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This is my first entry in our new blog. It should be fun and I hope I get better at it as we go along.

We have been keeping very busy.  We bred both Misty and Molly this spring but Misty missed completely and Molly has a singleton who is due tomorrow.

Keeping 2 puppies out of the Ollie x Misty litter was, in a way, a mistake as they have taken a lot of time for training etc. Noel is one who makes her own fun if we are not doing anything with them and Bow is happy to follow along. When there are two puppies, they seem to learn more from each other than following mother and grandmother's lead.

They are both growing into excellent dogs. We had their eyes and hearts checked at the spring clinic and have an appointment for hip and elbow x-rays in June. I have set us a goal of winning the Nan Gordon trophy at the specialty so we are working hard at formal training. The trophy is for versatility so a dog has to qualify in one of the field tests, get a qualifying score in obedience and place in a conformation class. Both dogs are nearly ready for the WC and s/b solid by July. They would both qualify in Novice obedience now, but we are working for higher scores in case there is a tie. That leaves conformation. I think they are both beautiful but competition will be stiff. We will have to wait and see -- just about anything can happen when dogs are involved.

Gord

Got back from DC rather late last night but the dogs thought I should just drop my suitcase, turn around and take them out training. I didn't. I was so tired I could barely walk. If any of you have attended a large convention with a huge display hall, you know what I am talking about. The good thing is that I got to meet the people I went to see plus  a couple of other useful contacts.

Tonight we did some training, First off, I got out the duck that was in the fridge. It is beyond its best before date, no danger of Muriel stealing it for duck à l'orange, but the dogs sure were excited. I hoped that with the layoff, Bow might be anxious enough to retrieve that he would actually pick up a duck and bring it to me. HE DID! Noel of course did as well, when her turn came and she is getting quite a bit smarter about using her nose when the bird is in cover and not visible.

Then we did a bit of Obedience training – working on heeling, stand for inspection and recalls. Still looking for more precision but they know all the exercises and are quite reliable now.

I also did some conformation training later in the evening. Different lead, and food in my hand! Now you have to learn to stand pretty instead of sitting when I stop. They are quickly getting the idea. All we need to do is work every possible day between now and July 15 when the GRGC specialty starts with the WC test and we should be ready.

 

Gord

Back from Woodstock tired and finally dry. However, rain is definitely better for the dogs than heat. We had a very busy day with 2 dogs each in two obedience trails aind in conformation. Fortunately, the schedule worked out that it was Obedience in the morning and Conformation in the PM. This is the first outdoor obedience that the twins have been at and an important reason for taking them was a warm up for the Specialty next week. 

Bow was second in his Novice A class in both trials and so has 2 of the 3 legs he needs for his CD. Next week he has 2 trials to get 1 leg. Bow was his normal, easy going self. He even put up with a substitute handler for the sits and downs. Since the enty was small and the rain was wet, they wanted to do the sits and downs for both Novice A and B together. Lisa Day, who I had never met before but who I could immediatly tell is a good handler from watching her work in the ring, agreed to take Bow. They practiced his down command a couple of time and it was off to the races. Thanks Lisa.

Noel did not do as well. In the first trial she had a qualifing run going until about 2 minutes into the long down (last exercise). She got up and came to see me! In the second trail an hour later, she had settled right in and had a great run going until the recall. She knew what she needed to do, but did not wait for my command; that is an NQ and automatic fail. She finished the rest of the test perfectly! So she has 2 chances to make 3  at the Specialty which means she will need to be entered in another trial to finish her CD.

In the show ring, both Noel and Bow got best Canadian Bred since they were the only ones in that category but failed to move on. Good thing Carol is the one showing them at the specialty. I sure wonder why anyone finds it fun to loose (or even win) and have no idea why.

We are back from the National Specialty. It was a great show and I am very proud of the tremendous effort put in by the GRCGT. It was wonderful to see so many truly excellent dogs in one place. The quality was much higher than what we usulally see at an all breed show.

The WC tests were at a beautiful farm south of Stratford but we did not have a good day. Noel started great on land with 2 clean retreives and a 'nice work' comment from the judges. Bow picked up the first bird promptly but then ran right over the second, longer bird and after quick tour of the far end of the field returned without the bird. Disapointing but not completely out of character. What was really disapointing was that on the water in the afternoon, Noel started out normally on the first water mark but decided half way there to just turn back. Completely out of character! So no WC's.

Things were to get better. On Saturday, Bow finished his CD with a qualifying score in the second trial. The sits and downs were a lot like training in the back yard as Muriel had driven down to handle Bow for the stays and I had Noel. Of course when we are in the backyard there are not 200 other dogs around with 20 people watching from outside the ring and 2 other conformation rings on the other side of a huge tent. Noel had a great day on Saturday. She qualified in both trials and took second place in the Canadian Bred class in the beauty paegent.  There were 8 quality bitches in her class so that is nothing to sneeze at.

The Nan Gordon trophy was not awarded this year because no dog managed to qualify. Too bad Noel shut down on the water marks or she would have had it. I still have not figured out what happened but that's life. These are dogs we are talking about, not machines.

Gord