2011 Wine Country - Before the Show

September 25 – 27, 2011. This year we decided to come up to the Wine Country show circuit early so we could spend a few days relaxing before showing. Luckily we had a few nice days of weather but being Wine Country it was inevitable that the rain would come.

We arrived on Sunday. Of course Brooke rode shotgun with Scott. She still tried to get to her spot even after we were all parked.

On Monday we took advantage of the nice weather and took Sawyer and Daisy down to the lake. Sawyer swims but Daisy has not yet. They both had a great time down by the water.

Sawyer loves to retrieve in the water. He’s anxiously awaiting Scott to throw the tennis ball.

Daisy loves it too, she just needs to learn the swimming part.

Once she got the ball she didn’t want to give up her treasure.

Daisy went out to get the tennis ball and starting swimming without realizing it. Once she figured it out she turned around and headed to shore without the ball.

Sawyer loves retrieving and would have done this all day if we let him.

Throw the ball again Dad!

My favorite video of the day. It makes me laugh every time I watch it...I'm so bad.

Wyatt is making himself at home in the motorhome.

Until Daisy claimed the bed for her own.

September 27, 2011. Two more days until the shows start. The forecast was for rain so we went to the Waterloo Outlets. We ended up going back the next day as well and got lots of loot for both Scott and I.

Wyatt reminds me so much of Tiki.

CDSP Trial

September 18, 2011. Today we went to a CDSP Obedience trial in NY. We’re still trying to get Brooke’s Open title and it’s been awhile since our first qualifying leg. Since we were going I put Sawyer in Novice C to try to earn legs towards his Championship title. I’m certainly glad I did that. There were two trials in the same day so we had two opportunities to pass.


Brooke’s Open run was first. She did a lovely job and she even saved the retrieve over the high jump when I thought for sure she was going to bi-pass it. And then we got to the last exercise, the Go Out, traditionally our downfall. Unfortunately Brooke did not go out far enough so we did not qualify.

Sawyer had a beautiful Novice run and I was shocked when we took 1st place in the class with a score of 199!!

My Blue Ribbon classmates took 2nd and 3rd place in the same class so we took a group photo to celebrate.

We ended up getting High in Trial!

The afternoon trial was almost a repeat of the morning. Unfortunately Brooke had the same issue with the Go Out so we did not qualify. Sawyer had another brilliant run, with another 199 score and 1st place in the Novice C class.

I don’t think Sawyer could have had a closer front after the recall over the bar jump. His nose went right up my vest.

CDSP has an honor exercise, similar to Rally, and Sawyer pays great attention during that.

We missed the afternoon trial by ½ point but I was still very pleased with our success.

Another bonus for the day was that Karey, Christian, Natalie and Ruby came to visit. Turns out the trial site was not too far from their house so they stopped by to see us. Ruby still looks great and we’re planning to take her out for UKC shows.

Princess Ruby rides in the rear of the car in her harness.

Later that night we went to see Roger Daltrey perfom the Who’s Tommy. That’s my favorite Who album. The show was great!

DVWC / GSWC Ratings Practice and Picnic

September 17, 2011. Today the Delaware Valley and Garden State Weimaraner Clubs had a Ratings Practice day and picnic.

Sawyer hasn’t done any field work in awhile and we need to start training for the next level of hunt and ratings tests. Beginning in September of 2011, Weimaraners may now compete in AKC Retrieving hunt tests, prior to that they were only eligible for the pointing hunt tests.

Sawyer loves the field work. There’s nothing better for a Weim than running in a field hunting.

The fields were pretty high so it was hard to even see him let alone take pictures.

Sawyer and Stella find the bird right away.

For the Retrieve Dog ratings test, Sawyer has to bring the bird back to my hand. He did the first time but the next time he thought, well you took the last one from me, why should I bring it to you. So he went through the circle…something we’ll need to work on.

I also need to work on my catching skills and get my hands in there quickly so I can get the bird before it hits the ground.

Sawyer has to wait his turn while another dog trains. He's anxious to get back out there.

Sawyer and Daisy wait in the car while we have our picnic. I’m hoping to get Daisy out on some birds but had to pull her from the training day because of her stitches. She shouldn’t really be running wildly through fields yet.

This was the first time Sawyer tried to retrieve in the water with dummies. It took him a few tries to figure out what he needed to do.

He doesn’t have the most graceful entry, but he’s entertaining.

He does eventually even out and swims smoothly but those aren’t the real ducks.

He tries to grab this one but it’s not real.

He swims around for awhile but then comes back in. We’ll try again later. First we need to shake off this water.

Sawyer knows there are ducks out there so he’s going to try again.

Could he splash any more water?

No go in finding the real duck which is out past the dummies.

This next time out I have the guys throw the duck close between the dummies and not behind them. Sawyer finds the duck!

Daisy says “Look what I found!”

There’s a whole box of them right over there on the back of that car.

Now it’s time for Daisy to find birds. I let her off lead so she could run a little bit.

I think there’s one way under here.

Well she at least had fun! We’ll have to do some training before she’s ready to compete in anything.

Daisy Frankenbelly

September 8, 2011. When we had company over on Labor Day Sawyer at a piece of his toy. Not unusual for him but the guests were a little shocked. I knew it wouldn’t be a problem because he always throws up the pieces, but in the back of my mind I was a little worried because of the size of the toy. I never thought it would be Daisy that I'd be running to the vet. She had been throwing up all night on Tuesday and when she didn’t eat Wednesday morning I knew something was seriously wrong. I took her to the vet and sure enough the x-ray revealed there was something in her stomach. They gave her something for the vomiting and sent her home with me for the night. We returned the next morning for another x-ray to see if the object moved. Of course it didn’t so she had to have surgery to remove it. We were lucky we caught it in time. It hadn’t traveled far into her intestines so the vet was able to pull it out through the stomach. I was able to pick her up that evening. She was quite groggy from the drugs and didn’t even want to get out of the car.

She slept most of the night and started feeling better the next day. She went back to the vet and everything looked fine. Now for the fun part of keeping a 7 month old Weim puppy on limited activity…HA!

Because of her big incision we started calling her Daisy Frankenbelly.

She got her stitches removed two weeks later and is doing just fine.

Labor Day Weekend

September 2, 2011. The start of Labor Day weekend and four days of showing. My mom was still visiting from Florida so she came with me to the show and we got to spend the day together. Sawyer won Best of Breed and mom worked the camera to get some photos.

Mom even got a picture of the Best of Breed rosette.



He showed nicely in the Sporting group.

Mom and Sharon chillin’ on the couch. Sharon is her favorite but don’t tell the others.

I think it’s because Sharon is such a good cuddler.

My mom did a painting of Sharon and Daisy from a picture shortly after Daisy’s birth.

September 3, 2011. Mom left in the morning to fly back to Florida. I was off to show again. Sawyer went Best of Breed again and made the cut in the group this time. It was another long day.
September 4, 2011. Another day another show. Sawyer was Best of Opposite Sex to his sister Prada who took Best of Breed. It was my birthday so a win would have been nice but I guess it was good to go home and enjoy the rest of the day. We went to our friend’s Scott and Erin Reily for an end of summer bbq. It was nice to spend the evening with good friends.

Chrissy and Steve came with their beautiful daughters. This was the first time we met Holly.

Lauren holding Holly, what a cutie she is!

Camille had a blast watching the ball come down off the awning.

Love when everyone gets together and watches the iPad…how about having conversations people.

Holly passed out in Erin’s arms.

I don’t know. Camille doesn’t look so happy with Uncle George.

Oh that Holly, love those cheeks!

September 5, 2011. Labor Day, but there are no holidays from showing. Today I started the day showing my friend Sarah’s Vizsla, Rayne. We went Winners Bitch and Best of Winners for Rayne’s first point!! Then Weims were in. Sarah stayed to take some pictures. These rings are so small you really don’t get a chance to move. Sawyer went Best of Opposite Sex. That actually worked out well since I was expecting company over and had to go home to prepare.