Happy Birthday Chili!

Yesterday was Chili's 7th birthday! It seems like just yesterday that Chili was the tiniest little slip of a PWD puppy coming into our lives. I remember the woman that did the temperament test for the litter commenting that Chili and several of her smaller siblings looked more like kittens than puppies because they were so small.

I entered a photo of Chili in a cover contest for the Courier magazine once and here is what I said about her: "This petite PWD goes from performance powerhouse to pillow princess in the blink of an eye." The photo of Chili to the right captures her in "performance powerhouse" mode, blasting up an Oregon beach. The photo below is of Chili as a puppy at around 12 weeks old.

We love you Chili and look forward to many more years of fun and games and cuddles on the couch with you!

BTW, my friend's Dennis and Cheryl at Pics of the Litter took the adorable puppy photo of Chili.

Luke

I got to see Kilo's son Luke at the shows in Salem last weekend. Luke just turned 2 in August and hasn't had much success in the show ring yet. His Mom Kathy has done an awesome job conditioning him and raising him up to be a nice boy and Alyssa does a good job showing him. Alyssa's mom and dad Stacey and Lance Chart are Luke's breeders. Luke is a high-spirited boy, and is extremely confident and sweet. It really gets to me seeing Kilo reflected in his kids and grand-kids...

Puppies in January?

First off, let me tell you that my husband is a really great guy! Oh, he can be ornery and tells REALLY bad jokes, but he is very supportive when I need his help. He spent the vast majority of his day off on Friday running the dogs from one repro specialist to another trying to get Rebel collected so we could breed Stoker. Apparently the "vibe" was right at ICSB at 4:00 PM in the afternoon and the deed was done. We did one more breeding on Saturday for good measure and now we will keep our fingers crossed for a nice litter of pups due in early January.

On Saturday we went to a dog show in Salem and Rebel proved his mettle by earning Winners Dog and Best of Winners for two more points towards his championship. A slow-maturer like most of the dogs in his pedigree, Rebel is really starting to hit his stride in the show ring. He is more than half-way to his Championship now and has already earned one of the two majors he needs.

Yup, that is baby Ecko in the photo. She is just 10-1/2 months old and, although maybe I am a bit biased, I think she looks pretty nice. It's even a decent photo of me for a change!

Show Report

This weekend saw Stoker and Ecko entered in the Vancouver Kennel Club show. I was very pleased with the girl's performance over the two days.

On Saturday, Stoker placed 4th in a competitive open bitch class while 10 month old Ecko won best Bred-by and went on to represent the breed in the "Bred-by" Group. My friend Janet's bitch Booty (you may remember that Booty vacationed with us earlier this summer when Janet broke her ankle) took Winner's Bitch for a 3 point major. Yay Booty! Stoker's cousin Rebel earned a major reserve from the Open Dog class and cousin Sailor took Best of Breed. Her owner Martha, breeder Mandy and I had lots of fun cheering for Jessie and Sailor in group. No group placements for either Sailor or Ecko.

On Sunday, Stoker showed very well, taking a 2nd in the Open bitch class. Despite some puppy shenanigans on Ecko's part (I don't think levitation is part of the down and back...), Ecko earned her fourth major reserve in her short career. Once again, no points for the little parti-girl but she sure does get a lot of attention!

In the performance ring, my friends Evan and Carley's Cocker Twister (that's Twister's photo to the right) earned Rally legs both days to finish his Rally Novice title. Carley and Evan came by the conformation ring both days and were super helpful in holding the girls when I needed extra hands at ringside. Ecko's brother Cooper's mom Julie earned a Rally leg on Saturday with Cooper's housemate Tsuzi and then took Sunday off to do things with her family. Stoker's Aunt Bella worked nicely in Open obedience both days, but didn't manage a "Q" either day.

Cooper

Cooper came for grooming yesterday and I stalked him in the back yard for a bit with the camera to try to get some good photos. I swear the dogs always seem to know when I am trying to take photos of them and do everything they can to thwart my efforts!

After a long day of grooming and playing with Ecko and visiting cousin Mimi, Cooper went to handling class to practice being a show dog. I bet he was REALLY tired when he got home.

Go DUCKS!

Chloe's "mom" Joan sent me this photo and e-mail about Chloe: Chloe is geared up for DUCK football season! Thought you might enjoy these!
She is such a great pup! We love her to death and thankfully she seems to think that we are acceptable humans!

Any of you Beaver fans out there are welcome to send photos of your pups sporting the Beaver's colors...

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Supposedly this David Bowie song is a commentary on the compulsive nature of artistic reinvention, however it seemed an appropriate caption to head this blog entry too! I haven't posted in a long time because there have big changes afoot in my life.

Effective October 1, I am no longer a part-owner or employee at Pup-A-Razzi. The business was the center of my life for 8+ years and had a major impact on Jan as well. I had lots of good times there, met some amazing people over the years and learned an incredible amount about dogs, training, human psychology and other things. Being a part-owner and founder of Pup-A-Razzi was a life altering experience for me, but the stress of being a small business owner and the time restrictions the business imposed on my personal life just got to be too much.

I'm currently enjoying working part time at Charlton Kennels on Sauvie Island and offering in-home private dog training and PWD grooming on the days I don't work there. Lookout Dog Services is the name for my new low-key business endeavor. Hopefully these two activities will generate enough income to support the PWD pack in the style to which they've become accustomed.

My Mom and Dad came to visit in the end of September and we had a wonderful week with them. We don't get to see them nearly enough. Jan and Dad had fun golfing several times and we took a trip to the Evergreen Aviation Museum and took the dogs walking and swimming a few times while they were here. Mom and Dad are great with the dogs and even Stoker warmed up to them right away.

The photo to the right is my sister-in-law Kim with my Dad and Mom in Alaska.