Our youngest blue girl

Yesterday we went to another show.
Our youngest blue girl Dawnville Gotta Love My Looks (Spooky) was entered here by Sandra with whom she lives.

Sandra asked me to show her Australian Shepherd Jangles for her and we decided I would take 'Spooky' in the ring as well.
It was a long day and Sandra's Aussie was the first of these two to enter the ring. Now for an Aussie Jangles is not the most active of dogs and it is quite hard to show her but we found a way with Sandra being outside the ring with her most favourite toy doing nothing more than standing just there :-)
Jangles took out Best Bitch and won her 1 CC !!

Than after hours of waiting it was finally Spooky's turn, already before entering the ring I had some difficulties with Spooky coming with me and although with standing she showed quite well, she refused to walk through the ring with me :-(
I couldn't really decide which was the best way to handle it and got all sort of advices from outside the ring.
I just hoped for the best and much to my big surprise Spooky did win the Junior Class and with t her 1st Junior CC.
She had to come back for the challenge but with behaving like she did with me there was no chance she would get any further so we decided Sandra should take her into the ring.

Spooky decided to co-operate with Sandra and moved better than she did with me but was still being naughty.
Apparantly the judge liked her because she also gave her the CC !!
Ofcourse she did not stand a chance for the BOB against the mature dog from the open class but maybe she did get more than she had already deserved :-)

Here's a picture of Spooky taken in the ring, I think she is awesome and we're hoping to have a great time in the ring with her.

For those interested: Her official name is Dawnville Gotta Love My Looks and she is sired by Mohnesee Mr Palmer out of Ch.Dawnville All That And More.
We certainly do like her looks!
We're going back with Tinsel to repeat the mating this year, Spooky was only a singleton baby and we were hoping for a tricolor from this combination so will give it another try :-)

Puppies expected? (and Howard)

The day after the show in Dortmund I set off to drive to Sweden to have Tempo mated again.

Last time she missed so I was eager to do it right this time.

We decided not to trust on our males completely and do progesteron tests to determine the right day for Tempo to be mated.

Last time she was mated on day 12 and 13 of her season like we did on previous occasions and when she had her puppies...

On day 10 of her season the progesteron was still under 0,2 and could not be measured by the lab.

On day 13 it was 2,1 and we decided to have her mated on the Tuesday and as our own males were showing very much interest we hope this must have been right and we finally will have some puppies again....

In a few weeks time we will know more.

Howard left for Finland today and arrived safely.

It was hard to let him go even if it is only for about a month, he means the world to me and is all we have left from the line of our first English import Sheltex Fizzy Lizzy.....

Howard is in Finland as there were a few breeders that wanted to use him, he is not at public stud while there but only available to a few breeders as I do want to have him back as soon possible and not want to wait untill more bitches come in season and he has to stay.

Dortmund show

Last Sunday we went to the Europasieger show in Dortmund, we brought 3 of our blue merles.

Full results can be found on our homepage (www.dawnville.nl) but it was the unportsmanlike behaviour of some exhibitors that maybe we should ignore but we never experienced it as obvious as this day.
Ofcourse since using (North)American dogs in our breeding program and showing them and their offspring with success we got used a little to the fact that people feel the urge to say something about our dogs.

What happened?
After Boots won her class there was someone that needed to shout out that this wasn't happening and it was unbelievable, ofcourse everybody is entitled to have their own opinion about the shown dogs but shouting something for everybody to hear is something different.
Thea who was showing Boots got really upset and wanted to have her say but luckily she didn't and was even more eager to show Boots to her best in the challenge for the CACIB.
Yes Boots did win and after her win I went to the other site of te ring where the previous mentioned lady found it necessary to tell everyone that wanted to hear that this was the most ugliest Sheltie there on the day.
Obviously she didn't know I co-own Boots and bred her :-)
I let her have her say and after a while someone told her I was the breeder of this ugly bitch, never seen anyone looking so dumb ;-)

Ofcourse after this than came the usual remarks about American dogs and that there is only one standard which is the English one and American Shelties do not fit into that standard.

Well, maybe I have news for these people. There is only the FCI standard that we follow and as long as our ugly American dogs are winning under both all-rounders as well as Sheltie specialists (and breeders!) from the UK who are they to say they do not fit to the standard?
I feel the behaviour of exhibitors like the one in Dortmund are disrespectful not only to us but also to all those judges that have appreciated our dogs in the past.

By the end of the day it will not change our opinion about the dogs we choose to use in our breeding program and will only make us more eager to proof the American dogs are very usefull in a breeding program and definately here to stay!