News

On 27th October 2009, Azi presented us with three boys and a girl, courtesy of Chase! They are growing well and we are exceptionally pleased with them. At 17 weeks, Abbi has already strutted her precocious ways and won a training match evening, beating all the adults! Look out for these precious babes later in the year. Good luck especially to Shawn in Lytham and thanks to Linda Green for taking his owners under her wing.

I have returned from my first overseas judging appointment of the year in Estonia. I had a wonderful time and would recommend the country and dogs to any Samoyed Fanciers who like to travel! I will post a travel report shortly. Now I have to hope that Eurostar is running to get to Belgium!

I have been remiss in keeping my keen readers up to date with News! Sorry folks!

Sunni, under Penny's excellent tutelage, has been making her mark this year with some smashing wins under her belt. See her page (when I have done it!), but the culmination has to be the Res CC under Judge Robin Newhouse at the famous Birmingham National show.

Our latest trip has been to the World Samoyed Meeting in Slovakia, where we met up with old friends and made some new ones. There are dozens of photos on Facebook and on the WSM web site, some good and for the non-photogenic like me, some not so good! :-)  Judges for the Slovak Ch Show, John and Kathy Ronald had a terrific entry of 157 and made an excellent job of the quality dogs there.

We were delighted to see all the 'Yoshis', relatives of Azi and Sunni who are here with us in the UK.

Many congratulations to the WSM 2 Team who provided a memorable event for us. We hope to see you all again soon. And we are hoping to invite you to the UK in 2012 for the British version of this enjoyable and informative event..

My judging committments are already mounting up for next year, so how many shows we shall get to remains to be seen. However Penny will be flying the flag with her wonderful show team of Chase, Sunni and Roushka.(Astutus Carousel)

At the wettest show we have ever attended Pen , Azi and Sunni all got drenched. I had the contents of a tent roof poured down my back and was wet to the skin. There was thunder; there was lightening. Bad even for an outdoor British show!

But it was an experience........ Azi was BOB, Sunni was Res BOB and , still in the rain, the Group was judged and Azi was Group 2 !!!!!!!!!

Far more civilised was Three Counties Ch show where it was sunny for Sunni and there was a change of judge. Despite this, Sunni won 1st in Junior Bitch. and was in the last 8 in a huge Stakes class. Not bad with no clothes on......

...make a great team.

At Birmingham National Show,Azi won Res Bitch CC. I was away judging in Scotland at the time so Pen managed abley without me! Cheers, Mate!

This was Azi's  first outing after waiting for her new coat! Which isn't as white as it used to be :-)

Peter and Melanie Matfin have had a wonderful run of THREE Best Veteran In Shows with their lovely biscuit shaded boy, Chakotay. See his picture on the home page. Well done P and M and Chuckie! He looks wonderful.

We have a new arrival who made a long road trip to us over Easter; Sunni will be out at Ch shows when she had grown a coat! She is at Stevenage with Penny and currently had the nickname of  'The Joint Venture'. Sunni was hip x-rayed before she left and is an Excellent (A/A) She also has clear eyes. Hands up all the other Samoyed people who have their dogs hip and eye tested! How many?

Meanwhile, my gang are out of coat as well and I have been filling time attending some other breeds' shows.  The prize for the most laid back must go to the Saint Bernards; they know how to take things easy...  As a breed I think they have improved enormously since I last looked at them. Some lovely strong hind quarters about nowadays. And also ringside happy to impart knowledge of their breed. Sadly there is no mentor scheme in Samoyeds.

The Samoyed Club of Slovakia has been working very hard to get this event together. Pen and I are really looking forward to our visit. My one sadness is that my yearly visit to the US Nationals will be out of the question. The Nationals changed their date when the arrangements of the World Meeting were too far advanced to change thus they clash.

The Slovaks are putting on a grand occasion for us and we are all looking forward to it.

http://www.samojed-klub.sk/2sss/index.html?sss=invitation

will take you there and follow all the links for more information.

Pen has come up with the idea of adding a New Page so;

Advice to Puppy Buyers

has started. It is in it's infancy and will be added to as we go along. But it will offer basic advice and some more advanced stuff for puppy buyers. I continue to add Health pieces on the Health and Philosophy page. Travels has been updated. Azi and Chase have been enjoying not being shown so their pages are still the same for the time being. Azi's mating missed this time, after the disaster we had earlier in the year, so no puppy updates for the time being. We are excited that some Chasey puppies will be hitting the ring soon. They are all Very Promising.

In The Rookery, things go on as normal. Gloria is a thief despite her cataracts, Zana has her daily insulin injections without hating me, Tally is due back for a blood test but has put on weight satisfactorily and Wembley is doing well on her Soluxine. She might even make it into the ring again!

I have read pieces by two Doyennes of the breed telling me how healthy the breed is and how we shouldn't worry. They obviously don't have to live with my (not inbred!) pack. 

On a personal note, I do thank the owners of the dogs who have given way to my pleas and allowed their dogs' DNA to be used for the Samoyed Club of America sponsored study on cataracts in Northern Breeds, especially the ones who took up the offer of Free  Confidential Eye  testing. Sadly there were no where near the numbers that initially expressed interest thus we were not able to make the price break on the testing scale. However the fact that people seem to think that because they are not using their animals to breed from or that Samoyeds 'don't have eye problems' are frankly, blinkered (excuse the pun). The fact that you could have taken part in a study for the betterement of the breed Worldwide seems to have escaped you.

2009 will have many changes for Pedigree dogs as a whole. Health issues will be the number one question on everybodies lips. But perhaps not in the Samoyed Breed.  After all, we have a healthy breed!

Had a wonderful time thanks to my wonderful hostesses, Janet Ainscow and Barbara Winch who looked after me so well after the show.

Prior to the show, I had a great time in Brisbane where I spent 4 days exploring and shopping by myself. It was brilliant.

I will do a full report later, but understand people actually read my notes so I'd better give them something to read!

Pen and the Beautiful Chase made the awful journey to Builth Wells. This time they were rewarded with the Dog CC which makes Chase a New Champion. His title (subject to KC confirmation) is now;

CH. AUS. CH. SNERZOK STRIKE CHASER.

Well done to Penny and her cuddly familiar, Chase. Again our grateful thanks to Dawn and John Wilders for entrusting us with this lovely dog.

We have seen the first Chase puppies out;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dreo-RWF4rg

shows one doing what Samoyeds do best! :-)

Thanks to Penny Roberts for looking after the boy so well! Cheers Pen.

I have to update this, so here you are! We have had a mixed year so far. Penny was so annoyed at not being able to contact me when Chase won the CC at Bath, as I was singing in Cologne. Her nagging and that of my dearly beloved David, has succeeded. I have bought a mobile phone. Nobody knows the number though!

Pen and I visited Slovakia and had a wonderful weekend watching dogs. And seeing the wonderful country side. There were two all breed Ch shows on consecutive days in the same venue, and it worked very well, with many of the native breeds being on show. The people are so friendly as well.

For some reason, I have had a run on Companion shows to judge this year. They are so much fun and you can actually learn a lot as well. The fact that most exhibitors seem to miss out this stage of showing and graduate straight to Championship shows means they miss a lot of basic knowledge that can be accrued at these events. I did a local dog training one last weekend and have one near Dudley to do in September; something to do with barges I think.

I am looking forward to Brisbane next mont and know my inimitable hostess has lots of wonderful things planned for me!