Been awhile

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

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

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

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

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

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.