I hope this Blog proves to be both fun and educational for anyone interested in Showing and/or Breeding Dogs. Spend some time with us and you will really understand the time and effort and emotions that goes into this hobby. Join me here for the good times and bad times, the joys and sorrows, the wins and losses. Welcome to life at Vista Dei!

I sure got a BIG suprise last night!!  Rose just told me that she had been secretly training with Cricket and MISS CRICKET EARNED HER CGC THIS WEEK!!! I am sooo excited and happy for them.. I actually started crying because pending approval I am waiting for from the AWSS I believe this may give us the 8 direct offspring  that have qualified to be counted toward the ROM-P (Register of Merit in Performance) title for Darby!! YAAAHHHHOOOOOOO  Now his kids and grandkids as they earn titles will start picking up points toward his  ROM-P, but without having 8 direct offspring that met the qualifications, the title would have been impossible to start working towardl!  Once that is confirmed we need to "collect" 200 points from titles and awards from the offspring, Points are award for only the highest title in each venue (agility/obedienc/rally/herding/conformation/etc) So far then by my calculations (not confirmed by the AWSS)

Darby kids -

Regis - 15 points (MX)

Genni - 10 points (NA,RN,CGC)

Daisy - 10 points (U-Champion)

Darlin' - 5 points (UKC Major pointed)

Diania - 3 points (UKC conformation points)

Cricket - 2 points (CGC)

Sampson - 2 points (CGC)

Aslan - 2 points (CGC)

Darby Grandkids (count for 50% of the point value)-

Drifter - 2 1/2 points (NA,CGC)

Destiny 1 1/2 points (UKC conformation points)

Added with 10 points for his genetic health clearances, this should put Darby at 63 points toward the 200!  yippppeeeee!!!!  Of course there are other kids and grandkids in training, waiting in the wings, Hector, Kiwi, Stella and of course as each of the qualifying offspring earn more and higher titles their points will continue to increase, and we have a while to work at this, so.. hey.. if you have one of our pups and want to join in PLEASE DO.. I think this will be great fun, and please if your dog earns ANYTHING send me a copy of the certificate, so it can count toward this project.. easier to get it and file it than to try to collect them in the end.  AKC titles I can get from the AKC reports, but the AWSS allows UKC, CPE,  AHBA and many other performance organization's titles to count which is really nice too!  Also they count and report some really different sports, like flyball, freestyle dog dancing, disc dog (frisbee titles), tracking, backpacking dogs, search and rescue, therapy dogs (lots of documentation needed on this one, so contact me for what would be needed) and of course obedience, agility, rally etc.

CONGRATULATIONS MISS CRICKET CGC AND ROSE!!

In a related report...

Regis earned his XF title with 3 Qs in FAST this weekend. On Friday he had a score of 76 and a 1st place. On Saturday he saw possibly the most difficult send ever with a tough tunnel entrance, tough weave entrance and a double...he earned a score of 79 and a 1st place. (As a note - Regis was the first excellent dog to successfully complete the send and got huge cheers when he did.) On Sunday Regis had a score of 75 and a 2nd place. So far he is 9 for 9 in FAST.

The prior weekend Regis picked up his 14 Double Q and is now up to 874 speed points!

CONGRATULATIONS REGIS, TIM AND CHRISTY TOO!!

 

Posted by: Vistadei at 07:57 | link | comments (6)

Congratulations to Shawn and Genni this weekend for their qualifying run in Open Jumpers in Cheswick PA.. they also earned a SECOND PLACE ribbon!!! way to go guys!!  Sorry I was out of the loop this weekend and not there to watch!

I haven't been posting too much this summer, busy, busy.. but there are some big plans in the works here at Vista Dei, perhaps a new young male sheltie coming to visit us in the next few months, and other exciting plans too.. stay tuned!!

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:33 | link | comments (3)

Agility weekend went very well.. We were trialing in North Olmstead, OH, and Darby and I got a first place ribbon in Open Standard, with a clean run and a time of 55.07 in a run with a Standard Course Time of 69 seconds!! Wooo hoo Darby, you still got it going on my man...

Genni and Shawn got their first leg in Open Standard also yesterday on the same course earning a third place ribbon!  Way to go guys!!

Regis and Tim and Christy were there for the whole weekend, On Friday and Saturday both he got a Double Q's! On Friday he also qualified in his FAST run, with a 2nd place! He had a score of 80 in 34.43 sec. That gave him his Open Fast Title. Regis also qualified in JWW Sunday. Overall, he added 80 points for a total of 824 Championship Points and 13 QQs! I think every time I watch Tim and Regis they just keep getting better and better... the time and training they have put in really shows in the ring, it is like watching a ballet dance they are so in tune with each other as they move through the course.. FANTASTIC!!!

Drifter and Dave were there too, and tho Drifter didn't qualify this time, they made alot of nice new moves on the course especially in the Jumpers where Dave was oh so in control that I had to watch the video 3 times just to enjoy his new handling skills! And big "Sister" collie Spirit qualified in Excellent B standard congratulations to her too!

Great weekend, really enjoyed myself.. love this group of people, it is such a positive and exciting time!

Posted by: Vistadei at 09:02 | link | comments (2)

It has been a very busy week here!  First last Monday I went and picked up Darby's new love interest, Hidow Hearts Delight "Delight" and that she was, a real delight to have around, hoping we get a very nice litter from this breeding, she is an impressive girl.  Her pedigree can be seen on her breeder's web site

http://www.greatlakes.net/~hidows/hidow_hearts_delight.htm

Then on Friday I returned her to her breeder Roni, who is from Michigan, we met half way and spent an enjoyable afternoon in a park grooming dogs.  I took all 8 of mine with me for the 6 hour trip, as well as Delight, so 9 was a real van full, but I wanted all of mine along as I stopped at the UKC shows on the way home in Randolph OH.  Unfortunately, because of bad yahoo mapping I wasn't able to make the entry on Friday evening, but I did camp overnight on the grounds, it was my first time staying overnight with all 8 dogs by myself.  It went very well and I think was actually easier than getting up and taking care of all the dogs in the early morning and then driving hours to a show with just a couple and rushing back home.  This way I had a nice restfull evening with them, took nice long walks on the fair grounds two at a time, slept till 6AM instead of getting up at 3 and driving several hours.  I think I can do this, and will try it again sometime soon.  I was able to set up the 10x10 pop up and tear it down myself, and finally found a good configuration for the xpens that gave them more stablitiy.

The UKC shows could have been better, we didn't do all that well this weekend, but in a suprise move, our Darby once again stepped out of the performance rings and back into the conformation ring bringing home Champion of Champions ribbon for his first leg toward his Grand Championship!  Mysty didn't pick up the win she needed to finish, but that just gives us an excuse to play another day!  Darlin' won her puppy class and Reserve Best Female all 3 shows, bringing her up to 65 points and one Competition win from last shows.  Daisy was once again, bride's maid, taking Reserve Champion all 3 shows, that puts her at 5 Reserves, come on girl.. time to get that coat back on and kick some butt...  On Sunday Denise Shumsky came along with me and entered our Blue boy Decker in the Champion Class (he lives with her and Dave now).  Although he didn't place, she did a great job her first time in the ring and he had some fun, tho I think he was happier that there were some great smelling females around, than he was for the ring!!  Nice weekend....

Posted by: Vistadei at 19:22 | link | comments (1)

Ohhhh we have a mystery visitor here at Vista Dei.. isn't she cute?  DARBY.. stop smoking those cigarettes, you know that isn't good for you....

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:59 | link | comments (2)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAISY, ANNIE AND ALLIE!!!

I  forgot today was Daisy's birthday till she got a little email birthday card from her sisters Annie and Allie.  Five years already, how the time flies!!

This is a picture of them when they were less than an hour old.. one of my favorite pictures.  Almost lost this whole litter to heat, it had to have been over 100 degrees and the puppies just couldn't snuggle in to nurse well and they started to dehydrate. I am so glad the girls all made it.  Infact that was how Daisy got her name, my daughter sat here every few hours while I was at work and gave Daisy a little gator aid with an eye dropper to get her enough energy to be able to nurse, then let her nurse alone then with the other two girls.  Out in the crispy dieing grass out the bedroom window one lone daisy came up and bloomed and my daughter said "As long as that Daisy lives, this little puppy will too" so when she made it over the hump, that was her name.  U-Ch. Vista Dei Luvme Luvme Not "Daisy"  (cause you used Daisy flowers to do that childhood game he loves me, he loves me not)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS! 

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:42 | link | comments (1)