This page was last
updated
September 30, 2009
This page will be updated
monthly......well, we hope monthly. It will have show results,
breeding announcements, and stories about what is generally
happening at Sow's Ear and Lost Acres.
SEPTEMBER 2009
Here's hoping I don't cause
anyone to go into cardiac
arrest by updating the news
page! Two years since the last
update isn't all that long ago,
is it? They say time flies
when you're having
fun............I am having fun,
right?
So much has happened since
September of '07. Seems like
watching Masquerade go National
working terrier champion in '07
is all but a dim memory, it was
such a lifetime ago. Pretty
repeating her National win in
'08 is a memory that will never
fade with time, especially when
her daughter Smudge was puppy
champion just a few hours
before! Certainly it's a rush
to have bred the last 3 National
working terrier champions.
When it all sorts out, I guess I
can say I've had a pretty good
run.
They also say that all good
things must come to an end.
And for the most part, with the
terriers, that's probably about
where I'm at. The last year of
my life has definitely been the
most difficult, but thanks to a
multitude of incredibly good
friends who were always there
for me, I've managed to
negotiate the "little speed
bumps in the road of life", and
at this point, nothwithstanding
a pothole or two, hopefully the
road has smoothed out a bit!
I've left Sow's Ear farm behind,
and now am back in my
forever
home",
a little cedar house in Fort Ann
that I built on my father's
family land in 1977. It's
impossible to describe how
incredible it feels to be back
home again, and how at peace I
am here. The
terriers
evidently feel the same way, as
they walked into the house much
like slipping into a favorite
old shoe. It's as if they've
lived here all their lives. The
house seems to have been waiting
for almost 30 years for me to
return, and now that I have, it
has literally come alive
again. I suppose if I were to
give it a name, it would have to
be "Full Circle", as that's
exactly what I've done. The two
litters of terrier puppies here
with me now are set up in the
very same spot where I kept my
poodle puppies 32 years ago!
Revlon and Bear walk in the same
familiar woods
where I used to take the poodles
for their daily jaunts. My
dad's ashes were scattered in
and around the brook behind the
house, and on hot summer
evenings when I head down to
cool off and bathe in the brook,
I can definitely feel his
presence. Basically, this
"Copeland girl" has finally come
back home to her family land. I
really have to ask myself why
the hell I ever left in the
first place!
However, the "dilemma" I had
with this next chapter in my
life was what to do with Pretty
and Smudge. Certainly two of
the best terriers I've ever
bred, and both of whom still
have unlimited potential.
Pretty as a brood bitch and
producer, and Smudge who should
have ahead of her as good as or
possibly even better a career in
the ring than her mother
did. And if Smudge is cut from
the same cloth as her mother and
grandmother, she too will
measure up as a broodbitch and
producer. To let two bitches
of this caliber just hang out
here in the North country when
they both have so much to offer
the breed obviously makes no
sense. As a breeder the
ultimate thrill is watching
a dog you've produced reach it's
full potential. And it has
never mattered to me who helps
facilitate that, as long as the
terrier gets the recognition he
or she deserves. So I decided
to place these two bitches with
breeders that I feel will use
them wisely. Pretty is now
with Dawn and Tim Weiss of
Briar Run Jack Russells,
and Smudge has gone to live
with Gayle and Larry Grubbs of
Woodbridge Jack Russells.
I feel quite confident that both
breeders to whom I have
entrusted these bitches will do
for them as I always have. And
if they do, they'll get back
every bit as much from them as I
always did. I can't wait to see
Dawn in the ring with Pretty
puppies, and Gayle in the ring
with Smudge. More importantly,
I can't wait for them both to
get these girls back out into
the field! Which is where they
really belong!
I have what's left of my old
coots here with me, and
certainly cannot imagine my life
without terriers in it. I have
a
Bear son coming back to me
from Kathy Cook, and will be
taking a puppy back from
Smudge. Smudge is without
question the best Bear puppy
I've ever laid eyes on, and
certainly I can't let that
bloodline slip totally through
my fingers. I might be pretty
much finished with the trial
scene, but hunting is still my
favorite thing to do! I just
need the dogs to do it with! I
just lost Catcher, my ancient lurcher, and have no idea how
I'm going to hunt without her.
Bear at his age can't hold up in
the field like he used to,
though he still is amazing to
watch, considering that
he's almost 13 years of age.
Basically little Bugsy is now my
entire "toolbox"! Hopefully,
my plans to breed
Lucy, a
white Catcher x Bear daughter
back to her half-brother
Russellini
will come to fruition in the
spring, and I'll get back
something even remotely close to
that grand old bitch. Only in
white! Maybe, just
maybe, this new Bear son will be
close to his dad in the
field..........though I doubt
I'll ever see one of Bear's ilk
again. Catcher either. Those
two truly are the end of an
era. But, you never know unless
you try!
So, more than likely, it'll be
another two years before the
next news update! But god
willing and the creek don't
rise, maybe a bit sooner!
Never say never.......
|
SEPTEMBER,
2007
Wow, where did the summer go???
Seems like it was just yesterday that the weather was unbearably hot, and
now it's flannel shirts when I get up in the morning. Must be I lost track
of time somewhere amidst the canning extravaganza! This is definitely the
year of the pickle! I think I'm going to have all my friends send me
addressed, pre-paid boxes, and I'll send them all a few jars of dills and
bread n' butters!!!
Here's
what I've been doing for the last month!
I did manage to get to the Sunny
Hill trial in August, just for a day trip. I had to deliver a couple of
canaries to a friend, and also get Dorothy and the "remaining" Wizard on
their way to their new homes. They both did very well in their ring debut;
Scarecrow (aka Uncle Sam) was Reserve 4-6 Dog Pup and
Dorothy
was Best 4-6 Puppy. I got to show Pretty for Jill and Heath on
Saturday......it was like slipping into an old comfortable shoe. She was
Working champion and Masquerade was Reserve. On Sunday Pretty sat out and
Masquerade took top honors in the Working division.
It was the Masquerade and Dorothy
show again over Labor Day weekend; Masquerade was Working Terrier Champion
both days at Northgate in New Jersey, while Dorothy was in Georgia going
Best 4-6 Month puppy both days! So between mom and daughter, they pretty
much had the East Coast covered! Here's
a shot of Dorothy at the Georgia show.........she
is just a breathtaking puppy! Hard to fault this one!
The Bugsy-Bear puppies are an
awesome bunch! (see them on the right). Great personalities, tons of drive
and focus, and for having the "ugly sister" as their mother, they sure look
pretty good at this point! The dog pup reminds me so much of Bear; his
personality is to die for. Someone needs to slap me for even
thinking about keeping a dog pup! The little tri bitch is
quite a looker as well. I've decided that I just have
to put Red to Bear as well after looking at this bunch. It's exciting to
think about what the "pretty sister" might be able to produce with Bear!
Phoenix will soon be headed to his
new home in Maryland with
Sally Gay
of Easton Point Jack Russells. He still has one
remaining task here with me, and that's to breed
Ironspring Trill, who belongs to Bill
O'Brien and Rhonda Hermance. Trill however, seems to have her legs
crossed, so we're all waiting patiently for her to break. As with Pretty
and Masquerade, Phoenix is fairly close by when I want to use him, and best
of all, he will get a chance to hunt. It's a good feeling knowing all of
these guys are in great hunting homes.
So, with the end of the summer
officially here, I'm going to try and get as much hunting in as I possibly
can before the groundhogs go to bed for the winter. I'll head to Virginia
after Nationals and we'll terrorize them down there for a bit as well.
Then it's back home to get ready for the long upstate New York winters.
With fewer dogs to take care of, foxhunting is definitely on my winter
agenda this year!
JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER,
2007.......until WHO KNOWS?
By now, just about everyone is
probably wondering WHY it's been well over 3 months since the last update.
Where do I start, how do I try to explain? Ok........I'm
no spring chicken, and for those of you who go back that far and can relate,
the first thing that comes to my mind as a "preface" to this little
announcement of sorts, is a line from one of the greatest Dead songs ever, "Truckin'".
What a long, strange trip
it's been..........
I've been a "breeder" for almost 40
years, whelping out my first litter of puppies when I was a junior in high
school. For the last 20 years, my passion has been these little
white dogs, and it always will be. I've run the gamut,
from our first "sorta" correct terrier, who wasn't anything much to look at,
but hunted like hell and had a temperament that to this day is un-matched,
and taught me so much, to better terriers, who could still hunt every bit as
well as old d-Con, but looked a whole lot better. Got into the
trial scene, where I did everything with them...........racing, g-t-g,
conformation, and whatever else I could put them to. And I've
had a pretty good run. A couple of National champions along the
way, more Family class wins than I think I can count; which, by the way,
I'm more proud of than any other accomplishment, and "one or two" racing
and g-tg championships to boot. And a few bronze medallion
bitches thrown in for good measure. I've had a fabulous time with
these terriers, and have so many wonderful memories and friendships because
of them.
The hunting aspect of this breed has
always been the focal point for me; still is, and always will be; I
was so fortunate early on when I first got into serious earthwork to have
started out with the "crème de la crème" in the hunting world.
While I might not have realized it then, because I was still wet behind the
ears, I was being taught by "the best". Teddy Moritz, Linda
Cowasjee, Andy Burigo, Jose Rico, Carol Philhower, Joan LaPlace, Charlie
Sauter.............and countless others who have been there from the get-go,
and to this day, are still the standard by which hunting is
set~~particularly Teddy. What I have learned from them I can't
even begin to explain. But I'll be forever grateful for them
sharing their knowledge and experience with me. There is nothing
in this world as rewarding as watching these little white dogs do what they
were bred to do! Because of the knowledge that they all freely
and willingly gave me, I'm now able to do in the field what I do with my
terriers. And while I'll always walk in their shadows, I'll do
it proudly. When it comes to mentors, for sure I selected from the
"top shelf". Sometimes, you just luck out.
Lately, for me at least, and perhaps
it's just because I'm old and jaded, the atmosphere at the trials just isn't
what it used to be, and I was finding it increasingly more and more
difficult to have a good time. Having spent many, many years in
the kennel club, I was enamored with the relaxed, informal and friendly
atmosphere here when I first started showing, and for me, it was a
refreshing change of pace. And I truly did enjoy it so much.
But as of late, that seems to have changed quite a bit, and there are times
when I'm left scratching my head, wondering why that same friendly, informal
atmosphere is no longer anywhere to be found. It's always been
about the these little white hunting dogs........or it should be, in my
opinion. Nowadays it's more about ribbons than anything else.
In the field, at the end of the day, it's not someone's subjective opinion
that matters, but what your terriers did or didn't do.
So, after Nationals last year and
the thrill of taking Pretty to a National championship, I came home and had
to really do some serious soul-searching. (maybe my tent being
blown away on Friday was a "sign"???) I just wanted to take a step
back, get back into some other things that I haven't had time for in years
and years because I was constantly on the road heading to a dog show
somewhere, and really just do what it is I love to do with these dogs, and
that's HUNT. Yet I had some pretty nice terriers that really
still had better things to do than just hang around here and gather dust.
In my area, the holes are
SMALL............and anything over 12 inches, or even a bit smaller, has a
tough time getting to the groundhogs as quickly as they need to.
(why do you think Teddy abandoned the Russells early on in favor of the mini
Dachshunds???) I have two awesome little hole dogs, Twiglet and Bugsy,
who are both only 10 1/2". Even though Phoenix, Masquerade and
Pretty are awesome in the field, they just can't get there as quickly as the
wee ones. Consequently, I found myself hunting just the hole
dogs as a team with Bear and my old lurcher bitch as the locating/draw dog
duo, and the rest of the terriers hardly ever hit the ground.
Why try to let a 12" or 13" bitch try to stuff herself down a hole when a 10
1/2" bitch can do it way more quickly??? That's a no-brainer.
But, to let two bitches of Pretty
and Masquerade's caliber sit around doing nothing when they both are at the
pinnacle of their careers didn't make any sense either. Phoenix,
because of his coat, is just too much to keep groomed for the show ring, but
certainly he is capable of siring some very nice puppies. So I
made the really tough decision to place them with someone else where they'd
be hunted and shown, as opposed to keeping them here and doing not much of
anything with them. Pretty and Masquerade are both with Jill Goodman
and Heath Ogburn in Maryland; here's a link to their website:
http://www.musclerussell.com
I hunted with Heath and Jill recently and they have access to land that is
teeming with quarry! You can bronze a
terrier on just one farm! And their holes are much bigger.
Both girls are in heaven as they get out pretty much every weekend in the
field, and they'll also get to the trials as well. I feel very
good about where these girls are; Jill and Heath have a beautiful set-up and
devote every waking moment to their terriers. They're in very good
hands. I'll take some puppies back from both bitches at some point;
both Pretty and Masquerade had lovely bitch pups in these last litters.
Pretty's bitch pup is awesome;
here
and
here are a couple of shots of her. And
"Dorothy"
is no slouch either!
I haven't placed Phoenix as
yet; ideally I'd like to do the same with him as with the girls; place him
where he's not too far away, as I do want to retain stud rights on him, and
would like to see him go to a hunting home. His
coat is just too much to keep up with, at least in my opinion.
It's much easier to just give him a buzz cut with the clippers!
He will pretty consistently downsize his puppies, and fortunately, they
don't
all end up with his plethora of coat! Check
the
Available
page for more photos and information.
So, I've got all my old coots here
with me, and the two little hole dogs. I'm keeping Reflection's bitch
pup by Phoenix; her name is
Spawn.
I'm just IN LOVE with her personality and attitude! And after
what I went through trying to keep her alive after she was whelped, I
was already hopelessly attached to her anyway. She too is going to be
tiny, and looks to have a ton of prey drive at this point. Just
ask the chipmunk that lost half his tail to her when she was only about 6
1/2 weeks old!!! I bred Bugsy to Bear, hoping for another bunch of
awesome hunters; I was worried that Bear might be finished as a sire
because of his age, but Bugsy gave me 3 girls and a boy, so I guess Bear is
still kicking! Poor little Bugsy couldn't even get the two white
bitch pups out by herself, their heads were so big!
Here's
a shot of the Bear cubs at two weeks.
At this point, any updates will
probably be more hunting related than anything else, although there will be
an occasional puppy or litter coming back from bitches who I co-own with
other breeders. Summer is in full swing, and within another
month I'll be in the kitchen canning from dawn until dusk, trying to keep up
with everything coming out of the garden. Breeding season is
over for the canaries, but I still have about 15 birds, so cage cleaning is
a big part of my life as well! But, when it all shakes out,
cleaning bird cages is WAY easier than setting up tents and ex-pens!
I've become rather fond of quiet weekends at home or out hunting with
friends.........instead of on the road, and almost always missing
"cliffhanger Fridays" on GH!!! Maybe, just maybe, I can get a
few more years out of my old Tahoe at this rate!
I'm not quite done yet, but I'm
taking one hell of a sabbatical!!!
JANUARY - MARCH, 2007
So much for me being ready for
spring! Guess THAT didn't happen! On January 15th,
the worst ice storm in memory hit the Northeast. We've had bad
ones before, but this was the mother of all ice storms.
Conveniently (for him!) Paul had left the morning of the storm for a
veterinary convention in Florida, so he got to dance around the Magic
Kingdom while I was back here, without power for over 36 hours, trying to
keep myself, the dogs and the canaries from freezing to death.
Generators are a good and wonderful thing, but they still need to be fed
every 4 hours around the clock. You haven't lived until you get
to trudge outside at 2 in the morning and gas up generators.
Without falling on the ice and killing yourself. Finally,
power crews from all over the Northeast were brought in, and as usual, we
were about the last to have power restored almost 3 days later.
You can see are a few photos of my "winter wonderland"
on the right. Stunning to look at, but cleaning up the damage was unreal.
Most of it is still out there, waiting for the last of the winter snows to
melt.
It didn't get better either.
We got a huge snowstorm about a month later that dumped almost 3 feet on us.
But, look on the bright side, at least we don't live near Watertown, on the
TugHill plateau, where they got almost 11 feet before it finally stopped.
Living here in the Northeast is always a challenge during the winter months.
But why anyone in their right mind would live on the fringe of a Great Lake
is beyond me! There's snow...........then there's lake-effect
snow!!!
Spring finally seems to have arrived
though, despite some record-low temps for the month of March.
Can't remember when I saw temps of almost 10 below in the month of March.
I have this overwhelming desire to pack the dogs up and drive to
Pennsylvania and murder that stupid groundhog in his sleep!
Would be the very last time he saw his (or anyone else's) shadow!!!
Baby season is now in full-swing.
They're coming out my ears. Mostly of the feathered variety though.
I spend more time these days tending to the canaries than I do taking care
of the dogs! I see a greenhouse and aviary in my
future.........
It's so much fun watching the chicks
hatch and grow. A couple of shots of a recent
clutch can be seen on the right, as you can see, there are a couple of
"Sow's Ear" birds in the mix! Already some of the first
babies are twittering, and listening closely as their fathers teach them how
to sing. While cage cleanup is laborious, the floors under the
cages stay pretty clean, thanks to the terrier cleanup crew!
There are some babies of the canine
sort as well. Masquerade whelped her litter on March
27th..........3 boys and 1 girl. She was bred to Oz, so of
course this bunch has been dubbed "Dorothy & The Wizards"!
My only dilemma here is trying to sort out who is the Scarecrow, who might
be the Tin Man, and just who is the Cowardly Lion! Dorothy
I can always put in pigtails..........but the rest of them will have to
follow the Yellow Brick Road. With these very distinctive
markings, there should be no problems sorting them out!
Reflection and Pretty were both bred
to Phoenix, and are both in whelp. Poor Phoenix was definitely
getting a workout! He had no sooner finished with his own
bitches, when Bill & Rhonda's bitch, Ironspring Trill,
came in and he had to accommodate her. Then, the following week,
he flew to Colorado to "vacation" with Bob & Susie Mullins, as their bitch
Mandy has unusual heat cycles and I decided it might be easier to send the
stud dog to the bitch. So, the little man is currently enjoying
the weather west of the Rockies for a bit. Since all that's
going on back here presently is mud season, he might just stay out there for
awhile and enjoy life, and take in a terrier trial. He had no
sooner arrived when Shelley Taylor's bitch Tart broke, so she had to be sent
to Denver instead of getting to experience the great white north.
Which probably worked out well, since we had had yet another cold snap that
week, and the temps back here the day she was shipped were well below zero!
Shelley was lucky that he was west of the Mississippi when Tart finally
decided to uncross her legs!!!
I shipped him out in full winter
coat, as the temps here were pretty low, but Susie just had this burning
desire to strip him down to underwear. I told her to knock
herself out, since all I had planned to do was give him a buzz-cut with the
clippers. On the right is a shot of
him in their back yard on squirrel watch shortly after being stripped "nekked
as a jaybird". As usual, he's working undercover as a Dalmation;
it's incredibly easy to infiltrate the Jack Russell ranks virtually
un-noticed wearing this clever disguise.
Other than waiting for puppies, the
big activity here right now is spreading straw over the ever-increasing mud
wallow that is my front yard. The dogs have to be dunked
and towel-dried before getting in the dining room door, and despite all
efforts to clean them up, I still feel like I'm sleeping at the beach each
night when I crawl into bed. Ugh. And we
haven't even gotten to the "April showers" portion of the season yet.
Soon, it HAS to get better!
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2006
Well, this is going to be short and
sweet! Not much happening at all, save for the holidays and all
the preparation involved with them. I think I set a record this
year for how quickly the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers were used up.
I was making turkey soup less than a week later!!! It was a bit
different with the Christmas ham though......I didn't get to the lentil soup
phase until almost 2 weeks afterward. But there was no way one
speck of an Oscar's ham was going to waste!
All that can be heard this time of
year is the sound of coats growing! Don't know why the dogs feel
as though they need winter coats; so far the weather has been so
ridiculously mild that even the plants and critters are confused.
The terriers must know something however........Bear looks like a yak, and
Phoenix is so hairy that he was mistaken for a Westie last week when someone
came to visit with the dogs! Both Bear and Phoenix have a pair
of clippers in their future......it's just too difficult to hand-strip them
any longer. Maybe that's why I got back into breeding my
canaries.......there's SO MUCH LESS grooming
involved!!
The Moth puppies all went to their
new homes;
Pickle and
Rebel
are with Shelley Taylor, and
Vinnie
is living with Toni Kosderka. I'm looking forward to
watching these kids grow up. Have to admit though, that I sure
don't envy Shelley...........she's going to be spending more time on coats
than a professional groomer! In fact, after a few months of
keeping up with those coats, she will be a
professional groomer! Ha ha.
It seems like all the bitches have
their legs crossed........both Masquerade and Reflection were due in over a
month ago; usually both girls are always right on time.
Masquerade might have just broken; with her frustrating silent
heats it's hard to tell. Reflection however, is still holding
out. Other people are seeing the same thing
though..........quite possibly the unusual weather has something to do with
it as well.
So, unless I can manage to sneak
away for a bit and do some winter hunting, there's not much on the agenda
now other than waiting for puppies to arrive and cleaning canary cages!!!
Don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready for spring!
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
2006
Time flies when you're
having fun, huh? The Northgate trial seems like
it was an eon ago, and about the only thing I can remember about the
trial was Ernesto.......nothing like showing dogs in a hurricane!
Only die-hard terrier people would be stupid enough to put up tents
and race in the middle of a hurricane..........but we did.
Plenty of people lost tents, and if it weren't for the generosity of
Doug and Sue Tack going the extra mile to rent a huge tent for the
conformation ring, we would have had to show in it as well.
Sunday was much better, and the sun came out, but plenty of people
still got stuck in the mud, including those who had 4 wheel
drive!!! Here's a shot of Doug having to pull a
big SUV out of the quagmire that used to be his field!
As for the race track, we never lost our sense of humor........check
out June Linstrum, our Racing Nazi, all decked out
quite appropriately for the weather conditions!
The remainder of September
was spent trying to finish off canning up what was left in the
garden, and of course trying to keep ahead of coats as the fall
weather started to move in. I sure hope the rate of coat
growth on the terriers isn't an indicator of the winter to
come..........if so, we might be in trouble. It was next to
impossible to keep ahead of coats! Now, the wooly bears
say it's going to be a fairly mild winter; guess we'll see who's
right before too long!
October started off with yet
another disaster with Moth, who is Pretty's
littermate. She had been bred back to Sparky again in
early August, but about a month into her pregnancy, she had to be
treated for lyme disease. Moth was so bad that she was
nearly paralyzed behind; but within 2 days of being put on
antibiotics, she was back to her old self. The question
was what, if any, effects would the medications have on the puppies.
She whelped out another "herd"
of 8 puppies on October 5th, and once again, they were a very
consistent lot. Everyone was fine until we did tails and
dews at 5 days, and that evening they started to crash and burn.
One by one they broke with raging diarrhea, and the poor babies did
nothing but cry non-stop. It was horrible. We
started them on clavamox and kaopectate, trying to cover all the
bases, but still ended up losing 3 of them. We sent
tissue samples off from the first puppy that died, and it came back
an intercoccal bacteria, which "can be fatal to neonates".
Yep........I'd say so! But the clavamox and kaopectate
kicked in and the remaining 5 seem to be doing quite well.
The little tan & white bitch, who is already
free-stacking and is my favorite, has enough coat to keep 3
professional groomers busy! Still, this poor Moth seems to
have a black cloud hanging over her head that just won't go away!
After one last racing
warm-up at the Farmcliff fun day, it was time to start
packing for Nationals. We arrived early on Thursday, and
had the entire afternoon to leisurely set up tents, tables, etc.
Boy, was
that a huge mistake! On
Friday afternoon as the rain cleared and the cold front moved
through, the winds kicked up and basically everyone who had a tent
set up lost it. Except I lost TWO tents!!!!
The "cheapo" one initially seemed to just have flesh wounds, and I
was able to limp through the rest of the weekend with it, but by
Sunday morning it was pretty obvious that it too was trashed.
Oddly enough, I don't think anyone got any photos of the "tent
graveyard". Fortunately, I have all winter to save up
for a new one...........
It got better though!
Saturday dawned clear and sunny, and it didn't take long for the
field to dry up. I had no puppies to show, so the
morning was refreshingly relaxing and easy! Mike was
busy preparing the prosciutto and melon slices for breakfast, and I
got the meatballs and sauce going so we'd have hot meatball
sandwiches for lunch. By the time the working classes
got underway, everyone's appetites had been satisfied. Of
course, it looked a bit like a cafeteria line under the tent, but so
what? Everyone managed to pin in the working classes~~
even little Twiglet who refused to let John laugh
her out of the ring because she's so little! Her
"big" sister Red Riot was second in the under rough
working class, and Twiggy squeaked in a 4th.
Phoenix, also pinned 4th in his working dog class.
Masquerade won the Bred by Exhibitor Working Bitch class, and
even old coot Riot managed to pin 2nd in
the Veteran Working Bitch class. But, standing 2nd in
her class to the Reserve National Champion certainly wasn't too
shabby for a 10 year old! But it was Miss Pretty
whose day it was to shine; she had just gotten her certificate
on October 10th.........talk about the 11th hour!
She won the over rough/broken working bitch class and went on to be
Best Working Bitch and then was crowned the
2006 Working Terrier Champion!
Such a thrill for any terrier, but it's especially sweet when a
bitch can beat the dogs. (When utilized properly,
sometimes a little "foreign blood" isn't all that bad!!!) I
have been so smitten with this last daughter of Revlon's from
the get-go; like her mom, she never had an ugly day, but this
spring, she literally blossomed into a truly breathtaking bitch who
has had an outstanding season. And she certainly ended
it on a high note!!! I was on cloud 9 for quite some
time......not sure I've come down yet. Thus far,
Pretty sure seems to be living up to her namesake!
Both Bear and Riot
turned in respectable performances in the family classes on Sunday
morning; Bear was 3rd in Stud Dog and Riot
was 2nd in Brood
Bitch (look to right). The really old
coot
Revlon won the
Generations class,
which was pretty cool! She then had to hurry up and get
over to ring 2, where she helped Gregory Tack win the
Child Handler class!!!
And believe me, for the "Princess" to leave the comfort and
warmth of her seat in the front of the truck that early in the
morning and have to put her feet into the cold, wet grass is going
above and beyond!!!! In her opinion, at least.
While I had nothing of my own in the open classes, I did show a
couple of dogs for other people. After being in the
"class from hell" for what seemed like all day, it was such a
delight to watch Jerrilynn Cloud and her little bitch
Karenia win the biggest class of the weekend!
I wasn't sure John was going to survive the bear-hug he got from Jerrilynn and
be able to judge the rest of his classes!
Here are a couple of shots of
one very happy gal and her terrier!!!!
After Nationals we headed
back to Virginia to do some hunting. Linda had
promised the groundhogs that we'd come to entertain them.
Monday started off great.........we hunted a new property with lots
of holes, and managed to get two chucks in pretty short order with
little
Twiglet. (she might get laughed out of the
conformation ring, but NO ONE laughs at her in the field!!!)
From there we went to Troia's place, which is loaded with chucks,
but they're always deep and for whatever reason, we never manage to
get to them. In fact, as we passed through the gates to
the field, I vaguely remember mentioning something to that effect to
Charlie and Melissa
Sellers, who had come back with us to hunt.
We spotted one above ground who just stood there, sticking his
tongue out at us, and sure enough, we didn't get him.
Isn't that always the way? We moved on to another sette,
and their bitch Lil went in, bayed very briefly, and went
quiet. We tried marking her, but she was pretty busy
moving around. She finally settled into one spot, and we
had her marked at over 10 feet down. Ugh. No
baying, no nothing. Charlie tried repeatedly to
call her out.........no deal. We marked her
several more times..........same spot, no movement, no noise.
Then we tried the "leave 'em and they'll come out once they realize
they're alone" tactic.........went back to the house for a bit where
we could still see the field, had a cup of tea to warm up.
Still nothing. At this point we all pretty much
agreed that the bitch was probably stuck, so back out we went.
Cell phones were a-blazing as we tried our best to scare up a
backhoe in the surrounding area.........there wasn't one to be had
in Middleburg, Upperville, Manassas, or ANYWHERE.
So, we had to do it the old-fashioned way. There were
enough of us so we could spell each other off..........Linda,
myself, Ann Shepard, Elizabeth, Charlie and Melissa, but thankfully,
Dessi was also with us to do the lion's share of the
digging.......otherwise, I think we'd still be there.
I've seen "proper English holes" before, but
this
was ridiculous! Hell, we
could have buried a horse in that hole!!! (And there
were two right there in the field pestering the crap out of us that
almost qualified!) We had to make several "steps" down in, and
it finally got to the point where all Dessi could do was
take
a bunch of dirt with the
PHD's, hand them up to one of us up on top, then
we'd empty them and send them back down again. It was
slow, tedious work, but finally paid off almost 11 feet later when
we
broke through to Lil.
Everything had been totally quiet all the time we were
digging..........and yes, I do think there were a few worried people
there working.........but the second Dessi broke through to Lil she
started whining. The soil was pretty heavy with clay; I
tend to think that Lil had started to dig and ended up backfilling
on herself, and there was so much pressure from the soil that she
couldn't make any noise. She was pretty cold and limp
as
Dessi pulled her out, so I'm not sure how
much more time we had. I know we were running out of
daylight. But, all's well that ends well...........we warmed
her up, gave her fluids and Nutri-Cal, flushed her eyes and put her
on a heating pad, and she perked up pretty quickly. Her
only "battle scar" was a decent sized lump on the bridge of her
nose......possibly from trying so hard to get herself un-stuck.
Charlie and
Melissa headed back for Nebraska early Tuesday
morning..........not sure if they'll ever come hunting with us
again!
We got two more in short
order again on Tuesday morning, again, with the Twigmeister...........she
just slips in, starts baying, we drop a hole, and that's the end of
the story. After Bear gets his jollies from
drawing, I guess I should add. Ahh, but there's nothing
quite like the joy of drive-by hunting in Northern Virginia!!!
Spoils one for anything else!
We were so close to the upcoming
Washington International Horse Show that Ann and I couldn't resist staying
another couple of days to race the terriers. On Thursday night
we did overs...........I had Bear and Ann had Lucy. Bear easily
won the practice round, but on the first hurdle run, he DQ'd himself by
going around a hurdle (no fencing at this event.........no muzzles, no
anything. Just raw racing!) The frustrating
part was that even going around a hurdle, he STILL managed to finish lengths
ahead of the rest of the pack!!! But, Ann's Lucy was second and
collected a tidy sum of cash! Friday they did the unders, and
back we went with Riot, Banjo and Linda's Riot daughter, Revenge........who
had never raced, but managed to hold her own against a bunch of seasoned
veterans! Fortunately Riot and Banjo were in different heats, so
that took a little pressure off. Riot ended up winning the whole
thing........Banjo had won the practice round and her heat, but somehow must
have gotten turned around in the box on the final, as she just "disappeared"
off the radar screen! So it was Riot's night to shine, and
collect the cash and a certificate for one of those spiffy coats!
I was tempted to stay for Saturday night as well, but had such a miserable
cold that I just couldn't do it. So on Saturday morning,
we both packed up and hit the road for the long drive home.
So, 2006 Nationals is now just a
cluster of (mostly!) happy memories, and the holidays are rapidly
approaching. Time to start thinking about Thanksgiving dinner,
what to do for Christmas and New Years, and hope that Santa will bring me a
new EZ Up.............
AUGUST, 2006
Summer is flying by........hard to
believe that it's almost over. Seems like after all of the
soaking rains early on in the season, summer has just barely arrived.
The garden tells me otherwise though; it's tough to try and keep up
with the canning and still try to get dogs stripped out for Nationals, all
at the same time!
Phoenix is done, and I've now moved
on to the "semi-annual stripping of Bear"...........which is more
time-consuming than a pilgrimage to Mecca!
The Tri-State open trial was
fantastic, as usual. Great judges, great atmosphere, great food.
It got off to a bit of a rocky start though, when my truck tried to die on
Friday night; fortunately I was able to find a garage that replaced the
alternator at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, in the middle of NOWHERE. A
mere $350 later I was good to go! But I sure wasn't
complaining.......they got me in immediately, made sure the dogs were
comfortable while they worked on the truck, and it was finished by 9:30!!!
I got back to the trial in time to run both my dogs in hurdles!
I didn't really show all that much,
but Riot was under senior racing champion both days; Bear was over senior
champion on Saturday and reserve to Willy on Sunday. (man, this
is really becoming redundant!!!) Masquerade was Best Working
Bitch and Reserve Working Terrier on Saturday. Riot won the
veteran class both days. And little Twiglet pinned second both
days in her working bitch class! All 10 1/2 inches of her.
But by far the best class of the weekend was the lurcher class on Saturday!
Not only did Teddy Moritz (look right) bring Celtic, but
Shawn O'Neil came as well with one of his lurchers. Believe it
or not, there were enough adults in the class to make a cut! And
the best part was that each and every lurcher in that class was a Celtic
offspring! Lynne Lozano won the class with Seeker
(look to right),
Celtic was 2nd, and Looker (look to right) was
3rd. Here's (look to right) a shot of
the awesome line-up. It was really a thrill to see such a nice
bunch of working lurchers.
Mascara was able to show in the
family class on Saturday, as Lara Forchuk from Manitoba, who has one of her
puppies, showed up "unexpectedly", as she and her husband were back in this
neck of the woods hunting with Ken James, and they decided to show up at the
trial on a whim. It was like "moldy-oldies" week, with Teddy,
Shawn, Ken, Janet Sutcliffe, Carol Philhower (who was judging g-t-g) and
John Broadhurst. Really neat to have a bunch of the old-time
hunting people be able to get together again. Not only did
Mascara win brood bitch, but she went on to win Best Family as well.
Look to the right of a shot of the very, very tight group!
On Monday after the trial, we all
met Shawn in Pine Island to hunt. Mandy Johnson and her husband
Scott were back for their annual vacation here in Saratoga so they could
play the ponies, and we also had Mark Gwilt, the foreign judge, come along
with us to hunt. And Jose met all of us so we had a working
judge should we need one. Turned out to be a wise decision too, as
little Red Riot ended up underground for well over 2 hours, in what turned
into the dig from hell!!! She worked the chuck initially for
about 30 minutes, and he was ALMOST ready to bolt, but just wouldn't come
out of the hole, no matter how long we waited.........standing there with
Bear and Looker ready and waiting. Finally, after about 20
minutes of a Mexican stand-off, we decided to try and put Bear in really
quick, and maybe he could snatch it. Handler error.......the
chuck was able to pop back in around a tight turn, (which is why Red
couldn't get to him.....) and then the next 2 hours were spent dropping 4
holes........each and every one of them almost 5 feet deep, in really hard
soil, to finally get to this thing that Shawn had declared the "master of
backfilling". When we finally did get to it, there was a huge
rock that we just couldn't budge, and of course it was behind and around the
corner........poor Bear tried his best to draw it
(look to right),
but each time he'd tug, he'd smash his head against the rock.
Finally, after about 20 minutes of trying, Bear had done enough damage so we
were able to pull him and one of Shawn's lurchers (
look to right) was able to get in and draw it out. But not
before poor Mark, who is NOT accustomed to our heat and humidity over here,
almost went down for the count.........along with Bear! We went
through every bottle of water and sparkling water in the cooler, to the
point where I was draining the ice water out of the cooler for everyone.
But, we got Mr. Chuckles, and it was pretty obvious that this one had been
around for a while..........it was way bigger than little Red, who never
left the earth for almost 2 1/2 hours! She earned her
well-deserved NHC. Poor Scott had blisters all over his hands
from digging, but was pretty happy nonetheless. This was his and
Mandy's first hunting certificate, and the first one is always pretty
special.
Here
is a of the beaming group afterward, and a shot of the entire
rag-tag gang
after we got back to the vehicles for some lunch and refreshments!
It was a really fun day with some great hunting people.
Barely back from Tri-State and
Catcher delivered her litter of "Rustler" puppies on August 12th.
Surprisingly, they look pretty big, considering that their sire is a "tiny"
Jack Russell! Three boys and three girls.............and one of
the bitch pups is all white!!!! Needless to say, she's the
one I'll be looking to keep; but that decision will be based on who has the
best nose............so these puppies are going to have to pass the
"trailing and locating" class before I make any decisions at all!
There's a brindle male who is just stunning; the rest are merles, like
Catcher, with the exception of the white bitch. Their heads are
huge compared to Catcher's other puppies, and they look to have quite a bit
of bone as well. Could be quite an interesting and useful cross.
But only time will tell how this group matures.
Here's
a shot of them at 9 days.
With summer quickly drawing to a
close, it's off to Northgate over Labor Day weekend to show naked dogs, then
get the rest of the garden squared away and prepare for Nationals, which
will be here before I'm ready! I may not even get time to do an
update before then........in another 3 weeks, I'll be spending every waking
minute trying to keep ahead of a litter of lurcher puppies!
Thank heavens they can stay outside this time of year!
MAY-JULY, 2006
I've resigned myself to the fact
that there just isn't time to do monthly updates any more!
So.......picking up where I left off. The Yankee trial
was another good one; Riot was the under senior racing champion both
days; Bear was over senior champion on Saturday, and Reserve to Willy
(what else is new.....) on Sunday. The girls also did well
in the conformation ring; Masquerade was Reserve Working Champion on
Saturday and won the show on Sunday.......Riot was Best Veteran on
Saturday in Ring 2.........but by winning that class, she knocked her
good buddy Banjo out of the competition for Veteran High Point
terrier.........so on Sunday, Riot sat out the conformation class and
Banjo snagged the Veteran High Point award! Hey, what are
friends for?
On Sunday Lynne Lozano was able
to make the trial and the little Sparky-Moth pup, Lost Acres Eternal
Flame, breezed right through her first time in the ring and had no
problem winning Best 4-6 Puppy.
Here
she is strutting her stuff.
The Rescue trial in Maryland in
June was nothing short of awesome for everyone. We sat out
the racing on this one, and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be
able to "sleep in" until 6 each morning, get up, do dogs, shower, have a
leisurely breakfast, and arrive at the trial site at a decent hour in
the same set of clothes that I planned on showing in!
I could get used to this! Little Flame was Reserve 4-6 Puppy
on Saturday, more than likely because the grass was so high in the ring
that she rather looked more like a bunny rabbit than a terrier when she
moved.........after the 4-6 classes were finished Dessi requested that
they get out and mow the grass so he could properly evaluate movement.
Things improved considerably after the grass was a manageable height,
and on Sunday
Flame
captured Best 4-6 Month Puppy. Masquerade had a
repeat performance of Yankee, going Reserve Working on Saturday and
winning the show on Sunday. Pretty however, was the shining
star, winning Open Champion both days amidst tough competition.
Classes were huge and the quality was excellent, but Pretty is now fully
mature and has blossomed into a
breathtaking
bitch.
The end of June we headed to the
Mid-America trial in Nebraska; with temperatures during the summer being
what they are, I could only take one dog as a carry-on; Masquerade broke
so Pretty won by default. She once again captured Open
Champion honors on Saturday, and at the end of the day, they held a
"Best In Trial" competition between best open, best working and best
colored, and she snagged that as well. Not only did she get
by an awesome working bitch, but also beat out two outstanding colored
dogs.
Gunner
and
Chili are both outstanding terriers; it
was an honor to be in the ring with dogs of that caliber. In fact,
Gunner is lined up right now to be the stud dog of choice for Rose when
she comes in next. I'm really looking forward to that cross.
Little Carly won her class on
Saturday and was 3rd on Sunday; Kathy of course was thrilled.
I judged racing both days at the
Nebraska trial; overall things went quite well after we got the glitches
worked out on Saturday, and now that the club members have a
handle on how we run racing as efficiently as we do back here, I think
they'll be able to breeze right through their racing each trial.
With Darlene McInnes running the board, and Kathy Cook and I at the
other end, we managed to finish up at 9:50 on Sunday
morning............much to the delight of all the conformation people
who were able to pack up at a decent hour on Sunday afternoon.
We went back to Frank's house on
Monday to see if perhaps there was another turkey vulture chick in the
closet upstairs; much to my dismay there was not. But it
wasn't a wasted trip entirely; Melissa & Charlie Sellers' bitch
"Secret Weapon" found an opossum in the roof of the front porch of
the old abandoned house;
he ended up
bailing out of the roof as Secret Weapon started to get closer to him,
looking a bit like Mark Spitz doing a dive at the Olympics, and bolted
under the floor of the porch. It didn't take the terriers
long to find him, but did take me a bit longer to pull up floorboards
one by one to get to the terriers and the now very dead opossum.
Little Carly got some good
schooling
under her belt, and Pretty was tickled pink to be
in on the action. See pictures on
right.
Probably the most "unusual"
event of June is the upcoming litter of puppies. All of
these years I have "toyed" with the idea of breeding Bear to
Catcher.........I've always considered Bear my "other lurcher" anyway;
he's my locator dog and my draw dog, and he and Catcher really are
responsible for about 95% of the quarry. Both dogs have
noses that cannot be beat. They're both pretty old now, and
I have to face the fact that either one of them are going to be hunting
with me for too many more years. And what I'm going to do
without their noses I don't know. Catcher will mark a hole
for me every bit as well as Bear or any other terrier.........she's a
lovely combination of the best of both sight and scent. So I
took the plunge and did it! Don't EVEN ASK how I did it!!!
Believe me, I should have videotaped the entire extravaganza!
I have this huge lurcher bitch on the ground to the side of the steps of
the front porch.......have Bear on the bottom step so he's up high
enough.........Paul all the while is grumbling that it's "anatomically
impossible" for this much smaller terrier to tie with this big lurcher
bitch. We tried initially on a Sunday, and no go.
On Monday Paul brings home all the AI equipment, and we're out on the
steps again the following morning.........gameplan is to get Bear
collected after he mounts the bitch. Ok, fine.........I'm
trying to get to that point, when all of a sudden I realize that he's
actually tying with her!!!! I'm yelling at Paul to
hold that bitch still and don't let her move!!!!
when he promptly announces that he has to get in the shower or he's
going to be late for work! (he
hates it when I'm right!) So here I am,
holding this lurcher, trying to prop Bear up with my shoulder to keep
him from falling off, and the poor dog is wondering just what he's
gotten himself into! So was I............
At any rate, we've palped her
and she's definitely in whelp. What I'll end up with
is really anyone's guess..........more than likely a smaller, more
compact lurcher that hopefully can be a great draw dog and fast enough
to get them when they bolt. More importantly, if I can get
something with the incredible noses that both parents have, I'll be a
happy camper indeed. Now I just need to figure out
what to call them............can't decide if they should be "Lurchettes"
or "Rustlers"!!! Ha ha.
And, there is also some bad news
to start off the month of July with, unfortunately. At
the end of June, I got a call from Lynne telling me that there was
something wrong with Flame........she was lame behind and seemed to be
in quite a bit of pain. Lynne has so much going on with
their upcoming move and their house on the market, that she couldn't
make it up here with the puppy, so had to take her to the local vet down
where she's located. To make a long story short, she went
through 3 veterinarians and no definite diagnosis, before finally
watching this puppy deteriorate to the point where she barely had any
rear end left at all.........then fortunately, got her in to be seen by
an excellent neurologist and also an orthopedist.
Flame has been diagnosed with discospondylitis, which is a pretty severe
spinal infection. It's caused by an infection that starts
somewhere else in the body, then becomes systemic and settles into the
soft tissues adjacent to the vertebrae. It could
be any number of things.......an abscessed tooth, a bladder or urinary
tract infection.......but once it gets into the spine, you're in
trouble. Flame is on heavy-duty antibiotics, and at this
point they're waiting for the results on the cultures to see if she
needs to be switched to something other than what she's on now.
My guess is that because of her rocky start in life, she more than
likely has an immune system that's less than what it should be, and that
might have contributed to her not being able to fight off the initial
infection. The neurologist has given a pretty optimistic
prognosis for recovery..........I sure hope he's right, because she's
such a lovely puppy and it's just awful to see her in such pain and
barely able to climb the stairs. But, she's a fighter, and
has been from the get-go.........she needs to stay as tough as she's
always been and beat this one too. She might be tough,
but I don't think she's out of the woods quite yet.
So, with the summer already more
than half over, we're all thrilled to be getting out to hunt.
We've found a new farm down near Millbrook that looks like it will keep
us in groundhogs for the entire season! I've been out
once with Carol Philhower, and the chucks were everywhere!
We only managed to get one though, as they haven't done the second
cutting yet, and the grass is so deep that even the lurchers can't see
them when they bolt. One actually went about 20 feet up a
tree and sat there with this incredibly smug look on his face.
He must have known that I had no bullets for the little pistol I carry
in my pack. That's ok.......as soon as they hay those
fields, I'm going back with my lurcher team from hell, and it's gonna be
payback time! He who laughs last.........
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Ice Storm
Ice Storm
Ice Storm
Chicks
Chicks
Masquerade Litter
Trill
Phoenix
"Pretty"
2006 JRTCA National Working Terrier Champion
Doug Tack
June Linstrum
Moth's Herd
Moth's T/W Bitch
Twiglet
Phoenix (M. Photo)
Riot (M. Photo)
Bear (M. Photo)
Riot (M. Photo)
Below: The "Dig After
Nationals
(Disclaimer: Webmaster takes no responsibility and did NOT measure
the "real"
Depth of the Hole
Celtic
Seeker
Looker
Line Up
Best Family
Drawing
Shawn's Lurchers
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