Canadian National Specialty Weekend

What a great time I had this weekend in Long Sault, Ontario (just outside of Cornwall) at the SSCC National Specialty. The Standard Schnauzer entry for the Specialty was 29 in total, a fair number for a show considering you don't often have any entries at shows in Canada. Exhibitors travelled from across the country with both BC and Nova Scotia exhibitors in attendance and several from the USA. It was such fun catching up with old friends and making some new ones as well. Thank you to everyone with our dogs that came out to enjoy the show. Dinsdale dogs in attendance this weekend were: Ch.Dinsdale Double Trouble 'Breeze' Ch. Dinsdale Champagne Celebration 'Lia' Dinsdale Champagne Flute 'Flute' Dinsdale Champagne Upsy Daisy 'Daisy' Dinsdale-Chimera Blackberry 'Hilde' Dinsdale Sweet William 'Will' Dinsdale-Chimera Brenna Berry 'Brenna' Dinsdale Licorice Allsorts 'Anise' Paricda N Dinsdale Junebug 'Juno' Daisy poses at home with one of her ribbons. I only entered Daisy in the Specialty on Saturday as I knew I would be busy in Agility with Juno. I was very pleased to have Daisy win - Best in Sweepstakes at the National on Saturday. Unfortunately right afterwards I had to hurry to the Agility ring with Juno for our first trial and didn't have time for a proper show photo. This was taken today, as you can see by the state of her nose, she spent yesterday enjoying a good dig in the yard, oh well at least I had her clean for 3 days in a row :-) Standard Schnauzer Club of Canada National Specialty Best of Breed Line-up on Friday Ch.Dinsdale Champagne Celebration being presented to the judge by her owner Line Champagne A casual photo taken of Lia outside the rings on Sunday Flute being gaited in the ring for the Judge on Friday. Dinsdale Champagne Flute about to be examined. Flute won Reserve Winners Bitch this day shown by Line. Below Anise is patiently waiting to be called into the ring. Anise is a Fiddle & Monty daughter from our Summer 2007 litter. Owner Karen flew to Ontario from BC with her girl Anise, Dinsdale Licorice Allsorts, to attend the show. Anise has done well in the show rings and is only looking for one more point towards her Canadian Championship. Flute and Anise blow off some puppy steam playing after being in the show ring. No matter what colour, all schnauzers play the same! Teri & Pierre from Massachusetts are proud owners of Dinsdale-Chimera's Brenna Berry. Brenna is a Mira X Max pup from a co-breeding with Brooke Thomas summer of 2006. Brenna and Pierre were competing in Agility along with myself and Juno. They had some great runs in Novice, including two qualifying runs in Novice Standard, and THREE Q's in Novice Jumpers giving Brenna a new title! I had such a good time getting to know them, I hope they make it back up to Canada in the future to finish more agility titles. Below she is pictured with her sister Hilde, Dinsdale-Chimera Blackberry. Brenna on the Left and her sister Hilde on the right...and yes, they are both black standard schnauzers. And lastly but certainly not least, Juno poses with some of her winnings. Juno and I competed in three agility trials on the weekend and placed first in our class each time, completing our Novice Standards title and winning the Highest Scoring Standard Schnauzer on the day of the National. She is now officially know as Paricda N Dinsdale Junebug, AGN! Hooray Juno. A couple photos taken by Line Champagne of Juno and I on course Sunday morning. At the end of the day our show dogs are very much our companions, below Line exercising her schnauzers after the shows.

What colour is that dog?

If you said Black you would be right, Juno however does not possess good, true, clear black coloration. Granted, she is now clipped not hand stripped, but her loss of colour started well before I decided to stop stripping her coat. Her sire is Pepper & Salt, her mom is Black, this combination does not always produce a nice deep black coat. I bred Juno to a nicely coloured black male, her daughter Hexe has a beautiful black coat. Most of our black litters have been sired by our black male Monty whom we imported from the Czech Republic. He produces only black pups regardless of if we breed him to a black female, or, a Pepper & Salt. At some point owners of black pups may mention they are seeing white hair in the coat of their black pups, and does this mean they will end up with a Pepper & Salt pup? No, their pup will remain black, perhaps like Juno, hopefully better in colour, but either way, there will be no mistaking that their schnauzer is indeed black.

Five Minutes with Edee....

A reflective moment "Can the big dogs come too?" "I hear strange noises in them woods" Further investigation is necessary "Every now and then I throw in a show stack to make Lori happy" Time for a piddle, one of the approximately 422 pee breaks that Edee partakes in daily And she is off again Can you handle 24 hours?

Things my dogs have killed

Jewels the mighty huntress poses with a less then lively Chipmunk (look into her beard). This photo was taken a couple years ago. Today while out scooping the front yard I had to pick up the remains of an unfortunate Garter Snake. My dogs are death on Garter Snakes, which I find sad as snakes eat mice and we hate mice! Below is a list of Canadian Wildlife that my dogs have killed over the years...I am sure I am missing a few... Garter Snakes, many, many, MANY Garter Snakes Toads, which make the dogs froth at the mouth and drool but they persevere Voles Lovely little Red Squirrel Frogs, they don't make the dogs froth and drool and are much more fun to chase. Flying Squirrel, sadly this was one of the first things Madie killed when we moved to the country. Rat...or was it a.... ...Muskrat...a litter of 7 week old pups destroyed it beyond recognition before we could verify what the beast was. Mice Cottontail Rabbits Lots of summer fledglings Chipmunks, I think the Schnauzers cull out the dumb, slow ones A beautiful winter Cardinal, I believe the second critter Madie killed when we moved to the country Bullfrogs

It's a Family Thing

Check out the beautiful nose on Mersey's son Jaxson. That's genetics for you!
Thank you to Jennifer, Jaxson's owner, for sending me these beautiful photos of her boy.