Wishing everyone and their dogs much success in 2009

from Linda & Ron and

"the new kids on the block"

Esmee, William & Denzil

Esmee's first show

The arctic conditions were nearly enough to put us off going to Dundee Limited Show at Carnoustie but idiocy won over sense and we set out at some ungodly hour in order to reach the venue in time. The car only slithered once although the roads were pretty bad in places. Esmee had reached 6 months last Thursday, so at Dundee she was the great age of 6 months and 2 days! She was entered in AVNSC Toy Open where she won a reserve place out of 5 entries, and she then went into AVNSC Minor Puppy where she won the class, out of 6 entries. You could say we were over the moon (especially as the journey had seemed as though we drove over the moon to get there). She insisted the picture you can see was much preferable to a "show pose" as she was having so much fun in the snow. She would like to thank everyone at the club for being her friends and encouraging her and us to persevere to train her as a show-girl.

Leo & Esmee at Banff Moray & Nairn

We took Esmee to the puppy walk at BM & N match yesterday and she was a very good girl. With just 3 weeks to go to her first show she needs all the practice she can get. Leo came as well as he loves to go out especially if there is showing involved. He was entered in the main match and strutted his stuff without putting a foot wrong - he won BEST IN MATCH! The rosette he won is almost as big as him and I am so proud of him.

Many thanks to the judge, Ann, who thought so highly of him (what a lovely lady!!)

Banff Moray & Nairn

Yesterday we went to Banff Moray & Nairn Open Show with Leila & Leo the Lhasa Apsos and also took Ruby (0ne of our Shih Tzus) along for a day out as she just loves to show and she turned out to be our "star" of the day! She took Best of Breed and Utility Group 3. She is registered Debaux Passion for Fashion at Linconor but, as you can see from the picture she is not renowned for her dress sense! She is nearly always scruffy but it just doesn't seem to bother her! Her sire is a UK and Russian Champion but she is very un-phased about being the daughter of such a famous father - she is just "our Ruby".

LINCONOR

LINCONOR is made up of LIN for Linda - C for Collins - O for Offen - NOR which is Ron backwards! It has been ourKC affix for nearly 30 years and has been added on to our original stock that we bought in and then to register the litters of Old English Sheepdogs and Lhasa Apsos we have bred and, just recently our first litter of Shih Tzus and our last litter of Lhasa Apsos. It has, of course, been added on to THE Affenpinscher's registered name to make her name much bigger than she is!

This is Esmee (Balirolyat Mayfly Magic at Linconor) who is due to make her debut in November this year

Ron and I have both judged at open show level but have never had ambitions to give CCs. We have served on breed club and general open show committees, both acted as show managers for open and championship shows and Ron was a breed club treasurer - a job he was welcome to! We have both stewarded about 1,000 classes at both levels and when we moved to Moray made the decision that stewarding and committee work was definitely best left to others. Ron has his last judging appointment at the beginning of next year, and I have one at Newark next March but am still open to offers!

This is William - our first home bred

Shih Tzu who will make his debut in February 2009

I did train junior handlers when we lived in Essex and one of my "stars" won the Shaun MacAlpine Trophy for 2 consecutive years. Of that, I was very proud.

Over the years we have a modicom of success with our dogs but most importantly, we have really enjoyed it. We have met some wonderful people and made some long lasting friendships in a lot of breeds, not just the breeds we have owned. We started with Old English Sheepdogs, then added the Lhasa Apsos then, much later we bought a Lagotta Romagnolo who did actually move to Moray with us (not a lot of people know that). When we had been here about a year we bought our first 2 Shih Tzus, our 3rd joining them a year later - and, then, as so many people know, THE Affenpinscher took up residence!

We will hopefully be showing regularly in 2009 and would like to wish all the members of Spey Valley DTC success in the show and obedience rings in the future.