2009 In Reveiw

2009 has been an exciting year for me as a novice breeder and exhibitor. I have reached some of my goals, and made good progress towards others. And none would be without the help of good friends!

This summer I finished my first bred-by Champion, my tricolour shortcoat boy Neddie (Ch HiLeigh ReadyR'Not Here I Come) He was followed in the fall by my second homebred Champion and his younger half-brother, shown by Tobi-Dawne Yandt of Saskatoon, Sunny (Ch HiLeigh's Blazing Sunshine) and 3rd Champion Sunny's littermate sister, my longcoat puppy Glory (Ch HiLeigh's Golden Glory)

I owe a big thanks to friend, trainer and "big dog" breeder Cheryl Ellis for helping me to train and show both Neddie and Glory, and to Tobi-Dawne for loving little Sunny, making him part of her family, and giving him his Canadian title.

Their dam Butter (Am/Can Ch Fandango Lamar Butternut), who is my first Champion, now has a total of 5 Champion progeny, 4 Canadian and 1 American, from 3 litters, and a total of 8 puppies. She is spayed now and is comfy on the couch...

I am happy to say that our little Sunny is not done his winning ways yet, and he is currently showing now in the US with Kristie Wheeler. He has 11 points there, including two 4 Point Majors and two Best of Breed wins. His sister Glory will be joing him there next month, hopefully to do just as well. Kristie has been a huge help for me, always willing with suggestions, advice and support.

This year two puppies joined our family from another good friend and supportive experienced breeder, Karin Daehn. Kailey and Meme are both daughters of Karin's lovely boy Amore and have been an absolute joy to have as part of our family. I know I would not have the opportunities I have had over the past 3 years without the open honestly of this good friend.

I have made good progress toward my goals for health testing and clearances. I have both of my breeding boys, Neddie and Jeep, have tested normal for OFA Patella and Cardiac, and CERF. They will both be entered in the CHIC database. Glory and Kailey both tested normal this month on both OFA exams.

Thank you to all of my friends and fellow breeders for all of your support this year, and we are looking forward to a prosperous New Year.

Sunny's Wins

Sunny has done very well this fall... Thanks very much to Kristie!

He is now on 11 points including both of his Majors. This includes 2 best of breed wins. He was able to pick up both of his Majors at the Clark County shows.

We're very excited for him, and look forward to 2010. His next shows are in Puyallup WA and after that in Portland OR. Glory will be joining him for these shows too, so she can start working on her American title as well.

Here is one of his Major win pictures.

Show News and New Champion!

We got back from 4 days of shows in Abbotsford... It is a nice big indoor show, 3 regular shows and the Chihuahua Specialty. I took Glory and the new girl Meme.

Both girls took reserve at the specialty. Entry was good for Canada ~ about 30 dogs.

Glory did well through the regular shows, picking up two major wins for Winners Bitch and Best of Winners to complete her Canadian Championship!

Meme picked up the one point for Winners on friday. She now has 4 points at 7 months old.

A very good weekend though. Canada's largest dog show, and we came home with a new Champion and lots of good experience for the baby.

Here are a couple pictures my friend took.

New Puppy

We have a new furry face here at home.

This week little Meme arrived from Edmonton. She is Picasso's Diamond Jubilee and she is another Amore kid as well as coming from the same line as Butter on her mom's side.

Meme is coming up on 7 months old, and went to her first show with breeder Karin Daehn in Edmonton before she came home to us. She won Best of Breed over Specials her first day out, and Winners Bitch her second day out and is now pointed towards her Canadian Championship.

Meme will be travelling with us and Glory next week to the shows in Abbotsford.

Show News

Two of our kids had a great weekend out. Brother and sister, Sunny and Glory were out at shows this weekend with Handlers.

Sunny is showing in Washington with Kristie Wheeler. He took Best of Winners both days at Richland WA, for his first 4 single points towards his American Title.

Glory went to Chilliwack with our friend Cheryl, and picked up 3 single points taking Best of Breed all 3 days. She now has 6 single points towards her Canadian Title.

Now we need to find a bit more competition to get those "majors"

Puppies

Phoebe's girls at 6 weeks old.

Sire is Neddie (CH HiLeigh Ready'RNot Here I Come)

New Champion!

Little Sunny finished his Canadian Championship this past weekend in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the Manitoba Kennel Club shows and the Prairie Toy Association Specialty. He won Best of Winners and Best Puppy at the Specialty, and then repeated these wins at the regular shows and followed it up with a cut (of 2!) in Puppy Group.

He will show as a Special with Tobi-Dawne at their home show in Saskatoon the first weekend in September then look for him in the US this fall with handler Kristi Wheeler.

Thanks millions to Tobi-Dawne for giving Sunny such great love and showing him to his Candian Title. You've done so so well with the little guy!

To All Fellow Members of the CKC

If you are a Member of the CKC you probably know of the notice sent to Members that the Official Section will no longer be a publication that is mailed out to CKC members, but will only be available online, due to costs that have arisen because of changes in Canada Post mailing guidlines. This change in pulication has given the CKC, Apex Publishing, and the Members of the CKC the opportunity to rethink how this pulication is handled.

The other CKC publication, Dogs in Canada, has evolved in recent years, and now it is focused on educating the general public about Purebred Dogs, Dog Sports and the CKC in general. As Breeder and Exhibitors many Members wish that we had a CKC publication that served us, the Breeder Members.

With the changes to the Official Section as a print publication, now appears to be the best time to take these sentiments to the next level.

If Breeder Members were allowed to advertise in the Official Section, then print publication, mailing, and additional breeder-related articles could be very viable, if covered by the advertising fees. There are many other publications on the market with similar circulation that are majority or wholly supported by advertiser dollars. Recently, I have had some insight into the direction that Apex Publishing will be taking to decide the future of the Official Section.

The good news is that it sounds like neither Apex nor the CKC is going to let the Official Section fade away. I've spoken with Ann McDonagh, Publisher at Apex, and Dwain McLean, our Chair of the CKC Board of Directors, and understand that in the next few weeks Apex will be sending out a survey to members to get feedback on what direction to take for 2010. I am currently trying to find out how much input we can have into the content of that survey.

The Official Section is up for discussion for the Septemeber meeting of the Board of Directors, and a decision needs to be made for the 2010 budget for December.

What I think needs to happen is that Members who would like to see a publication with Breeder Member supporting content need to make their voices heard as a group. Also, it is very important that our message stay united and clear.

*******
My points to Ms McDonagh and Mr McLean were:

Breeder Members would like to see the Official Section expanded to include

1) articles specifically focused on our needs
2) breeder advertising
3) show/event results

And most importantly many of us are willing to pay for advertising, and even a bit more for the publication itself to see our goals met.

And we would like the opportunity to see these options appear in the upcoming survey.

********
So, please if this of interest to you please back me up and email to Dwaine McLean (mcleande@nbnet. nb.ca) and Ann McDonagh (amcdonagh@dogsincan ada.com) with CC to Joe Mauro (jmauro@ckc.ca) (President of Apex)

Thanks everyone

Emilie Flynn
HiLeigh Chihuahuas

New Puppies

Phoebe delivered 3 baby girls yesterday morning. All are white/cream like momma, and were 5.5, 4.5, and 5.2 oz at birth.

Today everyone is well, and the girls are very robust!

New Champion

Neddie (now Can CH HiLeigh Ready'RNot Here I Come) finished is Championship this weekend taking Best of Breed Friday and Saturday to finish his Championship. Yay!

Neddie is my first bred-by Champion and the first show dog I trained myself :) He is his mother Butter's 3rd Champion.

I also took Neddie and Jeep to the eye clinic. The CERF tests went well. They both cleared Normal. The are also both OFA certified Normal for patellas now too.

Weekend Shows

Well we had an interesting weekend on the Island. Big entires, and lots of fun visiting! The girls did a fabulous job on the Specialty, and really got the numbers and entries up! We started at 1PM and ran through to 7PM when they finally got done with Brood, Stud, Brace, etc. The total Chihuahua entry for the Specialty was 29.

Sunny unfortunately did not travel well, and was skittish and distracted. It was his first outdoor show, and a big show for him too. So unfortunately, Sunny did not pick up any points this weekend, though he did improve by Sunday, and was showing much better. The boy that took WD friday and saturday, is a DewDrops puppy, out of her Belle Shoals dog. He was with a handler and is sold to Russia. Neddie took Reserve 2 shows and Winners this morning for 2 points. He's now on 9 points.

Glory showed pretty well, but like her brother, did not get any points. Gerri Shurb with Picasso Wisherwoods Moxie and Angie Lamberton with Cookie, a 2 year old CH Jenstar's Odd Man Out daughter took the points. He is also sire to Crash, Am/Can BISS CH Hilcroft's Legacy in Red (#1 LC 2006/2007)

Gerri Finished Moxie for Jean Westwood and Angie finished Flowers Opal Anne for my friend Stephanie. The Dewdrops boy picked up a few points, as did Gerri with Jean's Shortcoat Wisherwoods Play It Again, Sammy. There was alos a Zuran pedigree'd LC male there. He picked up a couple points too.

The dogs find the judge Mr Kereluke intimidating, and if a dog does not want to stand nice for examination, he excuses them. He excused a junior puppy and the Misty Meadows special (who tried to bite him!) and then went on to withhold Winners Dog Longcoat... I remember I actually read an article referring to him as the "Great Withholder" LOL so I guess we can't feel too bad, as apparently he does it to everyone! However, Ned and Glory didn't fare too badly, and I did get Glory settled after she tried to scurry back into my arms after taking one look at him!

Neddie actually showed well this weekend, and if it were not for the infectious temperment of the DewDrops puppy, would have finished for sure. The Specialty Judge, Mr Hill, sure gave him a good chance, 3 down and back, twice on the table. He is very gentle. This judge hung in there for all 6 hours of that show! Must have been exhausted. Best in Specialty went to Joy Henderson and her Toy Manchester, and Crash took #4 behind the Havanese Mistytrails Cruise Control and a Papillon. Best of Breed SC went to Joyce Skjeie with CH Sandman Miss Kitty.

Even with no wins, it was sure a great afternoon, and lots of fun to watch. I enjoyed all the non-regular class entries. One Brood Bitch entry, had two Junior Puppies with two young Junior Handlers.... it was very cute as the puppies stopped halfway round to visit and the girls could not get them going again...

Angie finished Opal Anne Saturday, and Sunday she moved her up to Specials She pulled Rudy, Ch Calmont's Halo Gorgeous (#1 SC 2008) who was being a fart! Opal took Breed over Miss Kitty and Nicole Simpson's Special bitch. So that was a super win for her last day. Neddie took Best of Opposite to her. I couln't keep him under control in the Breed competition as he knows Opal from being with Steph to breed her mother, and really really wanted to play with her. So I let him play with Sammy, which was funny as Sammy is 3lbs if she's lucky, so he's almost twice her size LOL

It was a fun weekend. Super busy, and all early morning ringtimes, so I am pretty tired. Tobi-Dawne flies back today (Monday). She brought her camera and we both took lots of photos so hopefully in the next bit we can get them sorted through.

I admit, I was expecting to go into this weekend, maybe getting a point or two on Glory, thought we had a good chance to finish Sunny, and really just brought Neddie along because I was there. Afteer him losing to the open dogs, and knowing how he had shown in Victoria, I thought he would not do anything! shows you what I know.

Glory's Show Picture

VIDFA Show Results

We got back late Sunday night from Sat-Sun Shows in Victoria. It was a great visit! I do miss all the girls on the Island :)

Saturday was Glory's first show, of course. She had a little freak out on the table exam, so that set the tone for Ned's performance as I kind of lost my composure, so Saturday was a write off ... LOL

Sunday, a friend helped me go over Glory ringside. Glory thought she was pretty cool, and did very well on the table (right solid, no squirms at all) and took Winners over for her first point. The LC specials bitch took breed. Neddie showed well (I thought!) but still did not take Winners. Then at group both the chihuahuas took group placements, so it was really nice to see both chi's place in group!

Update

Just an update on Karin's results:

She finished all 3 of her Longcoats in Fort St John, including a terrific Group 3 placement for her girl Diva.

Diva is a full sister to my Kailey. Kailey has 3 older siblings all excelling in the conformation ring. CH Kelly finished in Canada and is now showing in Europe, CH Diva finished with her Group 3 win, and Boris is showing in South Korea, and has multiple group placements and one RBIS win.

Show News

Sunny showed again this weekend in Regina, Saskatchewan. He took 3 more BoB for 4 points, including the all important 2 point win he needs for his Championship. He now needs only 2 more single points to get his title! Thank you Tobi-Dawne!

It was a good weekend for chihuahuas. in Regina, the nice Chihuahua gang there finished one longcoat boy and another nice pup took a very nice Group 4 win. Congratulations to Rosalie, Paul and Darwin and the gang at Dragomir Chihuahuas.

I'm waiting for news from Karin on how she did at the Fort St John shows, but her friend Linda (and travelling mate) got a nice Group 3 on her Ch Daisy and a BPIG on her boy Elvis, who is another Tag son (like Neddie)!

Great weekend all around :)

Neddie, Glory and I are off to Victoria next weekend for the VIDFA shows. We are entered only two days, but are going more to visit friends. After that Tobi-Dawne meets us in Nanaimo, BC for the shows there and the Island Toy Specialty.

Puppy Plans

Phoebe has been bred to Ch Jeep. These (hopefully) will be my first puppies in 9 months. I am looking forward to having some squeakers again.

The pictures below are recent ones of Jeep (top) and Phoebe (bottom)

Sunny's Next Shows

Sunny and Tobi-Dawne were out at the Hub City Shows at home in Saskatoon, SK.

Our little guy went Best of Breed all 3 days for 3 points.... Yay! He sounds like he is having more fun in the ring now, even if that means a straight line is harder to walk... :)

Congrats to Tobi-Dawne and little Sunny... Good job you two!

Sunny's First Shows

These past two weekends, Sunny had his first shows. He is showing with our friend Tobi-Dawne on the prairies. Last weekend (April 10-12)at the Battleford shows, he was alone for Breed, so no points, but lots of practice, as they got to go in for Adult and Puppy Groups as well. No Puppy Group wins (we were hopeful!) as there was a Puppy CH Min Pin being specialed who took Puppy Group every time!

This past weekend he showed at the Edmonton Kennel Club show and the Toy Dog Club of Alberta Specialty. He took Reserve Winners at the Specialty and Winners on Sunday at the regular show for his first point. Yay!

Their next shows will be the first weekend of May back home in Saskatchewan. Good luck little guy!

... and another

Determined to single his way to his title, Ned won one more point this past weekend going Best of Winners. He took Reserve the next day, due to being a grumpy little donkey that didn't want to walk .... LOL

One More

Neddie took one more Best of Winners win Friday March 6 for one point handled by our friend Cheryl Ellis. This was the only point available from the classes, so he did good. Lots of good practice with Cheryl too.

Cloverdale Shows

This past weekend we took Neddie to Vancouver again for 2 days of shows.

Friday was much the same as last month, he didn't like the table, didn't like the judge... but I liked the competition, so did not feel bad...

But things did go better Saturday. The judge was very kind, and he stood very nice for him. He chose look at the bite last, which I think made some difference. I have learned to gait him more quickly, so he looks nicer, and does not pull on the lead so much (which makes him lifty in the front when he pulls)

We took Best of Winners Saturday for 2 points. 5 more points to go ....

I heard from Tobi-Dawne as well. She took Sunny to a Puppy Match Saturday, and he placed Toy Group #2. She thinks he is doing really well and can't wait to get out to the "real shows!"

So Saturday was a good day for my two boys!

This month Neddie will go to two shows with a trainer, Cheryl Ellis of Cherfire Collies. I hope she'll break his table habits, as he behaves much better with her. I'm such a pushover.... haha

Dogs At Play

Here are some cute videos of Butter, Kailey and Glory playing in our living room. Phoebe and Neddie are hanging out too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voz_MIHz6g0&feature=PlayList&p=5FD92ABA138CC3AD&index=0&playnext=1

Sesame

Neddie's little girl came to stay with us for a few days before going to her new home here in Kelowna as co-ownership with our friends Chris & Lisa. Her name is Sesame. She shows promise and hopefully she will grow up nice.

Sunny

Sunny left for Saskatoon on Monday, to go live with my friend Tobi-Dawne for the summer. He will start showing there in April. He left Monday, but did not make it to Saskatoon until Tuesday, poor boy! Apparently the connecting flight from Calgary to Saskatoon was cancelled as the plane needed never got there. He spent the night with an airline kennel, but arrived Tuesday in good form. He is being a good boy, and has made friends with everyone. TD can't wait to start working with him. :) Good Luck both of you! I expect lots of ribbons! Striped ones! LOL

Puppies

Some pictures of the Diamond x Neddie puppies @ 5 weeks:

Show News

Last weekend at the Ladies Kennel Club Show in Cloverdale BC, Neddie was Reserve King ... LOL. (not to be confused with some countries where "Reserve King" is a Group 2, no I mean Reserve Winners Dog)

Besides us there were 2 male puppies, 2 open bitches and a female puppy and 2 specials including the #1 SC 2008.

It has been 4-5 months since we were out, and Ned was pretty overstimulated friday, but he improved over the weekend. I thought I might have had it Sunday morning, as he got a good look over and really was presenting himself well, though he was still quite rambunctious. Poor dog just wanted to play with all the puppies! He was freestacking nicely and even trying to spar.... LOL Really thinking with the wrong head, so to speak..

He's a fart on the table, and I think it is becoming a habit, as I can put him on the table ringside and he's pretty good. Except Sunday, when he wouldn't stand on the ring side table, so I gave up, then he was his best in the ring.... go figure. He was skittish on the table at first as a puppy. Since it has become more of a stubborness issue, a simple "I don't wanna..." He doesn't love the table, but I can set him up fine ringside, or at work, or home, and have someone go over him. He leans away some, but it's tolerable. Depending on the person, and it is not gender specific, he'll stand, post a little, or lean away. In the ring, it is more exaggerated, he'll collapse his rear and lean into me. He doesn't snap, and he's not really afraid and not aggressive.

He's got what it takes to be competitive, just needs to put it all together at the right time. I am glad I saw improvement, and really want to get him to where he needs to be.

I am still nervous going in, and we feed each other. I am working all the little parts to try to minimize my affect on him. Eat properly, get lots of rest, practice a lot ringside to "work out his wiggles" be cheerful and positive, exude relax... LOL

Here is short video of Ned and I Sunday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orb_4yP_r70&feature=PlayList&p=8D2BD25E12572AE1&index=3

And the Best of Breed Judging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqcIukKmZyw&feature=PlayList&p=8D2BD25E12572AE1&index=9

Neddie has 3 points from 3 shows last summer. He has 1 Best of Breed, 1 Best of Winners, 5 Best Puppy in Breed, and a few Reserve Winners.