Visiting Maisey

These are old photos of Maisey, but this beauty is currently visiting Blazingstar, as she is being bred to Tinbie. Maisy is Ch Prairielight Mayday Mayday CD WCI JH and she is the daughter of Ch Almanza Let's Party Today and Ch Prairielights Jazz Pizzazz WC. Of course she timed her season so that she needed to be bred over Christmas. If it has worked, black and liver puppies will be due in late February.

Number 8 Comes Out of Retirement

Lupine is the latest of our dogs to compete on a Scent Hurdle Racing team. We have been working on it for several months now and after our practice this weekend, I think she's now ready to race! Our Due South team has taken a sabbatical for a couple of years, but will be back in full force in 2011. The really cool thing is that her liver daughter, (and Tally's grandaughter) Kona, is also going to be on our team. Kona is amazingly fast and caught on very quickly that she had to bring her dumbell back, using her nose to find the right one.

Lupine is the third of our dogs to wear the "number 8" jersey for the Due South team.

Tally in her scent hurdle outfit. Tally earned her SHDX (scent hurdle excellent title). She loved to race.

Some of our Due South members back in 2005 - Tally, Buschman and Wicca. Sadly Tally and Buschman are no longer with us, but Wicca will be running on our team next year.

Our first scent hurdle racing dog, Piper. I think he earned enough points for his SHDX title as well.

Scent hurdle racing is similar to flyball, with a row of 4 jumps, except that each dog has to bring back it's own dumbell from a box at the end. There are always 4 dumbells in the box, so the dog has to use its nose to get the correct one. Teams race against eachother and are timed. It's lots of fun for the owners, dogs and audience.

Songdog Puppies, hopefully....

Puppy Annie

Last week, Annie, (HRCH Blazingstar Beaufort CDX SH) was bred to Doc (Ch Black Walnut Asclepius MH AX OAJ WCX HOF) using frozen semen. Doc was an exceptionally accomplished dog in both fieldwork and agility (the HOF means FCRSA Hall of Fame). Annie is a daughter of Huxley and Lupine, and sister to Tinbie and Teva.

Doc carried liver, so both black and liver puppies are expected. If it has worked, the puppies will be due in late February, at Songdog kennels in southern Indiana.

Of course Annie's timing could not have been much worse..... Brian and Katy had to drive through massive amounts of snow to get to the reproduction clinic in Minnesota. We were very relieved to hear that they got there and back safely.

You can visit Songdog kennels at www.songdogflatcoats.com

Gift Ideas! (& some shameless self-promotion)

We have a variety of flat-coated retriever items for sale in our Cafepress Shop. They make great gifts for flat-coat lovers.

You can find our Cafepress shop at www.cafepress.com/blazingstar

One of our favourites is the yearly calendar featuring a whole lot of flat-coats, nature and prairie wildlife.

Here are a couple of the newer items available:

An iphone cover (they come in various configurations) and a mouse pad.

These two Christmas ornaments are available in our shop. They feature original watercolours.

Cafepress printed products are of high quality and their shipping has become more reasonably priced this year (not sure why?!). The goodies usually arrive very quickly, even to Canada.

Pupdate!

It has been five months since the seabird litter was born. So it's long overdue for an update (or a pupdate). All of the puppies have now gone to their new homes, except for Puffin, who has stayed here.

The 8 wonderful puppies are:

Puppy 1 (Red) "Thor" - Blazingstar Northern Gannet (Ontario)

Puppy 2 (Dark Pink) "Puffin" - Blazingstar Puffin (staying with us)

Puppy 3 (Bright Blue) "Odo" - Blazingstar King Eider (Colorado)

Puppy 4 (Green) "Gulliver" - Blazingstar Laughing Gull (we co-own him with friends in Lethbridge)

Puppy 5 (Yellow) "Kit" - Blazingstar Kittiwake (Edmonton, Alberta)

Puppy 6 (Light Pink) "Luna" - Blazingstar Midnight Loon (we co-own her with friends in Montana)

Puppy 7 (Light Blue) "Ripley" - Blazingstar Guillemot (Calgary, Alberta)

Puppy 8 (Grey) "Sooty" - Blazingstar Sooty Shearwater (Wisconsin)

We are pleased to report that they are all doing really well in their new homes. Teva was a fantastic mother and has settled back into her usual life in Edmonton.

Cava wins Best Puppy in Group at the Lethbridge Show

Cava posing with her big blue ribbon

Cava had a great weekend at the Lethbridge Dog Show at the end of November. She won the points each of the 3 days, gaining a total of 6 points in one weekend. On Sunday she also went on to win Best Puppy in Group under judge James Reynolds, which was a real thrill.

Showing her in the Best Puppy in Show ring was quite the experience for both of us. After moving around the ring twice, we almost caught up with the Pomeranian puppy from the Toy Group and Cava could not think of anything else once she had spotted it! I think she wanted to retrieve it. It took a while to get her attention back on me.