September 7, 2009

On September 4th I loaded Bobbi, Twiggy, George, Gemma, Cara and Tilly up for a very very long day at the Berkshire Valley Basset Hound Club Specialty and the Basset Hound Club of America Regional Specialty in North Branch, New Jersey. North Branch is about a 2-hour drive from Elkton and my winning streak came crashing to a halt. Bobbi took 4th place in both her Open classes and Twiggy won both her American Bred classes, but went no further.  Perhaps I was a little disappointed in the results, but Bobbi and Twiggy both showed very nicely for me and I was pleased with their performance - and mine. We just lost to some very nice bitches that day.  Next up will be Old Dominion in Warrenton, Va at the end of the month where I'll be showing Twiggy and her brother Reggie. Bobbi won't compete that weekend because I've shown her to both those judges in the past and she hasn't done anything, so Reggie and Twiggy stand a much better chance at getting the points than Bobbi.

Speaking of Bobbi - she finally came into season yesterday! This is her first season since having pups, so I'll pay close attention to make sure everything goes well for her. I'll be making Booker's vacation plans for next week so we don't have any accidents.

The puppies had a good time meeting and greeting all the people and basset hounds at the shows, but it was a long day for them and they barely ate dinner when we finally did get home after 11 p.m. They got to see their grandfather, Sluggo, who came out of retirement to compete as a veteran. He still looks GREAT at 8-years and he showed like the champion he is. I have adored Sluggo (Ch. Maredge's Good to Go) from the first time I met him at the 2004 benched show in Philadelphia and I still adore him. I've put a photo of him up on the Friends and Family page. I figure he belongs there since he is the pupsters grandpa Sluggo.

August 28, 2009

My little Pink-inator, aka Tilly, has come for a visit while her parents are traveling and we are so happy to have her. She fit right back into the pack, after an initial bout of chaos that is, and she's having a wonderful time so far. Tilly will be here until September 8th so I have plenty of time to take her to Lum's Pond, the Beach, a couple of friend's houses, and the big experience will be when we go to the dog show in Northern New Jersey next Friday!  I don't know if he's entered yet, but if he is the pups will get to meet their Uncle Artie, Smokey's brother who lives up in Vermont.

I tried to put some pictures of Tilly on her page this morning, but for some reason they're not saving to my computer as a jpeg - SO, I'll get the ol' trusty camera out and take some pictures of her myself and get them up this afternoon. There are some new pictures of Winston, Naked boy, looking as adorable as ever!

Winston always was a ham for the camera, and after taking a look at these photos done by a professional photographer, I'm convinced this puppy has STAR potential! He's got the most expressive face, and Winston's people tell me he was a really good boy for the first hour of shooting. HOUR??? Wow, that's a LONG time for a puppy to be a good boy! I'm happy if I can get five good minutes of training on George, Gemma and Cara (especially Cara!).

August 17, 2009

Yesterday George and Cara competed in their first puppy match! Cara was expertly handled by my friend Tonta Stoner who bred their great great great grandfather,           Ch Charton's Favorite Boy. Tonta has since moved on to dachshunds, but she's been a tremendous source of knowledge and knows this line very well.

Both puppies did very well considering their age and experience levels. George did a fabulous job of holding his stack on the table which earned comments of praise from the judge. He wanted to sniff around when going around the ring, but I managed to get his attention with a piece of pupparoni, and once he focused he moved very nicely around the ring.

Tonta did a marvelous job stacking Cara and she looked gorgeous going around the ring too. She held her head high, had beautiful, balanced, reach and drive and tons of attitude! Tonta did such a wonderful job that for a moment I thought Cara might take the breed! But, at the last moment the judge chose George who then went in for the Hound Group.

I think George was getting a bit tired by the time he went in for the Group because he started misbehaving and trying to sit on the job. Ultimately, we took third place, but the real value of the match was that they both had a really positive, happy experience. The judge was very good with all the puppies competing and George and Cara's little tails just kept wagging and wagging away.

All three of them, Gemma came along for the ride too, had a wonderful time sniffing new places and meeting new breeds of dogs. Cara is totally fascinated with BIG dogs and boldly went up to the largest dogs there and introduced herself. George was a little more cautious, and Gemma just loved everyone! She especially liked a very cute little black lab puppy.

July 31, 2009 -

Last night George, Gemma and Cara went to their very first handling class. Gemma was the star of the three. She's so much more cooperative than George or Cara and I was very pleased with how nicely she moved on the lead and how confidently she carried herself. She never once put her nose down to sniff, didn't fight the lead (much) and stayed on my left where she's supposed to be. We didn't really work on the stacking, at this point I try to keep those lessons seperate so as not to overload their little puppy brains. There's plenty of time to work on pulling it all together for them.

George was the embarrassing one. He flopped around, fought the leash, went flat on me a couple of times and refused to move, criss crossed all over the place and then starting wailing and whining for no apparent reason - and he wouldn't shut up either!

Cara was in the middle. She started off bad, but finished the class looking much better. All three loved meeting the new people and dogs, and generally, I think they came out of the class with a positive experience. Today I'm taking them back to the beach for another play date. I'm sure they're going to have a great time. And, Sunday we're all packing up and heading to Virginia to meet their daddy and half-sister, Smokey and Goody. This will be their first long road trip, but I'm sure they'll make the trip just fine and have fun meeting their relatives. I won't forget my camera this time!