Arwen will be mated with Akhiro vom Altvilstal!

Here he is, the beautiful dog I have chosen for Arwen! His name is Akhiro vom Altvilstal, he was born in April 2004, he is 63 cm high, MDR1 +/+ and HD/ED free. http://www.akhiro-vom-altvilstal.de.tl/Home.htm

This guy is not one of the most famous stud dogs in Europe but he is a jolly good guy, better than a number of the more famous dogs. He will be a father with Apolena u Panaka shortly and we are looking forward to see what that will give.

I chose a stud dog that is not so common over Europe and he does not belong to a big kennel. He is a family dog, has done some shows with excellent results and is a working dog.

He works with different things such as obedience, tracking, and as far as I have seen from pictures, agility. Since we are agility freaks here that was no disadvantage at the choice. Agility demands so much more from the dog than traditional obedience.

He also "works" in school with up to 60 kids at the same time. That was important to me because I really aim for balancing Arwen's ideas that sometimes pop up in her mind not to make friends with everybody. But on the contrary, I use Arwen in my teaching in school every now and then too and then she is absolutely perfect in the contact with everybody there.

At this picture you can see Akhiro's good pigmentation and how white he is.

This boy reminds me a little bit of Aico,

who is an absolute favourite to me:

And how did I find him? Well, thanks to Aico. Elfriede have sent me the link to Akhiro's home page http://www.akhiro-vom-altvilstal.de.tl/Home.htm . She knew about this lovely dog and also knew I was looking for something extra for Arwen. Elfriede knows Arwen and thought this would be the perfect boy for her. Thanks a lot, Elfriede!!

Mating is planned to Arwen's next season (totally irregular) on the condition it will not be during September/early October.

From this litter I expect both long coated and short coated puppies that will be social, willing to work, good for shows and nice family dogs. The lines behind Arwen and Akhiro will hopefully be interesting for breeders. If you would like to know more about the litter, please contact me on charlotte.barvestad@glocalnet.net .

Akhiro up and Arwen below

Arwen and MDR1

Arwen has MDR1 +/+ , too. Yippee!

Aragon and MDR1

Received the result of Aragon's MDR1-test some minutes ago. He is +/+ which means that he does not carry the genes for the defect.

Planning for shows, obedience and puppies!

I have been asked why I have started to write in English. That is simply because I know that not only Swedes try to read my blog and most Swedes know that much English that they will understand what I write.

Last weekend we did not go to Sofiero. It was the same judge as on the WDS and as she obviously didn't like Love or Aragon I didn't find it necessary to spend another weekend on that show. She liked Arwen but Arwen is already a champion and will not get any further credit for another Swedish show. Perhaps Bambi would have been succesful but we stayed at home and got a lot of things done.
The show planning for the autumn is Bernie, Love and perhaps Arwen to Växjö, Love and perhaps Bernie to Stockholm. Some people would say it's stupid to bring the two guys to the same show but Bernie and Love are very different even though they look very much alike at a quick glance. I have spoken to Camilla about it and our conclusion is that if the judge does not like one of them he/she may like the other one.
We also plan for Denmark with Aragon and Arwen and perhaps, depending on Arwen's season, a quick stop in Finland.
Between the show weekends we, Arwen and I, will do some obedience. We are aiming for the first prize, the prize that the judge stole from us last time. Hmm. I am still irritated about what happened in Böda.

One of the things that I have done last weekend is to make up my mind about Arwen and puppies.
Yes, she will be mated with a lovely stud dog.
I have spent hours and hours looking for the right dog and now I have finally found him. I have been in touch with several breeders around Europe asking questions about their dogs. Due to my opinion it's of utmost importance to be extremely careful in the choice of a stud dog. So many traits have to match between the male and the bitch, not only physically but also mentally. I have had headache, I have woken up in the middle of the night, it's been there all the time "Where do I find a nice dog for Arwen". I have terrorised people I trust asking questions about stud dogs, offsprings, statistics, traits, HD/AD, everything. And now it is set up! I will not announce his name tonight but he lives in Germany. He has a wonderful and expressive head with the all the details that I have been looking for. He is of medium size, 63 cm, which is perfect for my 61 cm-girl. He is very white with excellent pigmentation. He has a very good character. And so on. As you can notice, I am very pleased with him. I hope Arwen will be , too...
One of the choices I had to make was whether I would choose a dog with Swedish lines or an "outsider". This time I chose an outsider for the first litter. Next time it will probably be a dog with Swedish lines. There are some interesting young males in Sweden now and I am looking forward to see what they will give in the future.

Today Bambi has been to HD/ED X-ray. Cross your fingers! Next Tuesday it is time for Bernie to do the same.

That's it for tonight!

The weekend

Rain, rain, rain. And some more rain. Everything was wet, wet wet. Late Monday evening I still do not have any dry shoes to put on...

Saturday was no good day. Competition in obedience. The judge did obviously not like us and we did not score very high even though we made our best performance this far. Arwen behaved very well after barking at the judge at the beginning. She did exactly what I asked her to do and I did not turn around this time to watch were she had gone, etc. But we did not get the scores. Other dogs made worse than us but got higher scores and I do not consider that to be fair. People approached me after the competition and asked why we didn't get higher scores. Well, I do not know. And I didn't ask. I was too furious and upset and disappointed. On the way back home Arwen tried to comfort me and calm me down, whispering in my ear that although the judge didn't like us we made a good performance without double commands. My sweet girl.

Yesterday was a much better day. Six dogs were there, all of them connecting to Strandkungens. Arn, who is Aragon's son, is six months and four days and competed in the puppy class. He is very white with a strong and nice head, like dad, good angulation and nice movements. He got a Very Good and I do not know why he didn't get more.

The young guys Bernini and Love (Big Boss) were in the intermediate class and Bernie had a great performance. He got Excellent and the CAC. Congratulations to Camilla and Bernie!! Love got a Very Good.

The girls Betty Boop and Bambina both got Very Good, Betty was V1 and Bambi V2.

Finally Arwen was in the Champion class with an Excellent. The Polish Judge was very fond of Arwen and expressed how pleased she was with the anatomy. "Excellent, perfect" were words she used. And Arwen was dancing around showing herself from her very best.

Arwen became Best of Breed and Bernie Best of Opposite Sex. Bernie was the second in this litter to achieve a CAC. Bambi got the CAC on Gotland. And Love and Betty have achieved excellent earlier. This litter is both goodlooking and mentally very good! Aico and Cariña was a nice combination!

We competed with a breeder's group and a progenity group (Cariña), too. Both groups got 1st prize with honour, meaning they were in the final. And the critics were very, very good.

In the final ring the breeder's group was without placement. The other group with Cariña achieved a 2nd place and I was so proud! Second place in the final ring, that is good both for the breed and for my kennel. Today I bought some dog's food in a store and the cashier commented that I had been to the show yesterday. ? . She had been showing one of the dogs in the group that was on third place and she recognized me... got a discount ...

Arwen was in the BIG-final. I have been showing Cariña, Hoss, Aragon and Arwen in BIG-finals but this was the very first time the judge didn't give just a quick glance at my dog. He stopped and looked at her, called for her attention, looked again and spent about 30s looking at her. I have a feeling that it was quite close that we were picked out for a placement. Interesting because there were a number of dogs in the ring, not just a few.

From the left: Cariña, Bernini, Big Boss, Betty Boop and Bambina

To make a summary of the weekend, it started with a deep dip and ended with happy smiles. It was a very good Sunday for my dogs and the kennel.

Lots of hugs and thanks to all of you that helped throughout the day!! You were all winners together with the dogs!

A weekend worth forgetting and remembering

Down and up, that's how it is in the dogs' world.

Saturday was a catastrophe even though Arwen and I made a great performance in the obedience competition.

Sunday was that kind of day that you would like to enjoy for a long time. Arwen became BOB and Bernie Best of Opposite Sex at the official show in Böda. And the group with Mami Cariña and Bernie, Love, Betty and Bambi was BIS 2! When have BBS became BIS 2 in an official show in Sweden before??

More details tonight, back to business and work for a while.

Ner och upp, så är det i hundvärlden.

Lördagen var katastrof även om Arwen och jag gjorde en snygg uppvisning i lydnadsringen.

Söndagen blev en sådan där höjdardag som man vill gotta sig åt länge. Arwen blev BIR och Bernie BIM i Böda och avelsklassen med Cariña och Bernie, Love, Betty och Bambi blev BIS 2!!

När har vita herdar blivit BIS 2 i något sammanhang på en officiell utställning i Sverige??

Mer detaljer ikväll, nu är det vardag igen och jobbet väntar.

Arwen igen

Tjaha, så var vi hemma igen. Uj, vad det har varit skoj. Jag har badat i havet men det var inte lika bra som hemma. På Gotland var det stenigt. Jag vill ha sand, basta! I kalkbrottet var det mysigt, vi simmade och lekte med pinnar. När Bella kom för nära sin pinne som JAG tänkte ta nästan dränkte jag henne. Hon pep och frustade och matte blev jättearg. Sedan lekte vi igen.
Jag har bestämt jättemycket. Det värsta var att Bambi kom hem lite före mig igår och berättade det för mamma. Jag kallar det för att skvallra. Ojojoj, vad sur mamma var, jag fick ta mig fram med bröstkorgen i backen, jag ålade mig och jag la mig på rygg, men det hjälpte inte. Mamma var riktigt ilsk. Hon la sig i husses och mattes säng och glodde till på mig så jag fick gå och lägga mig i vardagsrummet. Idag är det som vanligt igen.
Aragon och jag tränade matte i lydnad. Nu vet hon hur hon ska göra, hoppas jag. Det är snart tävling igen. Vi tränade på en fin gräsplan utanför vår lägenhet och jag ansträngde mig för att matte skulle förstå hur hon ska göra. Aragon gjorde också en insats men han har inte lika mycket tålamod som jag.
I torsdags när vi hade varit på Fårö la matte spår till mig, Aragon och Betty. Det var riktigt roligt! Det blåste jättemycket men vi var inne i en liten skog och vi var jätteduktiga! Betty somnade som en stock direkt efter, Aragon och jag höll koll på om det sulle bli något mer kul.
Sedan var det ju utställning också. Aragon var snyggast av oss alla, tyckte domaren på lördagen. Kan jag inte förstå. Och Shana var snyggare än mig. Hallå, det kan väl inte vara sant? Fast matte klappade mig och sa att jag är söt ändå och att Shana är väldigt fin. Så på söndagen hade jag inte alls lust att vara med. Jag strejkade. Vet ni vad domaren skrev om mig då?! "Fjantigt temperament". Fjantigt, va. På lördagen stod det faktiskt att jag hade bra temperament. Man måste väl få visa vad man tycker? Och så stod det att "Vill inte idag" och det var ju alldeles sant, jag ville INTE. Matte tyckte visst att det var lite pinsamt men det struntar jag faktiskt i. Det är inte alltid man har lust att göra som människorna vill.
Småbrudarna och Bernie skötte sig bra på lördagen och fick ettor och hp och ck och cert. Kan kanske bli hundar av dem så småningom. Jag måste bara fostra dem lite till så att de inte får några tokiga idéer. Hoppas ingen skvallrar för mamma.
Nu är det ett litet problem, här skulle det ha varit ett par bilder men matte har inte lyckats hitta kamerakabeln efter resan än. Hon ska leta imorgon, hon har ju varit i Stockholm hela dagen idag.
Om hon nu är hemma imorgon, förstås.
Tjoflöjt!