First Dog Shows

Well, Spring went to her first dog shows this past weekend. 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Fitchburg Mass. The first time in the building was a little overwhelming, but with treats and an upbeat attitude she was soon her happy, confident self.

Day 1 was Dr. DiNardo who gave her Winners Bitch for her first breed points. She stood her her exam like a champ, but trotting with another dog in front was WAY exciting. When it came time for Best of Breed with several dogs in the ring I don't think she had all 4 feet on the ground but about half the time. Guess we need to work on that! At least she was happy and just wanted to run and play!

Saturday we lost of our wonderful sisters Lucy and Jenna.

Sunday we were second in our class and then went back in for Reserve Winners - kind of like being First Runner Up at the beauty pagent.

The other great news is that half-sister Jenna finished her AKC Championship title in great style on Saturday and then was Best of Opposite Sex on Sunday. Wonderful weekend for her owner and handler Dawn!

Cuddledown Cover Girl

Patch Mountain and Blackthorn Dalmatians were thrilled to see that the winter 2010 Cuddledown Catalog front cover featured one of our puppies, Patch Mt Spring Thyme at Blackthorn, "Spring", owned by Sara Pruyne (Ch Patch Mt's About Time CD, TD, RE, NAJ, OA, VCD1) x (Am/Can Ch Blackthorn Coreopis of PatchMt TDX RN NA NAJ CAN TDX). I was conacted about using some of my Dalmatians in a photo shoot this fall and we took 3 of our adult Dals and puppy Spring. Cuddledown has a new line of bedding called Walk in the Park that they were introducing this winter and wanted a front cover shot with a Dalmatian. They took lots of photos of our dogs in groups and separately lying and sitting on their high end bedding. We were not sure which photo they would end up using but are pleased that it was "Spring". I must admit she was the star of the photo shoot!

Linda McSherry

Take Your Dog to Work Day

One of the advantages of being a year round employee at a high school is how quiet things are during school vacations. While I have to work over the holidays, it is a great opportunity to get caught up on all those little things - like filing - I would rather put off. And, because things are slow, I get to bring Spring to work with me. Here she is in the office keeping herself occupied with a beef knuckle bone. She gets to meet and greet those few visitors I do get, and visit with kids coming into the school for winter sports. Its all about confidence building.

Almost makes being 1 of 2 secretaries in the building during this week worthwhile.

Tracking Certification in the snow

I'm very pleased to report that yesterday, December 19th, was a great tracking day in Gardiner Maine!

Mary Thompson and Celeste Kelly made the trip to the fields that are part of the Gardiner Family Land Trust. Judy Hermon has been very forunate to be able to obtain use of these fields for tracking, and this was a first attempt to plot realistic tracks. The snow was about 4 to 6 inches deep, with several places only having a slight dusting. Temps were around 30, with only a slight wind towards the end of the third track. The main entrance road was not open, so only the front fields were used. Lots of untouched fields further back and further up the road.

To PASS their certifications were:

Dalmatian - Lucy - Patch Mt's Legend in Time - owned and run by Linda McSherry. Lucy looked around while Linda was putting her harness on as in wondering what they could possibly be doing there - in the snow! Linda stuck to her normal start routine, scented Lucy at the start flag, and then held on to the line for a dash down the track. At the corners Lucy would do a 10 foot circle, hit the track and pull Linda down the new leg. Linda said she had way over dressed for the romp across the fields.

Next up was Golden Retriever - Brian - owned and run by Judy Hermon. Prior to the start Judy kept say the those things that her instructors had told her - be firm, keep your bearings, go forward when he says to, be positive! Again, a good start routine and Brian committed to the track and pulled Judy down the leg. Brian was very methodical, moving the whole track at a good, fast walk and never hesitating or missing a corner. At the glove Judy was out a breath and so thrilled that all her hard work and training paid off with a dedicated tracking partner.

Last to go - Dalmatian - Spring - Patch Mt's Spring Thyme at Blackthorn - owned and run by Sara Pruyne. Spring is just 6 months and 2 weeks old and showed her puppy training curves at times. She would charged down the track for 60 yards, come back to check in, sniff the tufts of grass, and then zoom down the track some more. When on the track she would bury her complete head in the footsteps, as if she couldn't get enough of that good smell. A couple of crosstracks by hikers and loose dogs only caused her a slight hestitation, casting a few feet on either side of the track, then to charged across the path and down the correct leg of the track. The wind had started to pick up at this point, and she worked out where the real scent was, learning lessons as she went. At the glove she even laid down in the snow! Good job Baby Girl.

Thank you Mary and Celeste for having the faith that we would actually practice in the snow and that our dogs were ready for their certifications. And these fields will give the Club an opportunity to have tests in other areas of the state. Wait until they can come back in the spring and see all the great possibilities for TD and TDX tracks.

A special Thank You to Judy Hermon for hosting us and being such a successful student!

Oh - did I mention that the 2 Dalmatians are granddaughters of CT CH Carina? Tracking must be in those genes!

Happy Birthday

Well, yesterday the puppies were 6 months old. Time sure does seem to fly.

Here is Spring modeling the leather harness made by Ed Presnell. Her picture and the harness should be up on his website - Pawmark.com - in the near future. While he sells a great line of nylon harnesses and lines, I do love my leather harnesses. This was a prototype, so I'm not sure what changes will be made to the final product. Now let's hope the weather continues like it is so we can practice some more.

What great weather for the end of November! Linda and I were able to get in some tracking using our favorite fields.

I had a chance to talk to the land owner's son-in law and he graciously said that the recently posted No Trespessing signs certainly did not apply to us! During hunting season he has some issues with people taking advantage of the situation but knew that we always respect their property, pickup any trash we do find, never leave a trace we were there and stay out just before they are ready to hay. A little respect goes a long way in building good neighborhood relationships.

Hopefully Spring and Lucy will be able to get "certified" for tracking before the snow flies, otherwise we will have to wait until after the winter snow melts.

End of Year Progress Report

Well, it looks like we are about done showing for the year. Although there are shows in December they have moved them from Boston to Rhode Island and that is just a bit too far just before the holidays. However, we did end up with a VERY successful year.

Carina - CT CH PatchMtn C Pepper N Paisley RE OA OAJ NF NJP NAP RD CPC PAC
Passed her Variable Surface Tracking test to earn her Champion Tracking title
Qualified in 3 straight runs to earn her Novice Preferred Standard Agility title
Qualified in 3 straight runs to earn her Novice Preferred Jumpers with Weaves title
Qualified in an Open Jumpers run to earn her Open Jumpers with Weaves title
Qualified in an Open Preferred Standard and Open Preferred Jumpers with Weaves to start on that title

Corey - Am/Can CH Blackthorn Coreopis of Patch Mt TDX RN NA NAJ Can TDX
Qualified in Novice Jumpers with Weaves to earn his title
Qualified in an Open Standard to start on that title
Earned 2 Rally Advanced legs toward that title

and for Linda
Maeve - CH Patch Mt's About Time VCD1 OA
Qualified in Open Standard to finish her title
Qualified in 2 runs towards her Open Jumpers title
Qualified in her first Excellent Standard run to start on that title
Most important - Maeve's agility runs have all been clean runs!
AND - she took a big part of the year off to have a litter of wonderful puppies sired by Corey

Violet - Am/Can CH Blackthorn Violet of PatchMt TD NA NAJ Can TD
Passed her Tracking Dog test for her title
Qualified in Novice Jumpers with Weaves to finish that title
Qualified in 2 Open Jumpers with Weaves to start on that title

Lucy - PatchMt
Earned all single points necessary towards her Championship title, several with Best of Winners awards.

And several dogs either bred by us or co-owned have also done equally as well.

Daisy - CH Blackthorn's Flower Power - came back from having a litter of puppies to go Best In Speciality at both of DCSNE's shows, had several more Best of Breed wins and numerous Group 1 wins.

Jenna - coowned by Linda and Dawn Eliot-Johnson was Winners Bitch at Southern New England Speciality for her first major.