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....