A Good Weekend

This weekend I finished my first dog from the bred-by class. Ava earned her last three single points to become a Champion! I even kept her in on Sunday to hold the point for the class dog, and to make sure she did indeed get all her points :)

She is my 4th champion, my 3rd cardigan champion and my 1st breeder/owner handled exclusively in the bred-by class!! This is my 4th champion in less than 2 years!

There were also health clinics for Cardiac, Thyroid, Patella and CERF.Ava and Ballantyne were done for Patella, as they had already passed the other tests. The gal doing the patella clinic told me how important it is in a herding and actively working breed such as a Cardigan to have good knees. She also said dogs that do agility should be examined.

I also heard this from the CERF, Cardiac and Thyroid vets/doctors. The cardiac doctor said the cases of bad hearts was nearly 50% of all dogs tested just 20 or less years ago and that breeders have made giant strides in their breeding programs and have made those cases now that have problems less that 10 %!! CERF doctor stressed the importance of the eye exams and that many of the genetic/heredity diseases can be bred away from. yet so many people don't do them.

There was a B Match Saturday night that Shelley and I stayed for. It sounded like a grand idea but after 13 hours of being at the show I was D.O.N.E. Margot earned a Group 4 and did extremely well on the leash and for the stand for exam. We need to work on everything but mostly with the 'showing the bite'. She did awesome at the show site with the sounds, smells, people and dogs. I also took two of Daisy's pups with as there was a potential home coming up from Milwaukee to see them. They did awesome for being away from their mom and the rest of the litter. I'm so proud of the boys :)

I also found out today that Brewer earned his first point going BOW at the show he was entered in!! That makes him the fourth puppy in the litter to be pointed. I never think any litter is good enough to have every puppy be a show puppy and finish, but glad to see that her litter had some puppies worth growing on and showing.

I wanted to thank Shelley Powers for all her help this weekend. I'm still not in a fit condition to do much and when I was getting fatigued she was there to help, even when I objected. Its much appreciated :) Also a huge thank you to Barb and Steve Peterson for allowing my dogs and myself to invade your home and eat your food and sleep in your house. I love the Duluth show because there is so much time to spend talking to friends and getting to know new ones! I'm drained each day and sometimes overwhelmed by it all but if anyone has an inkling of going to Duluth for the 4 day cluster, I highly recommend it! Plus you are literally one block away from Canal Park and dozens of GREAT restaurants and things to see and do!

Thanks everyone for a great weekend!