New family member ;-)

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

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

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!

Single Tracking

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

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: