yeahhh - Ben has been approved for breeding in Denmark

Today I heard from the Danish Kennel Club that all Bens papers are in perfect order and that he can be used for breeding in Denmark :-)

And Eliza's progesterone has finally begun to go up and tomorrow she will go and visit Jack - it will be interesting to see if the two youngsters will know what to do! read more on Elizas own blog

Show weekend

Last weekend was hard work - two show days: Saturday an all breed Danish National show in Hedensted. Both Eliza and Funny was entered and of course it was rather chaotics to bring two excited dogs as well as chairs and blankets the long distance from the car to the show grounds.
The weather was brilliant and it was nice to sit at the Ridgeback ringside in the sun. But the peace could not last as Eliza and Funny was due in each their ring at almost the same time :-( As Eliza stood a good chance of getting her second CAC I tried to let a friend handle Funny, while I went to the indoor terrier ring. When I got there it was obvious we still had some time to go and I rushed back to show Funny - quite lucky as she absolutely refused to be shown by anyone else... and it turned out.. by me... so her VG was not surprising, and I was relieved when I could run from the Ridgeback ring to the Terrier ring and grab Elizas line and go in. This however went splendidly - Eliza showed herself as a professional, stood quitely on the table for examination (amazing taken her antics the day before when the vet tried to draw blood for her progesterone test) and walked nice and straight, and it paid off: BOB, CAC : Very good type, good proportions, little bit over the weight, nice feminine head, good topline, very well angulated, moves well :-) (judge Astrid Lundava, Estlonia)
Sunday was Ridgeback club show in nearby Stouby, 62 dogs was entered from 4 countries - pretty good. Just Junior class bitches (Funnys class) was HUGE 10 bitches between 9 and 18 months. But now Funny moved like a dream, stacked like a pro and even her bad experience from the day before where the judge forced her mouth open to look at teeth was overcome by the nice approach of judge Per Iversen (Norway) , so this time she went #2 with excellent: En elegant ung tispe, med gode prop, fem hoved, god længde, men kunne have lidt mere dybde, meget god hals, velkroppet for sin alder, stærk ryg, meget god lårbredde, kunne have en anelse mere vinkel i front, god ridge, bra bevægelser, kunne være lidt mere frimodig, men dommeren kan gå til hunden.

Apart from that Funny was sooo well behaved that it was a treat being with her, just laid quietly in her crate when I didnt have time for her, and walked around on loose lead enjoying herself when she could.

Wonderful Easter holiday

Easter is over, and it feels like it has been weeks of vacation, where lots of stuff has been accomplished. The decision to use Ben for Sammy still makes me feel just right, and I cant wait for her to go into heat so we can go to Bavaria to meet up with Monika Pehr and Ben.
But much more has been accomplished: the lambs has all been earmarked with big yellow tags and yesterday they were let loose on the field, which seems incredibly green all of a sudden. The sudden growth of grass also made me take out my new robot lawn mover - quite a set-up the first time, but I look forward to a long summer of sitting on the porch watching the grass being mown.

And the last few days has been in the summerhouse - the Yankee, Sammy, Funny and Taitha playing on the beach, going crazy in and out of the water enjoying themselves and the light of spring

Planned Breeding

Spring has really arrived, daffodils are blooming, the lambs are lovely and fluffy, the little chickens cute and yellow and I have been busy walking the web for suitable males for Sammy. Requirements have been high, Temperament and health are the topmost- I want to retain Sammys intelligence and ability and will to learn, but still want an easy tractable dog without aggression towards other males or OF COURSE! humans. We have been blessed with healthy lines so far, of all Sammy's 30 siblings only two have had any problems: one had a small mast cell tumour which was successfully operated on and another had problems with allergy which was treated and has now vanished completely. So of course I do not want to do anything to endanger this. When outcrossing (the opposite of in-breeding) it can be difficult to know what the lines contains of problems as so many different lines and dogs are behind the planned puppies, so it is even more important to investigate the lines of the coming sire completely.
Finally I want movement and structure - beautiful dogs, who can move like the wind, that be running next to you on a long run or at full speed at lure coursing and with Sammys coming mate I hope even to be able to improve Sammys already great movements.

I have been lucky enough to find everything I was looking for in MultiCH Tusani Big Ben
He is born in Slovakia, but lives now in Germany. He is of course hips A, Elbows 0, OCD free, has passed the very difficult club E.L.S.A Verhaltenüberprüfung (temperament test) with this comment: "Souveräner Rüde, der die Testsituationen in idealer Weise absolvierte" (Outstanding male, who passed the test with excellence). Ben is out of American and Australian lines and a complete outcross to Sammy.

New Manchester home page

FINALLY! www.manchester-terrier.dk has been updated to a much nicer and sleeker look. It also contains it's own blog so most info about Elizas breeding and hopeful coming puppies will be published there.

Eliza is in heat

Little Manchester terrier Eliza is in heat. We should have caught it was close as she was very antsy yesterday when visiting her favourite human being Sophie and even the day before when she literally went into a "pissing contest" with her dam Kay - it was rather fun to see the two little black dogs running after each other seeing who could aim highest (yes a bitch CAN stand on her forelegs and aim rather high) and who got the last drop on a specific piece of ground. All this a very unusual behaviour for the usual much more laid back Eliza.
We hope to breed her this time which would mean that puppies can be expected around midsummer.