Rush x Phoebe Puppies 6 Weeks

This blog post has been asked for many times, so here it is, updated pictures of the Rush x Phoebe litter. They are growing by leaps and bounds, are brave and outgoing and I love the rainbow of colours.

Ella and her "Prince", she loves this fawn boy so much.

There is a black male available to a loving and responsible pet home. For more information please email: braebrookdobes@yahoo.ca

A Whirlwind Trip To The GSPCC Regional Specialty

I made a quick overnight trip to the Mainland this past weekend to attend the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Canada Regional Specialty. There hasn't been a GSP Specialty in BC in many many years and I had done my part to make this one happen and was excited to attend. I bathed and groomed Vinnie, Libby and Hardy for the trip, packed them up into the van along with myself and the kiddies and it was road trip time.

We got in line for the 3pm ferry on Saturday and look what we found at the terminal....mini donuts! Any trip that starts with mini donuts is a good one. Look at Ella's face...this picture was for her Dad who she knew was going to be jealous of this find.

The day was beautiful and warm and we spent lots of time on the deck enjoying it.

We arrived at my mother in law's house in White Rock and had a lovely ham dinner while the pups played outside. Hardy loved the doggy toy box and they all had a good play with Dora the Labrador who's house they were invading. There were lots of tug of war games going on as you can see by Hardy and Libby in the bottom right hand corner of this picture set.

Ella and I woke up at 5:30am the next morning to get dogs exercised and get ourselves ready for the Specialty while Marshall slept in and spent the morning with his Granny.

While I don't have any ring candids (that's Chris's department) the Specialty was fun and Libby and I walked away with Best of Breed so she is now a Best in Specialty show winner! 

BISS Ch LegacyK LibertyReigns Braebrook FDJ

I don't have the high resolution email file yet so this is just a picture of a picture but Libby has matured out beautifully, hard to believe she will be three next month. Apparently I'm incognito for this show photo as my hair is completely covering my face!

Vinnie (who was also Best of Opposite Sex in Specialty) was Ella's juniors dog and he is perfect in that role. He is older now (he turned eight in June) and easy going enough for eight year old Ella to handle while still making her work a bit, the perfect dog for a junior to show.

Once the show was over we headed back to pick up Marshall and visit a GSP friend and cuddle puppies (the best) and then off to Burnaby to attend the BC All Terrier Club annual BBQ and Awards Dinner. It was pot luck style and there were so many delicious dishes. This was my first chance to attend anything with the club and it was great to put names to faces and catch up with those I knew already. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and I'm really glad I was able to attend. When dinner/awards were over it was a race to the ferry which we just managed to get on and myself and two hot and tired kids and three hot and tired dogs were happily on our way home.

All in all a very successful trip and we got a lot done in a short amount of time. Hardy would like you to know that she was Best Baby Puppy in Specialty which is what that lovely big orange ribbon is. She was the only one but don't tell her that as she thinks she's pretty awesome. ;)

Today it's back to routine. I will admit to putting dogs out for a quick potty this morning and then climbing back into bed for another hour of sleep....it was delightful. 

The 2015 Prospects (so far)

I thought I'd share some updated pictures of the puppies I am running on from our 2015 litters so far this year. They are coming along very well and although they are at gangly ages you can definitely see the potential there....exciting. :)

This is Braebrook's Verakai "Dusty" at 4 months. She is from our Harrison x Pelly litter.

This is Braebrook's Fashionably Late "Bijoux" at 3.5 months. She is from our Harrison x Enya litter.

This is Braebrook's On The Road Again "Traveler" at 3.5 months. He is a littermate to Bijoux above.

This is Braebrook's Hard Luck "Hardy" at 4.5 months. She is from our Vinnie x Libby litter.

I'm going to be very busy(ier??) when these guys start hitting the show ring so may consider co owned show homes to the right local home. We also have some exciting younger puppies coming up from our Rush x Phoebe litter and invite inquiries.

Litter Announcement: Rush x Phoebe

This litter has turned out to be quite memorable. The puppies decided to come a couple of days late and that couple of days happened to fall on Friday June 12th. The following day (Sat the 13th) I was due in the show ring with Khaleesi at 1pm, with the show being a couple of hours away. It was a long sleepless night delivering puppies ( my loving husband delivered the last two so that I could get a couple of hours of sleep....we're made for each other I tell ya) followed by an early morning packing and driving to the dog show. The show was very much worth it as you may have read here.

What makes the litter so memorable however was the first puppy born....

I have never had dilute puppies before so it was quite a surprise, and very exciting. I will be perfectly honest, when the above boy arrived I wasn't even completely sure if he was a fawn or a blue. I even looked up pictures of puppies online but that didn't help much. It wasn't until the little blue girl arrived that I knew for sure he was a fawn.

Phoebe whelped all nine puppies with ease and very little warning she was about to give birth...no nesting or panting, just totally relaxed. This is her third and final litter and apparently she's decided it's old hat.

The puppies are growing like weeds and are very strong. This picture is at about a week old.

 The puppies are two weeks old today, all eyes are open and they are crawling everywhere around the whelping box. We have four black boys, a black girl, a blue girl, a fawn boy, a red girl and a red boy....a rainbow! The sire is Rush and the dam is Phoebe.

A couple of these puppies will be available to loving homes, for more information and a puppy application please email: braebrookdobes@yahoo.ca

Remy x Hadley - 9 Weeks

Took the first stacked photos of the Remy x Hadley ten last night and I'm very happy with what I see. They are smooth with pretty heads, good bone, great toplines and outgoing temperaments. I had to lighten a few of the pictures because the puppy's bellies against my shorts was very dark and it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, even lightened it's still not great. My apologies...note to self, light clothing only.

 Here are the little ones at nine weeks:

White collar

Green collar

Blue collar

Double collar

Purple collar - he needs just a little bit longer before being in ear tapes, but he's almost there.

No collar male

Orange collar

No collar female

Black collar

Pink collar

I can't believe they are nine weeks already...time just flies when you're having fun. ;)

New Champion Khaleesi

What a crazy last few days it has been! I was up until 2:30am on Friday night whelping puppies and then back up again at 6am to drive to the Comox Valley Kennel Club show, but boy was it worth it! Khaleesi is now Ch Braebrook's Love Me Do, finishing her title in just two weekends with multiple breed wins over specials and two group placements as well. Khaleesi is from our Brody x Phoebe litter and is the first one to finish her championship.

I don't have any ring candids from this show as Chris wasn't there (where is that guy when you need him?? Oh yeah...home taking care of dogs, love that man. ;) ). Here are a couple of quick snaps of Khaleesi and I with her group ribbons.

Pacific Playgrounds is the show site for the CVKC show and it is right beside Saratoga Beach which is so beautiful and where the kids and I spent  a good bit of our time. I highly recommend this show if you get a chance to go. It's small but the beach is so worth it and there are cabins right on the show grounds so it's a great destination show as well. 

 I had so much fun catching up with my family while I was away and managed to get in a visit with just about everyone. I stayed with my brother Abel and his family which is just a few minutes from the show grounds. He owns Coastal Black Winery so I enjoyed some great wine while I stayed there too. ;)

The kids played and played with their cousins and we all got lots of sun, the perfect combination to put you to sleep on the long drive home (the kids not me! lol). Here is Marshall passed out with Ryan (Braebrook's Revolution - littermate to Khaleesi). Ryan had her eyes closed but one popped open when Ella snapped this picture. So sweet...

Congratulations to Khaleesi's owners Errol and Toni on their new champion! Thank you so much for letting me show her, she was a whole lot of fun. 

BPIS Ch Braebrook's Hennessy

You have probably already seen some of these pictures on the Braebrook Kennels Facebook page but I've included them here again to share with those who haven't as well as have a blog post completely dedicated to Bravo.

I had been working out details for quite sometime to purchase a bitch named Kyra (stay tuned for an upcoming blog post for more about her). She decided to come into season just as things were finalized and because I had her in mind specifically for Bravo details to get him here had to move along quickly. Thankfully Calgary is only a quick flight from here so when I contacted his owner Wendy to say we were ready for him things were able to happen with nary a hiccup.

Bravo happily came out of his crate in Victoria and after a quick potty break, a drink and some welcoming cuddles we headed back home with him.

There were a few health clearances that needed to be taken care of right away so before he arrived I booked him in with my vet to have his hips OFA'd and strapped him into a holter so we could check his heart. My vet said his hips looked great (still waiting for the final OFA grade) and he had just three single PVC's on his holter test. He gets to add these clearances to being vWD clear, Kate Meurs swab negative, and he was CERF cleared as a young dog.

Bravo was shaved for his holter so that is the mark you see in this picture. He fit right in during his stay here, like he'd never left.

One of my favorite things about Bravo is how he moves. He's a big dog (not in height...we measured him while he was here and he's 27 and 5/8 at the withers) with lots of bone and substance, something that is getting harder and harder to find in the breed, but he is not cloddy. He moves big, free, easy and powerful. He's very balanced as you can see in this photo...perfect triangles and no crossing over under his body.

Bravo was quite heavy when he arrived ( Wendy does admit to spoiling him ;) ), so he joined in on the evening runs with the other dogs here (I'm running too...I have a 5K race coming up in a couple of weeks) and with some careful portion control we managed to get him slimmed down nicely.

Here are a few stacked photos, I can't believe he's going to be five in August...time just flies along.

 And here's a little throwback to when he was just 10 months old. He finished his championship on this day with a Best Puppy in Show and a third in the adult group.

I know I say this all the time but I'm very excited about this litter (can you tell I'm living my dream when all this dog stuff is just so exciting to me??).  If all goes according to plan we should have puppies at the beginning of August. Stay tuned for the litter announcement!