examples for the American dogs and the best dogs from the English type. In both styles of Shetland Sheepdogs there are good and bad examples and not every champion where ever it comes from is a good example of the breed in that country.

We all have to breed according to the standard and for us this is the FCI standard for the Shetland Sheepdog.
Most of the dogs that are imported or bred down from lines with American dogs are very well accepted under judges from all over the world, including breeder/judges from England so what is the whole discussion about the correct type?
Isn't it so that in whatever country you are sitting at the ring you see numerous dogs with different types?

I think in the end we do not have a different opinion about our beloved breed the Shetland Sheepdog but a different vision in how to breed that perfect dog.

It is a shame that it seems like the breeders that do not use American dogs are entitled to have their own opinion and can breed among lines which also do not comply to the standard, they can keep dogs that are too heavy and too deep in skull and whatever is being said about American dogs and still are the ones that do not harm the breed?
But the ones making use of American dogs are being 'forced' into having the same opinion and not 'allowed' to make their own decisions.

Yes, I breed from American dogs as I do believe they have a lot to offer and no matter what people have to say about them, I feel I have the right to make my own decisions and learn from my mistakes.
I love my dogs and nothing what is being said about them will ever change that.
If there's anyone out there who can explain to me what that 'true British type' is, I am all ears but as long as I am looking in rings and see just as many types as I see dogs.......

I will continue hoping that we can end this discussion and respect each others opinion but the way it looks now this is still far away.

Dutch clubshow

Last Sunday we went to the Dutch Sheltie Club Championship show.
It was a busy but very succesfull and enjoyable days with friends. The first one I showed was little Snap (Grandgables Snappy Dresser) in the baby males class, he behaved just awesome and had such a good time being in the ring.
He wasn't placed and just like with most of the babies he did not got graded 'Very Promising' but only got 'Promising' but he was in good company and we are convinced that when he fulfills his promise he will be so much fun to show.

Next was Trae who was in Champion males, he got 3rd with 'Excellent' but I was so pleased he finally behaved himself in the ring again as for a long time he has been quite a struggle.
No idea what was different today but he was so good, the little man made me proud !

Immediately after Trae it was Robin's turn in veteran males. He was the oldest dog entered and actually I only took him for fun and to see how he would like it now, it might have been 8 years ago since he visited his last show.
Well, he looked a million dollars and showed as he had never done before. Not sure if he understood all the time what it was all about but who cares? We both enjoyed ourselves.
Robin got 1st in his class and was graded 'Excellent'.

Than it was Spooky's turn who was first handled by my friend with whom she lives but had too much fun with her and raised her tail all the time. She got graded 'Excellent' and had to go bak into the ring and this is when I took over as she does not raise her tail with me.
Spooky got 1st in Junior Bitch class and we are proud to say that she is now the 3rd generation of blue merle bitches to achieve this (Farouche - Tinsel - Spooky).

Last but not least it was Gale's turn in veteran bitch and unfortunately the judge gave them all a 'Very Good' (same judge as the babies which were all graded low) and she got 2nd in the class (4 champion veterans).

Best thing of the day was Thea winning Best Puppy in show with Diva in Blue from Marmorea's Shelter who is sired by Ch.Dawnville When Lightning Strikes out of Nick Nack from Marmorea's Shelter who had a super day by winning BEST IN SHOW!!!
Congratulations to our friends Addie and Thea de Jong for winning the clubwinner 2009 title with Nina and her becoming your first homebred champion!!!

We will hopefully place pictures soon.

Lisa

A couple of weeks ago when I was walkng with the dogs and after they had all jumped out of the car I noticed Lisa was limping.

She did not want me to touch her leg but she also did not want me to carry her the rest of our walk so she just ran and had fun on three legs.

The next morning we went to the vet because next to that she did not want to use her leg it had also gotten very swollen and felt very warm.

I was scared she had teared a tendon or something but according to the vet this was not the case as everything felt very stabil and he gave some painkillers.

With the painkillers she started to use her leg a little and we agreed upon another week of painkillers to see if it would get better.

Unfortunately it did not get any better than it was so went back to the vet who made x-rays this time.

The X-ray showed a broken bone under her hock joint and it had to be operated.

With the help of a few friends we found a vet that was willing to operate it and gave us a good feeling so we decided to have it done here.

Lisa was operated on last week Thursday and this is how it looks right now:
She is doing fine and hopefully in a couple of weeks she will be able to join the others again on our walks.

Big thank you to all my friends who helped me out with this last week as without you I couldn't have gone to have Tempo mated!

We have BABIES!!

We finally have a litter again :-)

Last year July we had a singleton puppy from Tinsel and this year she gave us 4 lovely puppies. Our last 'real' litter was June 2007 when Gale had her 5 babies by Trae.

Last Wednesday Tinsel gave birth to 4 puppies, it was a difficult birth but we have:

A blue merle male:

A tricolor male:And two tricolor females:
This litter is a repeat of Dawnville Gotta Love My Looks which we had last year and we hope they will grow up just as beautiful :-)

Proud

Yesterday we went to the International show in Zwolle (Netherlands) with a car full of Shelties ;-)
Friday I drove down to Thea to help her bathing the dogs but it turned out she already had done 4 of them so it was only 2 left to do.
After a short night we drove to the show with 8 Shelties in the car (2 of mine, 5 of Thea's and 1 from a friend who couldn't make it to the show) and arrived there before doors opened.

Took some time to unpack everything and get it on the trolleys but somehow we managed and it didn't even look too bad, we even got it into the halls without loosing anything ;-)
Getting it all set up to the comfort of the dogs took some time and than it was time to hurry and get all the dogs ready for the ring, I had to do the 8 we brought plus another one from a friend.

Forgot to mention that the judge was Mrs.A.Wyse from Rivvalee Shelties in Scotland.

It was interesting to see she did seem to like the dogs with American lines, she put up Thea's young tricolor dog from America in junior class, another American import did win the openclass and several from US/Canadian lines were placed well.

In bitches this continued and Thea won Best Puppy (and 5th puppy in show) with her lovely blue girl Abby.
In Intermediate Ruby got 2nd, in openclass I handled Thea's tricolor girl Nina because she was in the same class with Boots, Nina won the openclass, Boots got graded excellent but wasn't placed.
Our own tricolor girl Flirt got Excellent in championclass and Gale got Excellent in veteran, both had to come back for Best Bitch.
Flirt won this challenge and gained her 2nd Dutch CC and her 6th CACIB, Nina got the reserves.
Best of Breed was also for Flirt but unfortunately by the time the group was being judged she had enough of it and decided to go on strike :-)

I am extremely proud Flirt gained a CC under an Scottish Sheltiebreeder because although we try to keep away from the never ending discussions about type it does give us a good laugh when things like this happen and you see those faces around the ring :-)