3 months later...lots of updates.

Where has the summer gone? I'll tell you where! I've been transporting sheep across the country!!! Since my last check in, I have only been to TWO DOG SHOWS! The North Star Herding Group Specialty weekend in Lake Elmo, Minnesota and the NorthWestern Cardigan Fancier's Specialty weekend in Richland, Washington!

The weekend of the NSHGC Specialty Brewer was Best of Opposite Sex two days and Select one day, while Libby (#1 Cardigan in the breed this year) was BOB all three days. Campbell was WB/BOW two days and RWB one day. Campbell now has 10 points and needs both majors to finish. Brewer is at 19 GCH points with 5 majors and 2 singles (a special was pulled one day, breaking the GCH major) and I think they'll both finish easily, just need some more coat.

Richland was fun! I got to see Pilot go BOB for the 2nd year in a row at the Specialty. Nash, Brewer's half brother was Select that day too and he and Flyer (another Pilot son) helped earn Pilot 1st place in Stud Dog too. Ava and Brewer showed that day and showed well, just out of coat and in the presence of some nice dogs. Pilot was Select the other two days and Ava didn't show the rest of the weekend. Brewer was out of coat but showed well. The judges sure seemed to appreciate his goofy self.

Other than that, the dogs have been coming and going. Staying with friends, other dog homes and family situations. I'm not in a position to take them all to classes so it was fun to have them all on little vacations.

Ell was in Oregon for the summer and while out there, earned her STDs (started trial dog - sheep) and one leg towards her STDc (started trial dog - cattle).  She will be trialing at the National Specialty in Arizona in March/April with AKC titles so fingers cross for that.

The breeding with Ava didn't take as she was only in heat for 7 days. I'm not sure if she'll be coming in again on schedule or if she'll wait 5+ months again to come in. In the mean time Ballantyne is awaiting her suitor out west so she may be having pups before Ava.

let's see. Oh yes.

While in Oregon I got to see Brewer's first litter of pups. There were 8 originally and I was able to get photos of three of them while out there. A fouth that Denise and I thought was pet quality was a hit at Richland and everyone wanted to see the three we left behind as they loved this little girl and couldn't believe she was pet quality. So that was nice to hear.

This was the boy we all liked best. His name will be Toshay's Samuel Adams. There is a lot to like about him.

 Below is Toshay's Stella Artois' front and profile photos. A lovely bitch with a lot of promise.

 And the boy below you can see is also a nice boy but no one was looking for a boy, so he went to a pet home. Better to be loved in a pet home than sitting around waiting for a show home.

All in all Brewer and Amy did a good job. Denise said they were a consistent litter and Brewer stamped nice level top lines, length, bone, 'pretty' and great head pieces on them. I can't wait to watch them grow up. In the meantime Brewer has a few other ladies waiting in the wings to serenade and I hope that those litters will be just as nice.