Year in Review!

2011 was fairly eventful for us here.


We started off in April heading out to the ASSA National to show Noah...It was defiantly an adventure!!! Ended up dodging a Tornado Tuesday night and ended up back at the Purina Center. Second Tornado we nearly missed friday night as we were heading to the airport to catch an earlier flight...Since the airport was closed from the tornado that went though it, I ended up driving overnight to Chicago to catch our connecting flight back home!! Boy were we all glad to make it back to RI! :)

The Summer was HOT..we ended up only doing a few shows as Noah is only in need of majors, 4 days before we were headed to the Maine shows Hurricane Irene made other plans. It was a stretch but we made it to Maine, had a wonderful stay at Connies home, and enjoyed the electricity!!!



October came and so did an oppurtunity to show in a UKC show, having never showed in the UKC we gave it a whirl, and of course Jenna tried her hand and Jr Handling!!! To say she has a talent is an understatement! The one day of showing Noah was half way to his UKC Championship!!!


Next UKC show was conveniently located 5 minutes from our home in November. Noah was entered as well as Jenna..they both did Fabulous and in the following show Noah Finished his UKC CH with a Group 1 win!!!!!!


The following weekend (Thanksgiving) Noah went to the shows in Springfield MA...Noah was handled by Jennifer as there was a ring conflict with Collies so Paul was unable to show for the class judging. We sat ringside for the ride of our lives!!!!!! Noah was Winners Dog and than Steve took Noah in for Best of Winners for a 4pt Major Best of breed that day was Noah's Sire BISS GrCH Ventura Expectation handled by Jennifer to finish his Gr CH!!!!!


Best wishes for a successful and happy 2012!!!!!

UKC Champion

Well in four shows Noah became UKC CH Rabbit Run Face Value! He did it with 4 BOB's 3 Group 2's and to finish his CH with a Group 1!!! We are beyond delighted with how he performed! While we were there Jenna was able to show for two of the shows in Juniors with Noah. The UKC really caters towards the kids and goes the extra step to keep them interested and involved in dogs. Jenna took First in Sub-Junior class both shows and was very socialable with the judges!! :) After she left everyone there kept asking for the rest of the weekend where the talented Jr was!! They all enjoyed watching her in the ring and kept telling us how great she did and how she excelled in handling!

Waiting for Juniors to start

Jenna Moving Noah
Herding Group line up

Jenna took the pic of me winning gr 1 :)

Noah in the BIS Ring

It was a wet, soaking, muddy, rain (sometimes pouring) this past weekend and you would think, who would want to be out in this weather? Well My mom, myself and my niece, Jenna, did and we had a wonderful time. We put up our easyup and worked from the van. It was our first UKC (United Kennel Club) show. We had a great time the people were friendly and we had a good number of people there. We did 2 shows in one day how nice that was! Jenna showed Noah in the Sub-Junior Class and took first place for both shows. She looks so good in the ring we had so many compliments on her showing. The judges were very kid orientated and passed on helpful tips to all the kids there. The judges asked questions to the kids and had them work their dog’s in different ring patterns (all I have to say is thank god they dont make the adults do this! :) ) Thank you to Judge Antonio Raposo and Judge David Arthur every junior did well. Next I showed in the regular Conformation classes with Noah, he went BOB and than went onto take group 2 placements for each show! We came home tired but very happy with Noah’s placing. We are looking forward to our next show.

Jenna at the morning show

Getting asked the tough questions

Noah and I in the herding groupDoing the down and back

afternoon judging

Jenna and Noah going around the ring

Ok Ive decided Im just as bad as my mother on updating the blog! :) I honestly do not know where the time/days go! It seems like we blinked and summer was over. I can not say we had an eventful summer just some little events. We started the summer off cool, but boy did that change come July! It was HOT and humid the whole month! August started out the same way being hot and dry but by the end of the month Hurricane Irene had set her sights on New England...an she came though with a vengence...we were without power for almost 4 days! Talk about almost going crazy!! :) We had shown on Saturday while Irene was working her way up, which was odd because the next days show was cancelled so the show grounds were quite empty and almost a ghost town! Driving home was also interesting as the bands of heavy rain made driving difficult at best! We got power back and it was time to head up to the Maine shows, Noah did not get any points, but we had a great time and it was a nice break after the week we had!

There is still some residual remnants left behind from Irene that will take some time to fix up,like the beach where I bring the dogs from what ive heard now has a 8 foot drop from the parking lot to the water where it used to be a sandy slope before. I have not ventured down there yet I have only saw pictures in the paper. It is still quite warm up here, which is abnormal, we are anxiously awaiting more comfortable temperatures or atleast cool enough so we has shut the A/C off! They are saying maybe next weekend should be cooler..

Below are a few pictures of our summer! Enjoy!!!! And I'll try to be better about updating! :)

Noah and Six playing Tetherball

Six Playing in the sprinkler

Tucker in the Bay

Noah showing in West Springfield at the start of the Hurricane Irene

Looking down out street, the tree just missed their car!

Tree fell on a house down near the water

The water in the bay was moving soo quickly it was going over the docksNeighbors uprooted Oak Tree

Neighbors uprooted Tree the trunk of the tree was atleast 3' around!!

Noah playing in Maine
Noah getting groomed

Noah at the Maine shows

Noah being Handled by Tony

End of summer pool Party!!

My mom taking using the chainsaw to cut the wood from one of the uprooted trees so it would fit on the log splitter.

Has spring arrived?

All the snow has finally melted away. Which gave way to the mud season...something we can defiantly do without! :) The dogs are happy to be out and able to run without having to worry about slipping on ice. The clocks go ahead tonight and the sun is getting warmer...surely a sign spring is on the way!! The dog shows are starting back up again, Noah has his first show next weekend..its a major so fingers crossed. He is also attending Nationals this year as well, and we are flying out to see him shown! It should be a good time.

Mia Enjoying a sunny spot

Till Noah came along and stole her toy

Molly Rolling on the grass

ahh this is the life

Life is good...

Snow, Snow and more Snow...

Noah and Tucker

Mia had a snow malfunction :)

Chasing snowballs

Noah

Noah and Tucker playing

Tucker saying "really"!?!

The snow half way up the outside fencing

It seems like this winter has been going on forever, it snows atleast every week, and not just a few inches, we're talking feet...The snow is half way up the outer 6ft fencing, and we had to shovel around the inside 3ft fence as Six decided he could clear it and go where ever he wanted to go!! When the dogs run around the made paths (we've since given up doing this as its too much snow) you lose sight of them. We desperately need a winter thaw here and I dare to say it will be months before we see grass!!

For Christmas I received a very nice digital SLR camera (Canon 60D), and I have been practicing with it, however it would be nice to take pictures of some nice greenery and flowers instead of snow and ice!! A few months Noah will be back out in the ring looking for those ever elusive majors, and once Six starts to mature he will be out as well. Molly has settled into the couch mode like she was made for it :) Shes very happy hanging around the house all day. Mia although still the littlest one here (her offspring surpassed her!) is still in charge and ruling the roost.

Winters are typically very slow and boring here and with no litters this winter we dont have too much to update, although I'll try to be better about it and not wait months!! :)
Linda