• About us
• Our dogs
• News
• Showing
• Working
• The Breed
• Photos

News 2010

August

After a fairly quiet July we took the trip to the Bournemouth Championship Show down in the beautiful New Forest. After missing the last show Ghost was finally entering the ring in the big girl classes.

Photo with thanks to Kat Copley-Holland

She did herself proud, settling down nicely in a fairly large Post Graduate Bitch class of 12 entries, in which at 19 months old she was by far the youngest. Looking gorgeous and finally back in full coat she strutted her stuff to win the class - go baby!!

Still at only half coats Sasha and Tia were sadly not placed but we had a lovely day out.

July

The second show in July is The National Working and Pastoral Breeds Championship show. Ghost was booked in to go but with a poorly leg we had to stay at home.

Many many congratulations to Mark and Tracey with Demi who won a big puppy bitch class and then went on to win Best Puppy. Demi books her place at Crufts 2011 in style!

Sasha has a new obsession - Agility classes. She's been a few times, and although she's scared of the see-saw, everything else has been mastered!

    

We started July on a high note at the Windsor Championship show. For Ghost this was her last Junior class as she turns eighteen months old, and she went out in style with a great class win.

Photo with thanks to Sue Finan

June

At the end of June I took a trip north to a new show for us - Blackpool. I've never done this show before as the girls are always out of coat at this time of year. However with Ghost on a different coat schedule we drove north with Sue and Hades.

It was a very hot weekend but the dogs coped admirably. Hades with a good Reserve placing in the Open Dog class, won by Enzo owned by Sue Ellis.

Ghost is really starting to get the hang of things - she was again placed third in the Junior class, another Crufts qualifying position.

Photo with thanks to Kat Copely-Holland

A fairly quiet month for us while Sasha and Tia get their coats off for the hot weather, slightly later than their normal schedule.

Sasha and Tia have a new obsession . . . they are both having a go at agility. So far they have mastered the A-frame, dog walk, weave poles, tunnel, high jumps and long jumps. Although they can do it the only thing that they have yet to master is the see-saw.

Hopefully we can get some pictures over the next few weeks.

May

Scotland here we come: Mid-May and what is becoming an annual trip north to SKC. The journey up was eventful, between us we had: one mysterious engine leak - check, one burst tyre replaced on the hard shoulder of the A1 - check, one mysterious engine light flickering on the van dashboard - check.

Finally arriving at Gavin and Claires in Edinburgh with time to walk all the dogs, give them all a brush and blast and then a delicious Thai Green Curry!

The Friday dawned sunny and warm and we were staying only 15 minutes from the showground. The first challenge was handling Meeko, Claire being unable to attend and Gavin on camera duty meant that I took him into the Post-Graduate Dog class and managed a very respectible VHC.

Onto the girls and Ghost, still not in coat (no I have no idea!), was placed 3rd in the Junior class and with this qualifies for Crufts 2011.

All the sweeter in that she was beaten by her sister meaning they will both be going in March!

Tia was sadly not placed in the strongest bitch class (the judges words not mine!) while Sasha was placed Reserve in the top class.

A hugely fun few days (pictures to come soon) - and the van has been to the doctors and is better now!

The National Dog Show: May arrives and with it the National Dog Show, always the biggest entry of the year and this year was no exception with over 200 dogs entered. All three girls were entered although Ghost is still taking the longest time possible to grown back her coat! We weren't surprised when she wasn't placed in a great Junior class where the class winnner took the RCC.

Tia was in a huge Limit class of 24 entries with 19 attending. She is in full coat and moved beautifully around the huge ring ending up placed 3rd. The winner of the Limit class took the Bitch CC, the gorgeous Brownie owned by Izzy. Sasha wasn't placed in another huge class but we had great fun.

April

Fantastic news: Hades (NLK CH Stormchaser Prince of Darkness mit Marahootay) Ghost's Sire has been over in the United States and has become an American Champion. We are hugely proud and send many congratulations to his owners Sue & John at Marahootay.

Bewl water: Easter weekend and we took a weekend away at Bewl water. A venue in Kent with a 14 mile trek around a large lake. After a week of rain we bravely set off at 6am on Saturday morning.

Half-way round we stopped for a breather and discussed just how muddy we were getting.

The weather improved during Saturday afternoon and Ghost and I went for a stroll along the side of the lake.

Injuries were discussed - however it's unclear if this was from the Saturday trek or from the dancing on Saturday evening!

More photos from our weekend

March

Last race of the season: Two days after Crufts we made our way up to Thetford for the last race of the season. AMWA were running their first night and day rally.

Saturday night was great fun with the larger teams going out during the afternoon while Wayne, who was running Ghost and Sasha, was not out until nearly 10pm. They finished in 10th place out of 19 entries, but we were really pleased with the times. 21 and 22 minutes - getting faster and consistent.

It was a fantastic weekend and is definately on the agenda for next year.

Crufts: March arrives and with it the annual pilgrimage to Crufts. Both Sasha and Tia were entered and although they still aren't back in full coat they had enough to be presentable. So we washed and we brushed and then we got up at silly 'o' clock to make the drive north.

The gorgeous Meeko [Marahootay Diamond Seeker] brother to Ghost was placed third in the Yearling Dog class. And Simon and Xabi collected a great third in Post Graduate Dog. Lisa and Mikey won Limit Dog looking fabulous and Charlotte with the gorgeous Cruz took the RCC from the Yearling Dog class.

The girls turn came and Tia was up first in a big Limit Bitch class with 19 entries.

She moved beautifully and stood smiling up at me wagging her tail for the entire class - I have missed showing her over the winter.

    

Then completely unexpected by me - we won the class!!

    

Sasha was in the top class and although she moved beautifully she wasn't placed. The Bitch CC was won by a gorgeous dog from Poland and Sasha's sister, Inca - owned and loved by Sarah, won the RCC.

Many thanks to Dad for taking the photos, and to Mum for videoing. ;-)

February

SHCGB Grimsthorpe rally: With Wayne ill, I decided to go up to compete at Grimsthorpe by myself. It was a fantastic weekend, the course was great fun particularly going through the river - you can never have too many pairs of spare socks!!

We have visited Grimsthorpe before but never raced and the weather was fantastic. Clear and cold on Saturday - and then waking up to three inches of snow on Sunday morning. Fantastic - definately hoping we can go to this race next season.

January

Watching and waiting for coats: As always happens at this time of year, we are watching and waiting as Sasha and Tia's coats are coming back. Their schedule has shifted so we may have to reconsider the shows we traditionally do over the summer - and tweak things a bit! Only this week, with just over four weeks to go - I finally feel as though we might make it in time for Crufts.

Racing up at Aviemore: We had a fabulous week in Scotland, staying in a gorgeous house with the lovely Sue, John and Francine. We had been anticipating and discussing the amount of snow that had fallen over the Cairngorn mountains before travelling north. There was ALOT of snow, Thursday included a few hours clearing the first part of the trail.

The organisers did a fabulous job and for the first time in fifteen years we had a snow rally!

The trek was very hard work through all the snow, but the week was generally fabulous. See photos here

Ghost's first race: The weekend before we headed north we decided to try racing Ghost. A one-day BSHRA event provided a baptism of fire!! She had never set foot infront of a rig or in a harness, but she did remarkably well.

Running with Sasha they finished a very respectable 9th from a class of 15. Spending the first two and a half minutes in the start chute tangled up in the lines, they then set off well and completed the course with no further incidents. We'll try them together again soon.

Fun in the snow: Well the snow arrived across the country - we got a bit . . .

Enough for the girls to have a run around in, but sadly we seemed to get less than elsewhere and it was gone far too soon - leaving us looking forward to heading north for some Scottish snow.

SWECA Open Show: Ghost went to the SWECA Open show on her last day as a puppy. She won the Junior class, Best Puppy in Breed and Reserve Best of Breed. This video shows her strutting her stuff in the Puppy Working Group. And congratulations to Sarah and Nero taking Best of Breed.

   

2010 will be a fun year, Aviemore is looking like it could be a sled race. Sasha and Tia are currently nearly naked and so should be back in full coat for Crufts. And Ghost is looking better than ever - can't wait to see how she does in harness and the showring this year.