GSWC Match Show

September 25, 2010.  The Garden State Weimaraner Club hosted a match show this morning and it was the conformation debut for 2 puppies from the Seinfeld litter, Ashbrooke No Soup for You (Ruby) and Ashbrooke Queen of the Castle (Abby), just 7 months old.  This was the first time out for both but they arrived early and we did a little work with them before going in the ring.  They did great and Ruby won best puppy!!

Ruby stacked

Abby stacked, can you tell her mom was taking the picture by the direction she's looking.

Ruby also stands nicely on her own.

Abby practices her stays proving she's not just another pretty face.  She has brains too...puppy brains right now, but brains.

Hanging out after the show, Ruby stretches out to relax.

Abby and Ruby had a lot of fun together. These sisters know how to play!

I love Ruby's ears.

The GSWC also hosted a Meet the Breeds booth at the show.  A small preview to the big Meet the Breeds event at the Javits center in October.

Lots of Swimming Today

September 24, 2010.  Well the day started out cloudy but warm and Sawyer had a swimming date with a pretty young redhead....Vizsla puppy, Rayne.  We met Sarah and Rayne at Horseshoe Lake and it was a great spot with a gradual entry into the lake.  I think Rayne was a little intimidated by Sawyer's size.  She was a classmate of a couple of puppies from our last litter so she was used to the smaller grey dogs. 

Pretty Rayne

Sawyer, anxiously waiting for the throw.

Sawyer had no problem getting in the water to retrieve the tennis balls.  His problem was he couldn't figure out how to pick up both of them!

It was quite perplexing.

Rayne liked to hang out by the brush.  Perhaps she's looking for birds.

Rayne's turn to get the tennis ball.

Or not, as Sawyer comes to steal it away.

Rayne waits for Sawyer to return with the ball.

Sawyer trying to avoid Rayne.

Back to shore to dry off a bit before getting in the cars.

Later, Brooke and Sawyer went to Showplace Farms for their swimming time.  I was hoping Brooke would like the pool more this second time around and in the beginning of the session it wasn't looking good.  Then it clicked and she was off and swimming! 

Brooke was very splashy at first.

But smoothed out the more she went, especially on her way in.

Sawyer's a pro now and just rushes out to retrieve whatever you throw. If only my throwing arm was better...we lost two bumpers in the rafters...oops!

Sawyer would go out to retrieve the tennis ball and Brooke would swim with him on the way back.

Return to APDT Rally

September 19, 2010.  We haven't done APDT Rally since early July so we traveled to White Plains, NY to a trial hosted by one of our favorite clubs, the Port Chester Rally Enthusiasts.  It's always a great show and the people are warm and welcoming with wonderful hospitality. 

Sawyer was up first in Level 2A and earned a perfect score for his Level 2 title!  

He earned 1st place for all 3 title legs.

Brooke did two Veteran A runs back to back.  Her first run was a quite respectable 208, landing her in 1st place.  Her second run was a perfect score and she earned her Veteran's title! 

Not to be outdone by Sawyer, Brooke also got 1st place on all 3 of her title legs.

Sawyer moved up to Level 2B in the afternoon trial and continued to perform well with a 209 and 1st place!  It was quite a good day and it was nice to be back with my APDT friends!  Thanks to Bobbie for taking the videos and pictures for us!!

Water Retrieve Training

September 18, 2010.  This afternoon I met Nadine, John, and Kim at Colliers Mills to do some water retrieve training.  Colliers Mills is where the Delaware Valley and Garden State Weimaraner Clubs will host hunting and retreiving ratings tests in October so I wanted to get Sawyer out to see if he'd go in the water.  Kim had birds so we could do some realistic training. 

Nadine, John, and I were there first since Kim was coming from a show in PA.  I worked with Sawyer with his bumper first, starting out closer to shore and then throwing it out further and he did fine going in the water.  Good thing John was there to be our official thrower.

Then we moved onto the fake bird.  This is the smaller chukkar version.  I have no idea how I get these shots with Sawyer's ears in these positions.

Then we moved onto the larger fake duck.  Prada was not fooled by this fake fowl.

Prada waiting for Dude to bring the toy back to shore.

Then Kim arrived with the real deal and it was game on!  Duck floats better and longer so we started with that.  Sawyer had no problem transitioning to the real birds.

Prada loved the birds...just not the water.  She's still young and Nadine had plenty of time to work with her.

Towards the end of our session Sawyer was getting tired and splashy.  During one retrieve he stayed up on his hind legs as long as possible before swimming.  It was very funny and wished I got that on video.

But I think he would have kept going as long as John kept throwing the birds out there.

I was able to get some video, but was told to put my camera down and work with my dog...it's hard to photograph when you're supposed to be practicing :)

Lizzy was our clean up swimmer.  She would go out and get anything we threw out there.  Not bad for an 11-1/2 year old!

When we were done working with the birds, we put them up in the tree so the dogs couldn't get at them.  That didn't stop Stella from trying.

Zante figured out it was just easier to steal the bag of birds right from the car.

It started to get late and dark for pictures but thought this was a nice silhouette of Sawyer to end the day.

Tiki's summer

Tiki is doing very well and has had a very busy summer.

Assisting in the family business.

Helping to shuck the corn.

He cleans up after breakfast.

And as Fall is approaching he helps to gather the firewood.

Tiki graduated his obedience class and won Best in Class for verbal and hand signals!!! His parents are so proud and so am I.  It just makes me very happy to hear how well he is doing! 

Thanks for the continued updates!!

North Branch Park weekend

September 9, 2010.  Today was the first of a 4 day cluster of shows at North Branch Park.  At the Big Apple Sporting Dog specialty, Prada went Best Puppy in Sweeps and Reserve Winners Bitch, and Sawyer got Select Dog for his first Grand Champion point. 

September 10, 2010.  Today at the Tuxedo Park Kennel Club show I made the mistake of entering Conformation and Obedience on the same day...never again!  The rings could not be farther apart and of course I had potential conflicts.  I was worried we wouldn't make it to our Beginner Novice class but we had plenty of time with the lunch break...and then too much time when the 45 min lunch break turned into 2 hours! But Sawyer was a trooper even with the delay, the high winds blowing wonderful smells, being first-in with no judge's briefing, our friend outside the ring gate taking pictures directly in our heeling pattern, Sawyer slipping in the dry grass on about turn, and almost knocking me down on the speedy recall, we still managed to walk away with 1st place with a decent score of 193!

I was glad to get great photos by my friend Scott Teske ( http://www.sjtphotos.com/ ).  I'm hoping he can come to more dog events because he got some great shots. Here are a few...

Sawyer's close up.

Sawyer's Figure 8.

Sawyer in heel position about to start the sit stay exercise.  Look at that attention!

Mom leaving Sawyer as he watches me around the ring.  Where is she?

There I am.

Reunited after the exercise is over!  What a mamma's boy!

 
September 11, 2010.  Saturday at the Somerset Hills show I had again Sawyer entered in both conformation and Rally, this time it was going to be a tighter time frame. We checked in at Rally first, alerted the ring steward to a potential conflict and booked over to the conformation ring.  We showed there and went Best Of Opposite Sex and got more Grand Champion Points.  As soon as we were done there we bolted back to Rally.  Luckily I entered the wrong class (B) which had more entries and Advanced was still going on so we had a few minutes to warm up and jump in the ring.  Of course I missed the walk through so I had to go by the course map alone.  Needless to say I knew it wasn't going to go well when I approached the first exercise, a 360 Right and started going to the Left.  Luckily I caught my mistake and continued through the course.  We had to re-do a few exercises but still walked out with our 2nd leg and a score of 93.  If I had entered Sawyer in the correct class (A) we would have had 1st place...oh well.

September 12, 2010.  Conformation only today, yippee!  No running like a loon between rings.  The weather was lousy and raining but Sawyer got Select Dog and another Grand Champion point.  I'll need to figure out how these points work.

Labor Day weekend

Labor day weekend was extremely busy and I was on the go the whole weekend. 

September 3, 2010.  This weekend we took time out from conformation to focus on obedience.  Sawyer was entered in his first Beginner Novice class and Brooke in Novice at the Newton Kennel Club show.  It was really hot and we had to wait for awhile before we started. 

Brooke was first in.  So our heeling wasn't terrific and she didn't seem to want to sit much but we pulled through with a decent score and 3rd place. 

Sawyer did very well in the Beginner Novice class.  He scored a 195 and was just 1/2 point out of first place.

Thanks to Nadine for taking the videos for us!

September 4, 2010.  We took the day off from shows because today was our last canine water sports class. Of course Sawyer did not swim.  I guess he just doesn't like this location. 

It was very windy as you can tell from Sawyer's ear pointing the wind direction.

Sawyer didn't mind taking the ramp back and forth to the platform, but no swimming.

Sawyer's classmate Dazzle liked taking rides on the boogie board.

Sawyer's classmate, Drago the Bouvier des Flandres, is a super swimmer!

September 5, 2010.  Today we went to PA to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday.

Scott's sister Jill with her daughter Kayla and Scott's brother Craig with his daughter Kendalyn.

Curtis and Jared were like monkeys in the hammock.

Sawyer came along for the ride.  He's a good boy.

The Entertainers:  Craig and Scott's father, Harry.

We didn't have candles so Harry tried to blow out the fire.  We figured it was a good simulation of what the 67 candles would look like.

September 6, 2010.  Only Brooke was entered in obedience today at the Schooley's Mountain Kennel Club show in Morristown.  We were trying for her 2nd leg towards her Novice title.  We still need to work on the heeling but she improved her score and we took 1st place in the class! 

Brooke did better with her heeling but still didn't sit until the end.  When we halted she would just stand there and wag her tail.

Brooke won a toy for her 1st place finish so I picked an appropriate "princess" toy just for her.

Later puppy Abby came to visit.  Prada and Dude were there too so it was another family reunion.

Abby and Prada playing together.

Prada shows how she's becoming a pro at stacking.

Then Abby gave it a try.

Dude was apparently pooped from showing to be bothered with the family reunion.

September 7, 2010.  Sawyer had another appointment at Showplace to practice swimming.  Of course he has no trouble here and just loves going in the pool.  I brought fake birds with us this time so he could practice retreiving them.