Famke and Falkor's new trick!

Falkor and Famke LOOOOVE to play and they do some very interesting things when they play. I used to call Famke a lion tamer all the time because she would Falkor put his mouth over her head and neck. I decided to try and put it on cue and have many attempts I finally caught in on camera. It is difficult to get them to both cooperate at the same time. :) Famke will usually get into position and then Falkor just nose butts her and barks to get her to play. Silly dogs!

Famke Struts Her Stuff

We had a conformation show this past weekend hosted by the Central Iowa Kennel Club and held at the Des Moines fairgrounds. We usually enter this show because it's in our backyard and we get to hang out with lots of our friends. Famke hadn't been in the conformation ring since September so I thought it would be a good idea to get her back out there anyway.

On Saturday there were 5 bitches entered but only 4 showed up and I nearly passed out when the judge pointed to us for Winners Bitch! I honestly was not expecting to win and it was a very nice surprise. It's not that Famke didn't show well, she showed beautifully, it's just that she is little on the small side and looks less mature than other bitches her age.

Then on Sunday Famke was winners bitch again with 3 girls entered! It was another pleasant surprise and she showed her little heart out again.

Famke is a total joy to show! I have no idea how I lucked out with such a natural show dog as my first conformation prospect. When I first got Famke I had just planned to show her in conformation for fun and to learn more about it. I learned about the whole conformation game while showing her and she was a natural right from the beginning. She LOVES it and she is so darn happy and animated while showing that you can't help but smile. She seems to feed off the attention of the judge and onlookers.

I have been struggling with the decision about whether or not to spay Famke. After her heat cycles she gets into this weird funk where she is spooky, noise sensitive, and fearful, which is NOT her. And this weird funk lasts for months. Not so much fun for a performance dog! Now I am trying to decide if we should hold off spaying her to pursue her championship. She has 9 or 10 points so far, so she still needs two 3 point majors. We have only been to two shows where there were majors in Fieldies...the 2011 National and a huge supported entry show. We haven't had much opportunity. It is really hard to find majors for Fieldies in the Midwest so I would have to do some traveling. Ughh I just don't know!

Decisions, decisions!!!

AMAZING photos of my pups!

The VERY talented Leah Petesch of Sizzledog Photography took these pics of the dogs out at Jester Park this past October. It was a freakishly warm day (nearly 80 degrees!!!) so we only got one photo of Famke with her mouth closed because she was panting the whole time. We hiked all the way into the park with Famke but only took pics of Falkor near the parking lot. It was BEYOND packed with people and there were way too many ding dongs with their dogs off leash for me to able to bring Falkor on the hike. I was beyond thrilled with how the pics turned out and I hope to maybe get some nice winter pics or spring pics once everything is nice and green again.

My all time favorite picture of Falkor. I LOVE this pic!

Love that she caught this shot. :)

Love how you can see her back paw. :)

Pretty girl posing. :)

Goals for 2012!!

One thing I do love about the new year is all the possibility it brings. I enjoy making goals for the new year! Here we go!

Falkor
It's difficult to write about my plans for Falkor because there were so many plans that I had that won't ever come to fruition. Because of Falkor's knee issue, we won't be able to pursue training for our CDX. That makes me sad but I've come to terms with it. I do think that we might try for our UKC CD. It will depend on how things go with Falkor's comfort level around other dogs. He has been doing SO much better but we'll see how things go from here.

I would like to get the final leg for his Rally Excellent Title.

I would love to buckle down and really work on tracking. I have said the same thing for the past two years but maybe 2012 will finally be the year!

Our biggest plan is to work on Freestyle! Falkor absolutely LOVES freestyle and he seems to have a knack for it. I am hoping to plan a routine for the 2012 Great Dane National. I think it will be big fun.

Famke
I plan to work towards getting a CD with Famke. We have lots of polishing and tweaking to do to get where I would like to be. Famke has the potential to be a great little performance dog and I just hope I don't screw it up. LOL

Perhaps try to get her Rally Advanced title.

Work on tracking as well.

I think we will still dabble in conformation as well, but pending the rest of her health testing we may be getting her spayed. Her cycles themselves aren't that bad, maybe a bit annoying but not the end of the world. BUT Famke seems to get realllly weird after her cycle. She get's spooky and edgy and just not like her self. After her last heat she got weird and it lasted for months!! She just finsihed her last heat in November so we will see how she is in the upcoming months. If it happens again we will be getting her spayed sooner than later.

We have lots going on and I am looking forward to the new adventures 2012 will bring us!!

Fieldie Family Fun!

On New Year's Eve, my best friend Shannon and I traveled to Famke's breeder's house to visit a bunch of the fieldie family . Peter, who is one of Famke's co-breeders, came down from Canada with his 11 field spaniel kids. With all of our fieldies together we had a total of 22, yes 22 dogs!!!!

It was wonderful to get to meet Famke's Grandparents and bunches of other relatives. All the fieldies that were present are related to some degree. Yeah our breed has a gene puddle. LOL It was a blast and completely amazed me that with 22 dogs together there were only a few snarks!! Famke was completely exhausted the next day and Falkor was pissed he had to stay home. :)

Famke's littermates (minus one that lives in New Jersey) From the left - Giddy, Cola, Famke and Ellie.

Famke kisses and brother Giddy cashed out on my lap.

A few of the fieldies that were present. We couldn't get everyone together in one pic. LOL

Holiday Whirlwind!

WOW how is it 2012 already??? The holiday season literally flew by in a blur. We had a very nice holiday, but I always feel a little blue after all the fanfare of the holidays is over. I think it is helping a bit that until yesterday we had unseasonably warm temps and NO snow!! Weird but I will take it. :) I am looking forward to getting back on track with training and having some sort of schedule again. I am excited for what 2012 may bring!

The pups had a wonderful Christmas and we actually got to go out and play at the park on Christmas because it was nearly 50 degrees!! The dogs loved it and it helped tire them out some. Falkor dog some Dane size dog toys (a HUGE fleecy fuzzy man and a HUGE fleecy fuzzy ball) and plays with them all the time. Famke got a new treat dispensing toy and a honking duck toy, and she will not share either of them!

" I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy"

"Oh Squishy makes a fun sound when you squeeze him!"