Family Ties

Family is important to James...

_____________

Familjen är viktig för James...

Above from left: James (18 months), Chief (6 years), Ior (6 months).

Above 2 pics are from yesterday when Chief and Ior had a blast. :) These pics are taken by Kennel Needful Thing's.

Father & Son Duo?

....mmm, can they possibly be related?
_______
Syns det att det är far och son möjligtvis?

My heart is aching

I received these pics a short while ago - it's Ior - James' half brother who we "baby-sat" for a week right before Xmas. James and Ior LOVED each other. James' whole demeanor changed when he all of a sudden had to become a big brother. It was quite amazing to see. Ior comes from Kennel Needful Thing's, the home of Jay's father.

Well, little Ior just got a new hoodie - how cute and gorgeous can a baby be???

www.needfulthings.se

Here he is...

...Atlas. James' beautiful brother who did so well at the show today... He's a handsome young man. :)

Puppies

I must have died and gone to heaven!!!!!! Does life get much better than this???? Puppies, puppies, puppies! :) They are James' half siblings who we visited last Friday.

Above: Everybody wants to be in my lap at the same time. :) On the 2nd pic is the proud Mom.

Above: Here's the sweetest one of them all -"Little Ferdinand". I'm in love with this little man.

Above: Here's "Ferdinand" with his half brother James... hihi.. Jay wanted to play with him. :)

Above: The handsome Chief to the left (Jay's Dad) and James himself on the 2nd pic. Any similarities??! :) I know - they are both GORGEOUS! (wink, wink :))

Guess what we did yesterday?

We went to visit Marina at Kennel Needful Thing's and her 8 very beautiful puppies. We also got to say hi to James' gorgeous Daddy and the other beautiful dogs she has. I fell in love with one puppy, he was like Ferdinand. One look, and I was sold... OMG he was so damn cute! And you must know by now that I'm in love with James' dad, and he's the father of these puppies (yup, so the puppies were James' half-siblings). hihi...I want my little Ferdinad, I want him, I want him!!! :)

I have pics of the puppies but I don't have a cord for downloading them to the computer right now. We are in the country and I don't have my computer with me... well, I wonder why! The damn computer could burn up any minute so I will need to buy a new...

This morning we took the dogs to the lake. Yeah it is getting a bit cold but James does not mind.. he throws himself in the water and like always, prefers to stay in the water forever. :) On the way to the lake we stopped and laid 2 tracks, so on the way home the boys got to do some tracking. I had laid a long track for James this time, and he was very fast (as always) and even though he gets off track every now-and-then he gets to the end ... in a short amount of time too. :) After James, it was Alih's turn and he did a lot better compared to the last time, but he still wasn't as good as he can be... But come on, the boy is old and as an old man he prefers not to be told what to do, but rather do whatever he feels like. :)

Ooooooh, I have to show you pics of the puppies.. and of Mr. Ferdinand. You would melt just like me...promise!

Atlas

I got some new pics of Atlas, James' gorgeous brother. He is soooo beautiful ... he's a yummy man just like my wild baby. :)

James' Mom

We got a chance to meet James' mom yesterday... It was the first time I met her, and she was so pretty and easy-going! We could see several similarities between James and his mom, who's name is Nova by the way.

Jamie's mom

Mother & Son :)

By the way - I'd like to thank everybody who sent us congratulatory messages in regards to James winning the C.A.C. - THANK YOU!

No Luck at the Dog Show

We managed to beat the rain. :) Shortly after we were done the rain came, but at that time we were ready to pack up and leave. I guess that was about all the luck we had for the day. :(

Unfortunately, Jay did not do that well today, but I guess shit like that happens. He received a # 2 score (2:a kv) in the quality judging session, which meant the day was over for him. :( Scoring a "2" means "very good" but he needs "excellent" in order to go on to the competition part. It sort of came as a shocker considering how well he has done before. But everybody goes through set-backs, I guess. All judges have different tastes... so it’s not much one can do about that. We will have time to "lick our wounds” until next Sunday when it is time for a new Dog Show. It is in Ransäter, Värmland. A different judge and a new place. Let’s cross our fingers & toes things will go better this time!

The judge was Jovanovic Nemanja from Serbia, and the critic sounds like this:

Correct type, correct head, should have stronger under-jaw, head is a bit wide in the cheeks, a little big but correct position of the ears, enough long neck, excellent chest, enough strong topline, a bit narrow behind in movement, correct tail.

Jay’s dad was at the show too, and he did great. So Congratulations to the gorgeous Papa (Chief). :) And a big THANK YOU to Marina who keeps showing James for us. James looked perfect in the ring, ....he just didn't meet the judge’s "excellent" criteria, apparently.

My Jamie in the Show Ring

Gorgeous Daddy-O :)

Chief in the Show Ring

Half sister Tequila was at the show too (same Dad). She is so damn pretty, this young lady.

The World Dog Show!

We had a great time at the World Dog Show. We went to the "Amstaff Ring" almost immediately upon arriving, and there we met James brother Atlas. Atlas and his “mommy” were waiting on their turn to enter the ring, and we got a chance to chat with them for a little bit. Atlas received a "Very Good" rating on the quality judging part but was kicked out in the competition part, which I believe they are still happy with considering the fierce competition. When the Male Juniors were done, we headed to the obedience ring and the World Championship in Obedience. It was great fun to see. We only watched a few countries though as we wanted to head back to the Amstaff Ring and watch the Male Amstaff Champions compete. Wow, talk about beautiful dogs. The winning dog was actually an American bred dog, but now owned by a kennel in Denmark, and the dog that came second is owned by a well-established Swedish kennel. All the Champions were sooooo beautiful but I believe the judge got it right in the end. At first it almost seemed impossible to pick one out of all these beautiful dogs. But I really fell for the winner and the runner up, and I told Mr. L. when the judge had narrowed it down to five: “You watch. Those 2 dogs will come first and second”... and they sure did. It was something out of the ordinary with them; they had personalities that shine through.

After that it was time to do a little shopping. Hihi.. I got a new leather leash for James and a new show leash as well. Oh, he will be so pretty. :) I got a few other small things but that was about it. I was actually a bit disappointed with the shopping; it was not as much as I had expected and the prices were not that good either. Anyhow, we ended up going back to the obedience ring where we more or less stayed until it was time to head home.

Right now I am waiting on both my babies to come home!! :) I have missed them like crazy this weekend, so I can barley wait.

Atlas waiting to enter the Show Ring

Holiday - Valborgsmässoafton!

We are getting ready to leave for the country (to my parents house) due to it being a holiday tomorrow. But the actual celebrations will take place tonight. It is an old tradition called "valborgsmässoafton" celebrated in Sweden along with some other European countries. Now-a-days the tradition mostly means that we are celebrating the arrival of spring... we light a big bonfire and then we stand around and look at it. Hihi..sounds like lots of fun, eh?! But let's not forget, today is also the birthday of the Swedish King, so all the flags are flying high. Happy Birthday King Carl XVI Gustaf!!!! =)Anyhow, I thought I share some pics of Jay's brother Atlas today. Is he not adorable??!!!!! He's a real cutie. And very calm too ... not like crazy James at all. =)

Next weekend is a big one for us!

This is James' gorgous father; SUCH Alta Carya Chief Quanah Parker

It is time for James 2nd and 3rd Dog Show/Conformation Show on May 3rd and 4th. He will be competing in the Puppy Class for dogs between the ages of 6-9 months. For any Swedes who may be interested, the show will be held in Forshaga, Värmland. It is Värmland-Dals Terrier Club that’s celebrating 30 years, thus the show being a 2-day event. Two Spanish judges will judge/critic the Amstaffs, and we are registered for both days. I am starting to feel the excitement already. James has only been to one other show, at the age of 6 months, and it went really well at that time. He came 2nd with an “HP prize”. I do not know what it’s called in English (if there even is an equivalent) but it means that he has champion quality. My Gosh, Mr. L and I were so darn proud of our little blue one! It was James' breeder who showed him for us, and she did a wonderful job!

The handler this time around will be the owner of James dad. That extremely handsome man you can see on the above pic. The owner, Miss M. has lots of experience showing dogs so we are crossing our fingers it will go really well. Soooooooooooooooooooo exciting! James dad (Chief) will also be competing at the show... but not in James’ class of course. =) He’s a Champion and will compete against other Champions.

Yeah, so as you can hear it is going to be a big weekend for us coming up. Please cross your fingers for Mr. James. Knowing this you may also understand why we keep getting worked up when James gets scratches. He cannot come to the show looking like some undomesticated...hmmm, Dingo. (LOL) He has to be as pretty as can be!!!

I believe James' mom along with the breeder’s other dogs, are at a Dog Show this weekend as a matter of fact. They live far, far away from us. Pretty much as far north as you can come in Sweden... (ever heard of the Ice Hotel? Well, that’s their neck of the woods). Due to the distance the show is not anywhere near us but hopefully we get some updates tonight or after the weekend on how it went. We are obviously crossing our fingers for all the dogs, but a little extra for James' mommy. =)

We came back from our tracking class a while ago and it went well, at least the last 2 tracks. The first one was a little so so...Our instructor had laid tracks for all of us before we got there, and it was a track with an angle. James is not really ready for that just yet. But we did find “the end” eventually. The other 2 tracks I laid for him, he did excellent. I am very proud of my son. He’s getting better and better. =)

Anyhow, that’s it for me today.

Take care ya’ all. Ciao!

Above pic: Jay's Daddy



Above pic: Jay's mommy (Nova). A very pretty lady!