Duncan, Greta's Sire, going BOB and Greta going Best Bred-By in Bainbridge, July 2010

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely picture, just a weird concept to me.  Maybe I’m the corny one, who knows!

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It took Brenna about 2 minutes this morning to realize what day it was.  She was just so excited, but when you’re 5 and a half, a trip to the bathroom is exciting, an adventure because you never know what may happen in THAT room.  Matt left yesterday to go to Maryland to the Greater Washington Saint Bernard Club’s Specialty show, so it’s just me, the girls, 4 dogs and 1 cat.  Rowan is just too young and too into herself to realize what a birthday actually is, yet I remember hers explicity, especially the pain I endured on that particular day.  So, I was off to a great start.  I had the morning off from work, I had to go buy cupcakes for myself, and the sun was shining. 

My coworkers brought in all the goodies to make brownie sundaes, which were so yummy, I must say.  Everyone wished me a happy birthday.  And 3 phone conversations later with Matt, still no mention of my birthday.  I even told him I was going out to buy CUPCAKES!!  Clueless!  Yes, because we have frickin’ cupcakes every single night here in the house…..NO!  I finally just came out and said, “Is there anything else you need to say to me today?”  And he paused.  PAUSED!!  Like he had no frickin’ clue.  And then he finally said it.  And he had some lame excuse that went like this:  “I was gonna tell you later.”  Later?  Like, tomorrow?  Next year?  When he got around to it? 

So when one of my lovely coworkers asked me what I was doing tonight, I told her I was going to clean the bathroom and call it a night.  And I think I’m going to forget that tomorrow is our anniversary and cook macaroni and cheese! 

{On a side note, Greta got 2nd in her class both shows.}

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He has hemmed and hawed over the shows in Maryland and Springfield for weeks now. Pros for Springfield: 3 day show, Jean Fournier and it’s closer. Pro for Greater Washington: It’s a Specialty Show. And so it goes, the Specialty Show won out. And she better do something because it’s on the Alpha Bitch’s birthday this year. That would be the best present ever for me! The check is going out tomorrow instead of today because Matt forgot to buy me stamps yesterday. Let’s hope they get there in time!

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Greta was entered in both Specialty shows, Friday night and Saturday night.  She was in Sweeps Saturday and entered at the All-Breed Show Saturday and Sunday. 

As I was mopping the bathroom floor Friday night (because it absolutely stunk of wet dog), the phone rings.  I’m thinking that the phone is ringing way too early for me to have any results from the show.  I pick up and it’s Donna Lee. 

“I couldn’t wait to call you.  Matt said to wait, but I couldn’t.  Greta took her class and Reserve Winner’s Bitch.  Can you believe it?  And she should go Best Bred -By.”

“Really?” I say.  I don’t think it actually sunk in.  Then it did.

“She went Reserve at a Specialty?”  And so it was true, our own Greta went Reserve with an entry of 14 Bitches!  I was just so excited!  Matt called me a little bit later to tell me that she did go Best Bred-By also.  I think I am more proud of that than the Reserve.  This is the first Saint that we have bred and showed, so it’s significantly more monumental as breeders.

She didn’t fair as well at the rest of the shows.  Bummer for her, but she is a great girl and will finish her Championship soon.  I don’t know when the next show is for her.  We did miss the Syracuse entries, sorry everyone!  

And tomorrow is someone’s birthday!  My “Man” is getting old and senile……

*I will try to get full results up soon.  There are some Saints that won that I am not familiar with.  Instead of referring to them as “So and So’s dog”, I decided to not post until I have the catalog*

~Amy D~

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This year’s National was held in Oregon.  Matt and I were unable to attend, but two of our bitches, Donna and Greta, were able to attend.  Greta was entered in all 3 shows and all 3 Sweepstakes, but did nothing.  I’ll get to that later.  Donna, who co-bred the litter that Greta is out of, is coming home with a dog…..a stuffed one that I have told her explicitly is not coming in my house.  I have enough dogs, living and stuffed, to suffice at this very moment in time, I don’t need anymore dog shit.  No pun intended.

Willamette Valley Saint Bernard Club

Sweepstakes Judge Mrs. Angela Walker

Entry 16-27

BISS: Marianettes the Fugitive. Bred by M. McShane & Liz Hillebrand. Owners: McShane, L. Kenney & L. Hillebrand

BOSS: Beric’s Arabella Entertains Talberg. Bred by B., R., & N. Nosiglia. Owners: N. Nosiglia & J. Dugger

Regular Classes Judge Mrs. Barbara A. Sarti Allen

Entry 43-65(20-10)1

WD/BW Hamlet Van Hof Ten Eynderowned by Sherry Cole-Sycora and shown by Marian McShane

WB  Benbaron’s Taboo of Yondoowned by Tiki Smith Assiya Shah, shown by Marty Glover.

BOS Ch Billion Kilowattbred by Tom and Viola Brown and William and Shirley Tsagris.  Owned by Browns and Rober Bonito

BOB Ch Cache Retreat IRSAgent, owner and bred by Ivan Palmblad and Pam Hathaway

Saint Bernard Club of America Regional Specialty

Sweepstakes Judge Mrs. Jessica Kuster

Entry 15-27

BISS Skydancer North Palasaidsbred by L. Latimer, R. Smith, M. Glover.  Owners Latimer and Glover

BOSS Marinettes The Fugitivebred by M. McShane & Liz Hillebrand. Owners: McShane, L. Kenney & L. Hillebrand

Regular Classes Judge Mrs. Janice K. Dees

Entry 42-67(20-11)2

WD Eastgate’s Fairwellbred by P. Serresseque and E. Cooper.  Owned by E. Brock and E. Cooper.  Shown by J. Dugger

RWD Stoan’s Rowdy Buck of Oz RNbred by J and S Zielinski and K.Rupert.  Owned by K and B Barkus and J. Zielinski

WB/BW  Montana Mtns Reflections of Northern Beauty bred by Brenda Swanson

RWB Revilo’s You R Cherished Smrstbred by Olivers and Valkos.  Owned by Olivers and Amanda and Gary Becker

BOS Stoan’s Rupert of Oz RN RAbred by Zielinskis and K. Rupert.  Owned by P. Wenswan and J. Zielinski

BOB Kryskara Aces are Wild bred and owned by C. and K. Wilson

Saint Bernard Club of America National Specialty

Sweepstakes Judge Mrs. Kathy Kenny

Entry 23-32

BISS Melon City Capone bred and owned by Jeff and Darcy Peterson

BOSS Cache Retreat Snow Trekbred and owned by Ivan Palmblad.  Shown by Pam Hathaway

Regular Bitch Classes Judge Mrs. Lynn Jech

Entry 97

WB Benbaron’s Taboo of Yondobred by B and T Beninger.  Owned by Milynn Smith and Assiya Shah.  Shown by Marty Glover

RWB Cache Retreat Bet The Farmbred and owned by Ivan Palmblad.  Shown by Leslie Bevins.

Regular Dog Classes Judge Mrs. Beverly Nosiglia

Entry 67

WD/BW Whoodcrest Brutusbred by J and B Bustos.  Owned by S and B Jakubowicz.  Shown by B. Bustos

RWD Marianette’s The Fugitivebred by M. McShane & Liz Hillebrand. Owners: McShane, L. Kenney & L. Hillebrand

BOS Ch Forever Treasure bred and owned by T and S Temple.  Shown by S. Temple

BOB Ch Opdyke’s Drives Me To Drinkbred and owned by G. Radcliff and C. Cataldo, shown by Cataldo

Award of Merits

Ch Forever Kryskara’s Ace

Ch Alta Vista’s Billion Kilowatt

Ch Kings Mill Lombardi

Ch Tinkerbell’s Solid Gold

Ch Sleepy Hollows Beyond the Stars

Ch Marianette’s Double Jeopardy

Best Puppy from Regular Classes Cache Retreat September Morn

Best Bred By Exhibitor Montana Mtns Keeper of the Cache

BIVS Ch Tinkerbell’s Coach’s Dundeebred and owned by Bonnie Leech and Sally Furgeson

BOSVS Ch Revilo’s Gentle on my Mind bred and owned by Bill and Diana Oliver

Congratulations everyone!  Hope to see you in Branson, MI next year!  The next dog show I will be attending is next month at the Greater Northeast Saint Bernard Extravaganza in Hamden, CT.  I won’t be rolling in until late Friday night, but I will be there!

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Matt and I have a difficult decision to make.  Not so much life changing difficult, but plan altering difficult.  You see, we have been asked to have Greta taken to the Saint Bernard Club National show in Oregon in October by Marian, who is a professional handler and proud owner of Duncan, Greta’s sire. 

Matt is very adamant to show her in the “Bred By” class himself.  He really wants to finish her out of that class.  I see his point, and it is a prestigious thing to do.  The dogs in that class can only be shown by the breeders of that particular dog.  So that would mean Matt, myself (in a pinch) or Donna (no way in hell) would only be able to show her if she were to be entered in that class.  Sending her with a handler would mean she would be in the “Open” or “American Bred” class.  As much as we would like to go out to Oregon, we just can’t swing it right now with Matt just getting back to work.  So what do we do? 

We’ve already asked Marian how much it would be and how long she would be gone.  It’s going to take 4-5 days traveling both ways with 4-5 days of being out there.  That’s not a big deal to me at all.  Can she take a kid or two also?   I meant to tell her that they don’t eat much!  She emailed Matt back and said she would treat her like her bitch Tootsie.  My eyebrow went up.  “Does that mean she gets to ride up front and lay on the couch like Tootsie?”  Matt pounded my question into my Blackberry.  Her response was no, that Greta doesn’t know how to hold her urine.  Good answer.  Because she’s not coming back home to think she’s going to lay on MY couch all day long! 

We haven’t made a decision yet.  We are leaning to the yes side as of now.  A few details still need to be pounded out.  And the advertisement that’s going to be in the Fancier is awesome!  She sent us the proofs last week.  We are just so excited about it!  I can’t publish it until the Fancier is out, sorry.  That should be in September sometime, so you’ll just have to wait!  But it’s worth it!

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Yesterday was my annual outing to the “Nango Circuit” dog show.  Yes, show is singular.  Not sure I could endure back to back dog shows right now with my kid and puppies and, well, just life in general.  The weather started off crappy.  It was damp and foggy when we got on the road.  Brenna was actually wearing a jacket and had a blanket in the car.  We set off at 6:30 am, Brenna in the back with Greta in her crate.  Donna took Brogan and Tajjee in her van.  One stop at Dunkin Donuts and a couple of  Barenaked Ladies’ albums later on the Zune, we arrived in Bainbridge along with the sunshine!

We parked next to Marian’s rig and she was still in the ring with a Newf.  So we went to the porta potty (those things have got to be the biggest health hazard on this earth!) and stopped by to see our friend, Sandy, who is the owner of  Bretana’s.  Amanda and Brian were next to her.  Their dog, Argus (sorry, don’t know the whole registered name, but know it contains Mr. Universe), finished the day before which is very exciting.  We talked for a bit, Brenna whined a bit, life was good.  And finally, Marian, arrived and saw the puppies for the first time ever!  She really likes Greta, and she does like Brogan, but she said he’s fat.  Which we knew. 

Judging was at 10am.  Sorry, peoples, but I don’t have the full list of results here.  My mind is not as good as Matt’s.  And I don’t see these dogs often enough to say who owns what dog.  I can hardly keep track of my own sometimes!  But, the Nosiglia’s bitch, Xana or is it Zana?, went Breed, and Argus went Best of Opposite over some Specials, which is very exciting by the way!  They had a great weekend.  Sandy’s boy, Striker, went Winner’s Dog and that’s pretty much where I can’t remember anything else.  I can start dropping names of the owners, like Doug and Mary Fisher’s bitch went Best of Winners, but it probably doesn’t mean much to most of you.  Does it?  Or does it not? 

Here are some pictures from the show.

 This is Sandy’s dog, Striker.

This is the aunt to Brogan and Greta, Duncan’t sister, Diva.  She is owned and loved by Marian McShane of Marianette’s Saints.

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But the real story is that we brought Brogan over with us.  I, myself, had doubts about bringing him.  He’s an untrained puppy on an untrained lead (meaning ME, I was to be his keeper).  Donna ended up with him for awhile and I walked him all around.  The big shit did pretty well, better than I had expected!  But judging was running really late that day.  And the poor thing was exhausted, as you can tell. 

And, I don’t think he was really impressed yet. Tail hanging in the ring and all, he didn’t even watch judging! He just slept at Donna’s feet, content as can be, tired from a full day of attention. And his momma looked her best in a long time.

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you gripe about the admission price. Six dollars apiece? Seriously? I was actually thinking that we should have brought a puppy so we could say we were exhibitors, but running around after a peeing and pooping pup is NOT my idea of fun without my kids there. And it is against AKC rules to have an unentered dog at a show. Just to let you know. Does everyone follow it? Yeah, of course…..

you don’t know who the dog is in front of you, even when you have had running conversations with its owner, in the recent past, since Polly and her girl whelped on the same day. Sorry, Sue, it was a huge brain fart on my part! I can’t keep my own dogs straight, let alone every one’s kennel in the Northeast like my husband can. I guess I’m just not talented enough even though I am pretty good at laundry! And you thought I was going to write something else…..shame on you!

As you can tell, I’m waaayyyy out of the loop when it comes to this dog show thang. It was very nice to actually go to Queensbury today to see the dogs exhibit. Without my girls. And my mom actually had to get out of bed early and she didn’t complain. My husband and I actually had conversations that weren’t about our kids or dogs, which is amazing! It’s only been a few weeks since this has happened, and it’s quite nice. We went out to lunch with some friends after and had some very interesting conversations. And I got a lead on some decent dog food for a very, I mean VERY, good price, which is exciting for me! So, I hope it works it out! Let’s keep our fingers crossed! And hopefully my eyes won’t swell shut tonight.

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