Easter show

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 ;-)

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 :-)

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

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

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

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!

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!!