Time for at least a few updates

Today I received this picture of Axyl, and his mom, Rebecca.  Axyl's practicing his "two-on, two-off" contact.  This handsome boy has earned his Novice Agility, Novice Agility Jumpers, and Novice FAST titles this year, plus he has "legs", or qualifying runs, towards his Open titles.  Go Team Axyl and Rebecca!!!  I'm so proud of them!!

Montague's Leaving On A Night Train, NA, NAJ, NF, "Axyl"

I just realized I never posted Stella's official "finish" picture from the day she earned her Championship title.  Pretty, pretty girl.

CH Montague SunRunner All The Stars Aligned, "Stella"

This past weekend was the Cumberland Valley Dalmatian Club's specialty in Tennessee.  Teller was Winner's Dog on Sunday.  A specialty weekend win is always extra "special".  His mom, Holly, will send me a copy of his win picture when she gets it.  He only needs two majors to finish.  It was a major in boys on Sunday when Teller won but then when one of the other boys got excused the major broke.  :o( 

Another Champion!

On Saturday, August 3rd Stella, "Montague SunRunner All The Stars Aligned", earned her last two points to finish her championship!  She's really been on a roll since late spring where she won the points at all but (I think maybe) one show that she was entered in.  She and her "big brother", Phil, were on a roll!

 

                                                     The girl can sure move!!

 

                                              The judge goes over her

And in the end, the judge points to Stella for Winners' bitch to complete her Championship!!  I was so happy to have been there to watch her finish!  Haven't yet received a copy of the win picture that was taken that day by the pro-photographer.  I'll post that when I get it.

Catching up with Axyl and Rebecca

Time to catch up with Axyl and Rebecca.

Axyl earned his first "Q" (qualifying run) towards his NAJ (Novice Jumpers) title early this spring.



At the Dalmatian Club of America's National specialty he earned his second Q towards his NAJ with another 1st place and his first Q towards his Novice "FAST" title and 2nd place.  Go Team Axyl!!


In May he completed his NAJ title with.... Another 1st place!  Good boy, Axyl!
He's now more formally known as Montague's Leaving On A Night Train, NAJ.  So proud of him and his mom, Rebecca!



In July he earned his first two Q's towards his Novice Standard "NA" title - with Another 1st place!! 

What a team they are!

Look out Michael Phelps!!

Had a free afternoon last week so my friend, Laurie, and I took Hacker and Miley swimming up at Del Valle reservoir.  I've lived in the Bay Area my entire life yet had never been there.  I'm told it can be packed in the summer, especially on weekends, but during the week there wasn't a crowd.

Hacker's getting better and better at this swimmin' stuff.  He loved running along the bank, chasing Miley but he also did his share of swimming out for the tennis ball when it was thrown in the water.

Another Coursing Dal! The boy's a natural! :o)

Last weekend at the Coursing Ability Tests that were put on by the Monterey Coursing Association and the Basenji Club of Northern California Club Rocky got to come out to play.

This was his, and his mom's, first try at coursing and boy did they have fun.  Rocky's going to give his sister, Honor, a run for her money, he's Fast!!  And boy does he love to chase those "bunnies".  I had the fun of taking him to the line to run while his mom, Mary, got to watch and smile.

  

Tally Ho!!!  And he's off!  All I do at this point is watch.

 

  

  Gonna get those bunnies!

   

                         

 So close!  Almost got 'em!  :o)  Rocky earned his "CA" (Coursing Ability) title in three tests over the weekend and an extra qualifying run towards his "CAA" (Coursing Ability Advanced).  He's now more formally known as "Montague's Fly Me To The Moon, CA".  Good boy, Rocky!

His sister, Honor, earned four more qualifying legs towards her CAX (Coursing Ability eXcellent) title.  She needs a total of 25 qualifying runs for that title - so proud of her and her mom, Laurie!  There are less than a handful of Dalmatians in the country with a CAX title.

This is Hacker, Trapper and Honor on their 2nd birthday.  Trapper is Hack's new BFF.  He's a handsome Schipperke who belongs to my friend, JoAnne.  Honor wasn't impressed with the boys or the photographer (me).  ;o)
I wish I could make it just a little bigger to make the print easier to read but when I do it gets cut off under the side pics.

Happy belated (here anyway) 2nd birthday to Teller, Harley, Stella, Axyl, Honor, Hacker, Marley, Rocky and Pepper!

Friends we meet along the way

One of the really fun things about breeding, training and showing dogs is the friends you make along the way.  Some of my very dearest friends from adulthood are the ones I've made since getting into Dalmatians and dog training/showing.  When you breed a litter (or at least when I breed a litter) one of the most stressful things is worrying about your puppies going to homes where they will be loved and well taken care of - real members of the family.  We ask people to fill out questionnaires, we speak on the phone, by e-mail and eventually face-to-face.  So I get to meet people who I may have never met if it wasn't for these wonderful spotted beasties. 

Keeping in touch with the families that have my grand-puppies is always fun.  Today I'm sharing some of the lovely hand made cards I've received from Harley's folks, Susan and Ron.  Ron also makes beautiful keepsake boxes, each one of a kind.  I wish you could see all the layers involved in these cards.  Truly works of art!

Harley likes to assist whenever possible - especially when Susan gets up to get something.  He's a great supervisor.

These are the boxes that Ron has made for me.  Oh to be so talented as these two.  Sorry the picture quality isn't all that great - took it with my phone and updated from there.  Still having problems uploading pictures directly from my hard drive to my blog.

UPDATE:  6/18/13 - I think I *finally* fixed my picture problem!!  Hopefully all five pictures show up....

Rescue

I don't breed very often for a number of reasons - one of them is that I'm absolutely responsible for every single puppy that I breed for his or her entire life.  If for any reason one of my puppy families, at any time in the puppy/dog's life, can't keep that dog the dog is to come back to me and I will find him/her a loving home, or he/she will stay with me for the rest of its life.  It's in my contract that every single family that has one of my puppies agrees to and signs.  Unfortunately not all breeders follow that train of thought - or they lose track of their puppy families or families choose to dump their pet without contacting the breeder.  So there are always dogs in shelters, in rescue organizations or just running loose on the street. 

Following is the link to Save A Spot Dalmatian Rescue located in Turlock, CA.  The Dalmatian Club of Northern California members also work with them, helping to pull Dalmatians from shelters and try to get them into loving homes.  Sometimes it's a very long wait for that loving, forever home for some of these guys.  Older dogs are harder to place - but old dogs are Soooooo special and so deserve to have a home and a family of their own.  If you can find it in your heart to adopt, or even foster, a Dal that's currently in Rescue please contact Save A Spot Dal Rescue at http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/CA1309.html. 

Wishing all mom's, whether your kids are two-legged or four-legged, a very happy Mother's Day!

Holy Cow, no updates since January?

Okay, so here are some fun videos of Hacker, Honor and their "step mom" Miley during the Coursing Ability Test or "CAT" back at the end of December:

Hacker:  Hacker's CAT 12/30/12

Honor:  Honor's CAT 12/30/12

Miley:  Miley's CAT 12/30/12

Since then they all three finished their "CA", or Coursing Ability, titles and Honie now has NINE legs towards her "CAA", or Coursing Ability Advanced, title.  She needs ten qualifying runs, or "legs", for that title.  Good girl!  She'll be running in some tests next month.  If you're interested contact me!  It's really about instinct, not a lot of training is involved although having a reasonable recall command is definitely a plus.  Usually after running 600 yards (that's what you just saw, 600 yard runs) they're willing to stop <G>.  The dogs LOVE it!

The pictures I posted at the beginning of January (below) are from these runs.

Enjoy! 

Picture updates.

Well, I had to do it differently but I was finally able to post the picture. 

How cute are they?!

This is Marlee and her "big sister" Simone.  Both beautiful girls!

 

 

 

Teller enjoyed his Christmas goodies 

 

 

 

Axyl.  Handsome boy.

 

 

Honor and Miley.  It's too bad there aren't enough dog beds and

they have to share....  They both wanted the bed closest to the fire.  ;o)

 

 

 

Christmas Pictures and Agility videos!

I received a Very Cute picture of Marlee and her big sister, Simone, next to their Christmas tree and wanted to post it here but for some reason Blogger.com is not letting me post pictures at the moment - but it will let me post links to videos - go figure.  So here are two videos I received of two of the boys training for Agility: 
 
This is Teller, he lives in Tennessee:

Teller
 
 And this is Axyl, he lives in North Carolina:

Axyl
 
I'm so excited to get to see them work and can't wait for them to start their agility careers!!  So proud of them!

Hopefully whatever the glitch for pictures is it will be fixed soon so I can share them.  Happy New Year!  Wishing you all the very best in 2013.
 
 

Coursing Aptitude Test - who knew it could be this much fun!!

This weekend Laurie and I took Tommie, Hacker, Honor and Miley to some Coursing Aptitude Tests down in Hollister.  OMgosh, it was so much fun!  Everybody but Tommie excelled at it.  Tommie didn't want to go far enough from Mom (me) to get the job done - but she still had fun, just did it her way (so typical!)  The course is 600 yards long for larger dogs, 300 yards for small dogs.

Here's Hacker - chasing the white plastic "bunny" (plastic bags) that are pulled very quickly on a course of pulleys directed by a guy with a joystick.  It's a pretty cool system, they can speed the "bunnies" up and slow them down with the joystick.  The white things you see on the ground are the "bunnies" that the dogs are trying to catch.

 Hacker

Honor - boy can that girl Run!!!

Miley - Never took her eyes off the "bunnies".

 

There was a big variety of dogs from small Terriers and a Daschund all the way up to Weimaraners and Salukis.