Saturday, March 19, 2016

IDS Malmö

As I said, this spring my focus will be on Liina and trying to achieve her Swedish Championship. At the last minute this February, I decided to strip Liina and check her coat to see if we would be participating in anything this spring. To my pleasant surprise, he coat was great and it meant that we could show a bit this spring. So, with 1 day to spare, I signed up for Malmö International Dog Show.

I am happy to report that Liina received the following score:
Jakt (hunting) class: Excellent 1, CK, Best Female 3 with res-CERT and res-CACIB.

Liina with her prizes
Liina's evaluation (translated from Swedish):
Harmonious female. Feminine head with god proportions. Correct bite, excellent neck and overline. Well angulated front and back and well developed body. Could have a little more ground clearance. Fluid movement, excellent coat quality, good temperament.

I was so proud of my little girl and her great performance. The judge was a bit heavy-handed on the table, but we have been training this aspect very, very hard and she handled the situation great. Liina is a bit low, but the comment is likely due to my grooming... I forgot to properly groom her chest (oops!) so it didn't help the ground clearance. In any case, I am pleased with today's results.

We have a show again in about a month and then middle of May. I'm hoping that they will go just as well for my little gal! :D

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Sorry for the silence!

I just realized that I haven't written any posts since the end of 2015!

Very sorry everyone! Our life here in Sweden has been a little bit quiet. The dogs were supposed to be on show tour starting this month, but that won't happy until later in the year. I was in a small car accident earlier this year, spinning out on black ice and damaging my poor little car. Well, now I have a sporty, little Ford and dog show money has been pumped into buying our transportation. C'est la vie! There will always be later this year...

My poor little car. Luckily I am perfectly fine.
Liina and I went up to My Dog in Gothenburg early in January and happily came home with 2x Exc and 1xCK. It was a nice weekend and we are hoping that the next couple months will bring a few more nice results. :)
Liina and I at My Dog 2016
Baxter will not be shown much this year. I am hoping he can finish his few titles with Nikos later this year and then "retire" from the show ring. He has done enough... Exc1 in 11 countries is quite a great accomplishment for a small dog... especially when he is/was mostly owner handled. Maybe we will show a little bit more in Germany or Austria or Denmark, but no stress for my handsome boy. Now I am working on taking a little winter weigh (off both him and me!) and getting ready for this fall. We may have *finally* found a couple spots to try out Drev and I would love to try out Bax and see how he does. Otherwise, he will be a happy, healthy, pretty boy. :) Maybe we will start training viltspår again and go for trials in Finland or Denmark or Norway... maybe even Germany! We will see.

Bax and his BFF Leo
My goals this year are mostly for Liina. I would love to see her get her CH in Sweden. I would love to try her again on Gryt and see if a year away sparks her interest even more. I would love to do a small show tour with her and try for a Nordic Champion. I would love for her to get a CACIB and start her international Championship. I would love to start looking for her future husband (though this is a few years off). Lastly, I would like to keep training viltspår with her and try for the 40hr exam in Denmark later this year.



Finally... This is year is a big year as Freddie should have a date in summer/autumn! We will keep you all updated if and when tiny Freddie's will make their appearance. It should be an exciting pairing and a COI of 0%, a mix of German-French and Swedish lines. If you are interested in knowing more, let me know!

Freddie on holiday in Oslo

A lot of goals... We will see what 2016 brings!