Dawnville Shetland Sheepdogs

Been awhile

2010-05-24T16:34:00.000+02:00

It has been awhile since I have updated this Blog but I just have been busy with other things.

Hopefully I can now use some of my time to update more regularly....

Lots of things happened since my last message, all dogs are well and we have a sable girl from Australia holidaying here ;-)

Her name is Austr.Ch.Scotsdream Hevenly Daize and she sure is 'heavenly' .

Daizie is fun to have around and she is always happy and in for a game. You will never see her without a smile on her face.

We have already shown her a little bit and she has CC's in Holland, Belgium, Slovenia and Germany and has 2 CCIB's towards her International championtitle.

Unfortunately she lost most of her coat a short while after she arrived but it is growing back now and we hope to back in the ring with her pretty soon....

Sincere thanks goes to her owners in Australia (Scotsdream) for giving us the chance to enjoy Daizie's funny ways and enabling us to show her, we hope to continue to make you very proud.

Snowfun

2009-12-19T23:49:00.007+01:00

As I was going to pick up food for the dogs together with Thea I took a few of the dogs to let them play in the snow.
As we do not very often have a lot of snow the dogs have the time of their lives these days.

Howard is always in for a game and really goes out of his mind when you throw things for him to chase. He looked so cute with the snow on his face :-) Ofcourse Trae was also playing in the snow, Howard and Trae have never been best friends but just ignore each other as much as possible.
Sometimes Trae gets a little over excited and plays very wild with the other dogs, today was one of these days and he chose Howard as his 'victim'. Howie was not very happy with this and told Trae to back off.....
Trae very easily submits himself to Howard as he is not actually trying to be the boss anyway, for him it is all just a joke. For Howard it is not so after Trae is throwing himself on his back Howard does not allow him to get up untill he thinks Trae has gotten the message:
Trae really doesn't mind, after this he gets up and plays along with the girls. Neither of the boys ever have a scratch and although it looks and sounds serious, it is not for along untill they play together again as long as Trae keeps it calm.

This week also Megan saw her first snow and it was already hard to get her inside, since we have snow it is impossible ;-)
Today she had so much fun with her friend Abby:
Impossible to make a decent picture of her as all she did was running. She was so tired, once we were at home she slept for the rest of the evening!

Isn't she cute?

And last but not least a picture of Megan's partner in crime: Prada, also known as Grandgables Snappy Dresser :-)
Prada now is 6 months of age, the most mischievious little man you have ever met and a great teacher for Megan.
Prada's name does him justice as he designs a complete new interior for Thea and Addie and re-designs all their doggy toys ;-))
The Devil wears Prada ..........Hahahaha!!!

Lisa Update

2009-12-19T22:40:00.008+01:00

Thought it was time to give a little update on Lisa....

Two weeks after the nail was removed from Lisa's hock she was still hopping around on 3 legs and whatever I did and tried to make her walk on 4 legs, it all seemed hopeless.
Her leg looked strange:
It is swollen at the side and if you look at it from the side it is a little crooked so we did not trust it very much and because there's still a wire inside the leg we thought that maybe this was the reason for her not walking and for the way it looked....

I had an appointment on Wednesday but a few days before the appointment a friend of us did send us a device named "Healfast" to try out on Lisa.
I guess when you just don't know what to do anymore you are willing to try everything ;-) I used the device twice and except for an extra swollen leg after I removed it I did not notice a lot of difference.

Off to the vet on Wednesday and when I walked Lisa to the car I thought I saw her putting a little weight on her leg, not much but she was trying.
At the vet's I got her out of the car, put her on the ground and off she walked..... on 4 legs!!
I felt a little like going to the dentist with a tooth ache: once you are there, the pain is gone ;-)

The vet checked it out and although the leg still looked the same, she was using it so we discussed what to do: remove the wire as we had agreed upon when making the appointment or leave it there and see for how long it would be OK to stay in?
The x-rays showed no signs of something being wrong with the wire and although the bones were not healed completely she was at least using her leg.

Another operation could mean she would not use it again for weeks so I decided it should stay where it was and I would keep an eye on any signs of an infection....

Lisa is still not using that leg 100% and at the moment there doesn't seem to be much progress but we are still training and trying out things and hopefully have the best possible result.
I am not sure if the Healfast device has made a difference but I am sure gonna keep on using it on her!!
Here are some pictures of Lisa today when she was out for a walk in the snow:
I want to thank my friends who has helped us with Lisa and searched for options to try and use helping her getting back on 4 feet.
Special thanks also to the vet Hans de Jong who has always taken the time to answer any of my questions, discussing options and not giving in to my impatience ;-)
I hope it will even get better with time and training.

Not so lucky

2009-11-23T20:05:00.004+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I posted a message about Lisa and her broken hockbone. We expected everything to be OK in a couple of weeks but unfortunately it did not turn out to be that easy.

The metal pin that was placed in her leg has worked it's way out after only a few weeks and had to be removed much earlier than expected.

Ever since the pin was removed she is not using her leg anymore and hopefully this will change in a short while but to me it doesn't look very hopefull :-(

Lisa really is the bravest dog we have, through all of her ordeal she stays happy and lively. we even tried to get out the pin with a local sedation and she was sooooo good :-)

Unfortunately the piece that stuck out wasn't long enough to get a good grip on so in the end she had to go under full anaesthesia to get it out.

I know Lisa trusts me in all I do and ask of her but never thought it would go this far. I am keeping fingers crossed for her that she doesn't need another operation but we will do all that is needed for her to be able to walk and play with the other dogs again :-)

Puppies

2009-11-23T19:40:00.003+01:00

It has been awhile again sice I last posted something but our puppies have kept us all busy.

They are a lovely bunch of babies but complete HOOLIGANS!

Ever since their eyes opened they decided the whelping box was too small, two days after that their puppy pen was too small (according to them) and since they are 3 weeks of age they are running freely among our other dogs...

We had a hard time to decide which one of the bitches was the one to keep as both had points we are looking for but maybe the easy going nature of one of them made the final decision.

Time will tell if we were right and if not..... at least we made someone else happy with her choice for the other female ;-)

Here are some pictures of them which we made last weekend:

Dawnville He's Got That Bling:

Dawnville How Do Ya Like Me Now:Dawnville Honey I'm Home:Dawnville High Five To My Friends:

Coming Wednesday they will have their eyetest done, both parents are genetically clear of CEA/CH but ofcourse there are many other things that might be there ......

Ever ongoing discussion

2009-10-29T18:37:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-29T18:00:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-21T19:22:00.001+02:00

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!!

2009-10-10T15:08:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-04T14:08:00.001+02:00

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 :-)

Long time...

2009-09-03T22:54:00.000+02:00

Due to several circumstances I haven't posted anything on this blog for a while.
Hopefully things are a little more relaxed now and I have some time for less stressfull things :-)

We had our little blue girl Tinsel mated in England by Mohnesee Mr Palmer. This is a repeat mating that gave us a singleton puppy last year: Dawnville Gotta Love My Looks.
Hopefully we will have more than one this time, Tinsel appears to be in whelp so fingers crossed I will finally have my tricolour!
We only seem to be able to breed blues for the past years....

We also had Flirt mated using A.I.
We had no other option as Flirt could not yet enter the country where the male is living and came in season already so we decided to use chilled semen.
It was a stressfull situation when it looked like if FedEx could not deliver the package before the weekend but luckily they managed to do so and delivered the semen Friday afternoon.
Flirt was inseminated Saturday and Sunday and now it's keeping fingers crossed we did not go through all this for nothing.

If it works out than maybe we will try another time with frozen semen as so many more males become available that way ...
But just let us wait and see what happens with this mating :-)

New family member ;-)

2009-06-09T21:31:00.000+02:00

While I was unpacking my stuff yesterday I heared a sort of squeeky sound and although I first didn't paid much attention to it it got my attention when it got louder and louder.

I went over to the birdcage where we have two Kakariki males (who believe one of them is a female) and at the bottom of it there are 3 little Chinese quails.

They have been laying eggs for ages but none of them ever took the trouble to sit on them and usually we take out the eggs and get rid off them.

As they were laying so many eggs this time I decided to leave them there and hopefully this would stop them from laying new ones all the time.

Now when checking out where this little high sqeeky sound came from I noticed a tiny little Chinese quail was running around. It must have just came out of it's egg but none of the adult quails seemed to take care of it and because of the big Kakakriki's showing more than a little interest in the little 'fella' I decided it was safer to take him out and make sure he can grow up safely.

He's now in a little box with a little stuffed duck friend and seems to be OK.

He's so tiny it's amazing to see how self supported he already is. Couldn't resist making a picture of him while being on my hand to show how small he is

Make no mistake, it's quite a noisy little thing!

Long trip but well worth it

2009-06-09T20:57:00.000+02:00

We did not have much to report the past few weeks and also just have been too busy for putting some minor things on this Blog.

We have been to another show last weekend, they were the 2 International shows in Portoroz (Slovenie). The first of these shows was a qualification show for Crufts 2010 and Albert Wight from England was supposed to be the judge.
I thought it would be nice to try and qualify Flirt under him or maybe our young girl Spooky so entered them both as well as our Australian little madman Trae.
Shortly before our trip I found out the judges had been changed and there would be no Albert Wight judging but a lady from Russia.
I decided to take the trip anyway and luckily I did!
All 3 of the dogs qualified at this show! Ch.Scotsdream Still O'thNite was CACIB dog and Best of Breed, Ch.Newdawn What's Up got the bitch CACIB and Dawnville Gotta Love My Looks got 1st Excellent in Junior class and therefore they all qualified for Crufts!!

The next day at the following show there was a judge from Rumania, Trae took 2nd place in champion class behind the lovely Ch.Mohnesee The Spellmaster (Res.CACIB dog the previous day) and in the end Trae ended up with becoming Reserve Best Dog (Reserve CACIB).
Flirt got another CACIB and again had to leave the Best of Breed to the dog. We had not entered Spooky at this show as in junior class she could not win anything, she was only there the previous day to try and get her at Crufts :-)

It was a long trip home again but the trip was well worth making, we have 4 dogs qualified for Crufts 2010 already now....

Here are some pictures of the trip:
Just a snapshot of Perry (Dawnville U Show Them How) who came along as a supporter and Flirt on the bed relaxing while I was unpacking the stuff.

A shot which I made while driving through Austria, it was raining and the clouds were so very low around the mountains.

The trip was almost 1300 kilometers one way but the roads are lovely and would have been even better if there were not so many roadworks slowing you down ;-)

This is Germany, great roads overthere and...... NO speedlimits!! :-)

Our youngest blue girl

2009-05-10T13:37:00.001+02:00

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)

2009-05-08T22:04:00.000+02:00

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

2009-05-08T21:14:00.000+02:00

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!

Single Tracking

2009-04-25T22:42:00.000+02:00

Today I went to a show in Belgium woth Howard and Tinsel, I was hoping to get the qualifying CC for his Belgian title with Howard.
I took Tinsel and not Flirt as Tinsel doesn't have Belgian CC's yet and Flirt has 1, as there needs to be 1 year in between the first and the last CC I wanted that first for Tinsel as soon as possible.

Howard was alone in his class, got 1st Excellent but the judge (which wasn't the one I had entered under but it is not the first time judges are being changed into someone I wouldn't enter under normally) came up to me and asked me if I knew what single tracking was.

I told her I did and than the judge told me Howard was doing that, I told her I know and I can't see any problem in it as most Shelties are single tracking when moving a little faster.
I was told his feet were too much in one line but in my opinion that is the meaning of the word single tracking or am I wrong here?

Anyway, she asked me to move Howard again which I did but this time I made sure he was moving slower, when I got back to the judge she asked me if I adjusted the speed I walked him with because he was not doing it now so I told her that was the essence of single tracking.

It is judges like this that sometimes make me feel it is not about dogs anymore. Howard got Reserve Best Dog because he was doing what he is supposed to do???

I still had to go in with Tinsel, she is carrying a very big coat and I spent the past 2 weeks stripping it off bit by bit so there's a shape to see.
Well, Tinsel is definately NOT single tracking so that couldn't be the problem today ;-)
She got 1st Excellent in her class and was the only adult bitch that was graded Excellent and therefor the only bitch competing for the CC.
She got the CC and in the end also got Best of Breed.
Despite the results of today this was a 'once but never again' judge for me, she is not on my list anymore ;-)

Here's a picture of Tinsel made in the ring by Jan and Joost van der Meijden after she got Best of Breed.
Off to the dirt again tomorrow!!

Lovely weather

2009-04-19T16:52:00.000+02:00

It is great weather for walks with the dogs. The sun is shining but not too hot and there's a soft wind blowing.
I have a sore arm from throwing balls for the dogs but they love chasing that ball so much that I can't resist to keep throwing it :-)

After a while chasing balls they get hot and run for the water surrounding the place where I walk them.

Even Flirt starts to learn to get into the water, she is the most fanatic ball chaser we have and it is hard at times to get the ball back from her as she likes to walk around with it but she gets a little overheated from her sprints:

Our other Canadian girl: Ch.Grandgables Tri A Pose.
Tempo is never getting her feet dirty but she made an exception today:

We have Swamp dogs ;-) Here are some pictures of or dogs enjoying getting their feet cold and eat grass in the meantime:

Sad news

2009-04-19T16:35:00.001+02:00

Dawnville Enough And To Spare

*24-05-1996 - †17-04-2009

Last Friday we had to say farewell to another of our oldies. Totally unexpected and in such a short time after we had lost our beloved Mister Magoo of Blue Tails.

Kayla started to show signs of not being well on Wednesday, she refused to eat in the evening which is not really something for her.
On Thursday morning she was back to her food again but still showed like if she was not feeling well. Late afternoon she started to bleed from her vulva and we thought that maybe after 3 years she started a season again but the males were not interested and after a couple of more hours the bleeding got worse.
We knew this was not normal and Kayla had a slight fever. We phoned the vet and could go and see him first thing on Friday morning.
The outcome was devastating: there was a tumor in her bladder that erupted and caused massive bleeding, according to the vet it must be very painful and there is nothing we could do about it. He advised us to put her to sleep.

We needed some time to get used to the idea and took her home but asked the vet if he could come over at our place later that day to put her to sleep.
Kayla went with me in the afternoon for her daily walk and had a great time barking and chasing the others although I could see it must have hurt her to walk.
When we got home I fed the dogs and she ate without hesitation, it was so hard to know this was her last meal and it had been her last walk....

Kayla was put to sleep at 20:00 hours because we knew it was the best thing to do but it never gets any easier....

We have 3 more dogs older than 12 years of age but hope it will take a very long time before we have to say goodbye to another one of them.
Two in a little over 2 months time is just too much.

Easter show

2009-04-14T22:05:00.001+02:00

Easter Monday we had another show in The Netherlands. I had entered our tricolor girls Tia (Intermediate class) and Flirt (Championclass).

After days of running through the sand, mud and water they looked a little shaggy and it took me quite a while to make them look clean and fresh again but I managed :-)
I already knew there were over 60 Shelties entered under judge Roger Bathurst from England (Auldlyn Shelties) and as he was judging Border Collies before the Shelties we would have a long day waiting :-(

Flirt was entered only because after she had won the FCI group 1 at her first show in Holland there had been a lot of comments about the judges (both breed and group) that they didn't know what they were looking for and made funny decisions.....
I thought that when Flirt would get graded 'Excellent' under an English breeder/judge it would show everyone she is a Sheltie that can be perfectly well accepted everywhere as long as she is being judged on her virtues and not her pedigree.

Tia was the first of the two to go into the ring and as usual misbehaved terribly in the ring. I don't know what it isbut she just doesn't seem to be able to stand still for more than 10 seconds.
Maybe once she gets older it will get better, I just hope so as she really is a nice little girl but I can imagine judges can't do much with her like it is now.
She nevertheless got graded 'Excellent' and ofcourse wasn't placed but I was happy as it was already.

After a long wait untill the open bitch class was finished it finally was Flirt's turn, I felt so stupid I had entered her just before going into the ring......
She was in with another champion bitch, imported from England so I had already settled for getting 2nd with Flirt but just hoped she would get graded 'Excellent' as that was were we came for.
I was quite surprised to get 1st with Flirt but it did get even better as in the challenge for Best Bitch she got the Reserve CAC/Reserve CACIB (Reserve Winners Bitch) and that out of an entry of over 40 bitches!

Flirt's judging report was as follows:
Tricolour, gleaming black colour.
Nice head and expression (!!)
Good bone and angulations.
Moving nicely.
Attractive profile

So proud of what she has accomplished so far.

Ready for the show ;-)

2009-04-09T22:05:00.000+02:00

Easter Monday we have a show coming up and because I have time off from work untill Tuesday there's lots of time to go for walks with the dogs.
The weather has been quite OK the last couple of days but it has been raining a little as well so there's lots of water where we walk and the dogs just LOVE it!

I remember someone telling me Shelties do not like water, well..... I don't know where it went wrong but my dogs apparantly haven't read the same books about Shelties.

The biggest 'pig' we have is ofcourse Tinsel: It's hard to keep her clean for more than a day. Ever since Tinsel was a baby she knew perfectly well how to get herself dirty, her sister Aspen was exactly the opposite, never getting herself dirty being a real Princess :-)

Tinsel is a good teacher as well:
This is her and Tia, they are best friends and Tia is following Tinsel where ever she goes because you just never know when the excitement starts again :-(

Our 'oldies' also enjoy getting themselves dirty, here's Gale, she just turned 9 years at the end of March.
We almost lost her a little over a year ago, she survived thanks to the bloodtransfusion she had from our vet's Boxer so it's a great sight to see her enjoy herself so much :-)

And here's another one of our oldies:
On the left is our 13 1/2 years old Robin (Ch.Dawnville Darn Handsome), he still enjoys his walks with the younger ones and when you see him chasing the others it hard to believe he really is over 13 years of age. We hope he will stay like this for a long time to come, we so much enjoy our oldies and hope to have them around many more years.

It will be a lot of work to get the 2 that have to go to the show on Monday clean but untill Sunday they can get dirty as much as they like :-)

More shownews :-)

2009-04-03T21:41:00.000+02:00

A little late but still wanted to share..
Last weekend we went to the international show in Luxembourg with 3 dogs: Trae, Boots and Flirt.
I actually hoped for Flirt to be succesfull at this show so with a little bit of luck she could have gained an FCI title which would have made it easier for her to gain some other titles in certain countries.
Unfortunately it was not to be..... when she was on the table the judge told me she thought her face was too long and than asked me if she was American.
Didn't know anything else to do than tell the judge she was and was told than that she did not like the heads on a lot of American dogs but they were excellent in body, bone and movement and sometimes you have to make compromises (don't we all know that?).
Flirt got 2nd in her class and after we had left the ring we had some really great comments from others (including some judges) about Flirt and that she had deserved more than she got.

We had a great day anyway as Trae who was entered in the champion class males did win the CAC and reserve CACIB, this CAC makes him a Luxembourg champion!
The little guy has not been shown much after he gained his Dutch title and he behaved like a fool in the ring but apparantly the judge liked him enough to give him the class and Reserve Best Dog in the end...
Boots saved the day by winning the open class - her first outing in open class - and she gained the CAC and CACIB as she was the best adult female.
The junior bitch winner was Howard's blue merle daughter Hope of the Golden Fir, she's a lovely girl with great neck and shape and lovely coat for her age.
She got Best Bitch against Boots and both of these girls are now Crufts 2010 qualified !!
Congratulations to Thea (Boots' owner) and Jenny (Hope's breeder/owner).

Our next show is Easter Monday, we will be spending our coming weekends walking at different places with the dogs getting them dirty and in shape ;-)

Forgot

2009-03-25T19:16:00.000+01:00

Forgot to show the 'trophy's' we won at the Belgian show:

Left is Flirt's and right is Howard's.
Do they come any uglier?? ;-)

A couple of years ago we won one as well, 'unfortunately' it broke when we got our gear out of the car.....

Think these two will be all the way in the back of our trophy cupboard.

Lucky weekend

2009-03-24T19:45:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we had a lucky weekend with both our own dogs and others with their children.
I went to a national show in Belgium with Howard and Flirt, not many entries, only 10 Shelties but competition was good I think.

Howard won his class and in the challenge also got Best Male, so reliefed as he finally got his 3rd CAC and now we have only one more to go for his Belgian title.
After a couple of reserves this really made my day :-)

Than it was Flirt's turn, the ring was small and she needs a little more space to stride out but she behaved this time and got 1st Excellent in championclass so she could go into the challenge for Best Bitch.
Flirt also won the challenge and won her 1st Belgian CAC.
Now Howard and Flirt had to compete for Best of Breed and as I couldn't show both if them I gave Flirt to another exhibitor as she is the easiest to show of these two.
Howard got Best of Breed, maybe because I was handling him myself but Flirt also was very naughty on the move with her 'new' handler.

Howard also became under the last 10 of the FCI group 1 but wasn't placed as they only placed 3 of the 10 they had picked.

On Sunday there was a clubshow in Germany where some children of Trae and Howard were shown.
In the juniorclass bitches (9) 3 out of the 4 bitches placed were by our dogs.
Trae's daughter Black Magic from Marmorea's Shelter got 1st and won her 2nd Junior CAC. Howard's daughter Green Paradise You Light Up My Life got 2nd and another Trae daughter (Green Paradise Another Day in Heaven) got 4th in this class.

Congratulations to all owners!

Painting

2009-03-14T14:18:00.001+01:00

A short while after we had lost Scott, Thea had asked me for some pictures of him as she was going to have his painting made for me.
Yesterday it was finished and we picked it up. It was very confronting to see the painting but it is absolutely LOVELY and has captured Scott right as he was.
Here's a picture of the painting:
The painting shows Scott's head as well as him standing, the little teddybear in front was Thea's idea because Scott was our big orange teddybear.
It is still very difficult for me to look at the painting but as soon as I have it framed it will be put up on the wall of the living room where Scott's picture is now.

Thank you Thea and Addie for having the painting made, it is abolutely stunning. I owe you guys ;-)

BIG News!

2009-03-03T19:55:00.000+01:00

I have really BIG news that I need to share :-)

Last Sunday we headed off for the CACIB show in Groningen (NL) with Flirt and Tia and had no expectations at all about how we would do
All I knew was that this was one of the few chances I had in the coming months to show Flirt in The Netherlands as we have a lot of Dutch judges coming up and it is no use to enter her under them despite the fact she is very moderate.
She will just never win because she will only be judged on where she comes from, waste of money and time so we will go abroad: much more fun and less irritation.

Anyway, in Groningen 44 Shelties were entered and Tia was the first of my ladies to get into the ring.
She got 2nd with 'Very Good' as the judge said she was carrying too much weight, in her report she said something about mamma being a good cook but it is more a matter of Tia being a good thief......
Anyway I didn't mind, with what she had done in the males I already knew Tia would not be what she was looking for, she looked lovely despite the fact she dropped her coat last week and I bathed her without grooming first so it was one big mess and I had to take all the undercoat out.
This picture of Tia in the ring was send to me (thanks Ineke!):

Than it was Flirt's turn in championclass in which she was alone, she got 1st Excellent and had to get back in for the challenge.
She won Best Bitch with CAC and CACIB (CACIB was withheld in dogs, the winning male was too young and the reserve male did not get it).
She than had to compete against the Best Male which she also won (thank you Beate for raisig such a gentleman, leaving victory to the ladies LOL).

Best of Breed winners are obligated to compete in the group competition here in The Netherlands, in lots of countries it is your own choice if you do or you don't.
I hate it to be forced to stay as Shelties are generally not taken very seriously in the group.
This time it was different, Flirt was with the last 9 of the group, another 4 had to leave and she was still in!! The last 5 were being placed so we were at least among them.
5th place was given, 4th place, 3rd place and we were still there.....
Than 2nd place went to the other dog and it was just me and Flirt standing there so we were 1st in that very large FCI group 1 !!!!
Little Flirt never put a foot wrong, showed her little socks off untill it was time to take pictures :-(

If I am not mistaken this is only the 3rd time in about 8-10 years when a Shelties wins this group in The Netherlands.

We immediately had to go back to the collection ring for the Best in Show judgement and in we went again with the other groupwinners.
Another judge so he had a look at all the dogs again and than came the placement from 10 to 1.
Flirt got 6th out of the final 10 dogs and we were really over the moon!! 2300 dogs and she got 6th!
We are so thankful to Guy and Mark for letting her come overhere, she's the most wonderful little girl to live with and loves to show off.
Here's a picture of Flirt in the big ring:
Flirt's next shows are already planned but whatever happens, they do not take this away from us anymore!!

Champion cross

2009-02-28T00:39:00.001+01:00

Today we have received Trae's cross issued by our Kennelclub for the Dutch championtitle.

Next to the diplom this cross is issued (used to be for free but now they charge a small amount of money for it).
In the back of the cross the official name of the dog is engraved and the year in which it won it's title.

We have 10 at home now (for our Shelties, we have a few more from the Keeshonds and Pomeranians we used to show)
They come in different colours but it seems to be random concerning what colour you are going to get.
We have several different colours and colour combination but most of them are blue/yellow and red/yellow like Trae's.

Hoogstraten

2009-02-23T03:23:00.000+01:00

This weekend was the show in Hoogstraten (Belgium) where I had entered both Howard and Flirt again.

We started off later as planned and I arrived just before the show started, luckily for us Shelties were the last to be judged in the ring after Spaniels, Collies and Nizinny's so we had plenty of time to get the dogs ready and looking good again :-)

Both of them were entered in championclass again.

Howard was not that much interested in showing himself off, he doesn't mind going to shows but is more interested in doing something with more action and when I take him to shows several weeks after each other he just doesn't seem to be interested anymore.

Despite this he still got 1st Excellent in his class and in the challenge for Best Dog had to be content with the Reserve CAC / Reserve CACIB.

Seems like Belgium is just not the place where Howard is lucky at the shows, he has 2 CAC's towards his title but still needs another 2 to finish it...

We'll be back ;-)

Than finally it was Flirt's turn, she behaved much better than last week and showed her little socks off.
I was so happy that it finally looked like if she gets used to the noise at the shows in Belgium, also today there was a lot of dogs barking, loud music in the mainring which was close to our ring and a lot of big dogs close to where we where.

Flirt got 2nd in her class with Excellent (not may dogs did get graded Excellent) and in the end also had to be content with the Reserve CAC / Reserve CACIB behind the BOB winning bitch.

So now out of 6 shows she has 4 Reserve CAC's, 2 Reserve CACIB's, 1 CAC, 1 CACIB and a 3rd place and so far has always been graded Excellent.......

We also had news that Howard's son Krishna Heartbreaker from Ohmtalteufel (Howard x Ch.Dawnville Where There's Smoke) won a CAC on Sunday, this makes 3 out of a litter of 3 that did win CAC's.

Very proud of Krishna's succes ofcourse.

Next to the show in Belgium I spent my weekend walking the dogs at different places, they enjoy it so much to run around and explore.

I also do need to show you the picture of my little niece that I have received today:

Nina is my brother's daughter and sooooo adorable :-)

Show in Fredericia (DK)

2009-02-16T19:30:00.000+01:00

This weekend the show in Fredericia was on the agenda.
We had entred 3 of the dogs: Howard, Boots and Flirt.

After lots of discussions and change of minds we (Thea and me) decided to travel to Denmark on Saturday and stay in a hotel so we all would be a little more relaxed at the show on Sunday.
Boy, were we glad we did, due to roadworks it took us a lot longer to get up there and when we finally arrived at the hotel we were really tired and ready to get to bed :-)

The hotel was really great for dogs, at the reception we got 3 blankets for them which we used to cover the beds and one of the seats, especially Flirt thought it was great and made use of them ;-) We got up early in the morning, had a good beakfast and than it was off to the show. We arrived early giving us plenty of time to settle in.
54 Shelties entered so we had no illusions of any win or what so ever. After the Border Collies were finished it was the Shelties turn, Howard was the first to go into the ring and got 3rd in open class.
I was already pleased he was graded "Excellent" as a lot of dogs that didn't look too bad to me left the ring with "Good".

After this is was Boots her turn which Thea decided to show herself, she got 1st Excellent in a class of 10 Intermediate bitches, directly after that it was Flirt's turn in the open class, now she had been naughty all morning being only interested to run and play in the snow that was outside and it was hard work to get her to show and walk properly but somehow we managed and she got 1st Excellent in a class of 12 bitches which made me so happy......

In the end she also got Best Bitch (CC/CACIB) and Boots got 3rd Best Bitch so we had a wonderfull day and I was especially delighted for Guy and Mark that Flirt did so well.

We left for home straight after the Shelties were finished and as the weather was so bad with snow and rain we knew it would be taking it's time again.
We stopped several times to walk the dogs and had some fun playing with them in the snow.
I sometimes feel quilty about taking the dogs everywhere even if they like to travel and think it is exciting to go all these places.
I guess I am trying to make up for that by taking them out as much as possible .....

Here's a picture of me which Thea took secretly:
And here's one of the dogs (front Howard and Boots and in the back is Flirt) chasing the (snow)balls I threw :-)

I arrived home very late and went straight to bed, even left unpacking the car for the following day as I was so tired.

Hoping to be back in Denmark for some more shows later this year again.

Saturday

2009-02-07T21:56:00.000+01:00

Today I Took Scott's In Memoriam card from the openings page of our homepage and it feels like betray to him :-(
He will still be on our homepage on his own page and ofcourse will always have that special place in my heart, still miss him so much.........

Today the weather was not really good with lots of rain and everything but I felt I needed to go for a walk with the dogs and as I was already feeling miserable the rain didn't bother me really.
When we drove up to the place where I walk the dogs the rain had stopped and the dogs had lots of fun in the sand and water that was all over the place.

I really enjoy looking at them running and playing and having fun, don't think that someone would take me seriously when I told them we are also showing them if they would see them like they do on our walks.

This is Tinsel's favourite thing to do on our walks:

The others are also quite happy there's water to drink after they have been chasing balls for more than an hour....... Of course this water is much better than the water I have in the car :-(

Next weekend is a little more serious, we're going to the International show in Fredericia, Denmark so they have to stay clean ;-)

Spooky

2009-02-03T00:01:00.000+01:00

I have made some pictures of Tinsel's daughter while she was here visiting us last weekend.

'Spooky' is officially named Dawnville Gotta Love My Looks - and I for sure do ;-)

Here's one of the pictures I liked best:

She's cute isn't she?

I am quite pleased with how she turned out and although she is living with a friend of mine, she still belongs to us.

Spooky is around 35 cm's at 6 1/2 months of age, has all her teeth and a temperament to die for, just wished she had a little longer coat already but it is thick and harsh so hopefully lenghth will come as well.

I am hoping to get something similar in tricolour when we are going to repeat the combination this summer/fall.
O, before I forget, Spooky is a daughter of Mohnesee Mr Palmer and our little blue girl Ch.Dawnville All That And More and was the only baby in this litter.

Blog

2009-01-31T20:19:00.000+01:00

I have been asked several times why I did not have a Weblog so here it finally is.
Although I try to keep my homepage updated as much as possible I don't think the everyday things are something that should be on there as than I would need to update even more often and I just don't have the time for that.
I hope this Blog will work out for me but time will tell.
Marcella