TAEJA WINS A MAJOR TODAY

Taeja is pictured here winning her first point under Judge Roger Hartinger a couple weeks ago but today she won a major under Judge Dalton at Bartlesville, OK with friend Betsy Owens handling. Taeja is owned Ivy Wetsch, my sister and partner.

Taeja is just a puppy and seems she has been the Reserve queen this past couple months. So maybe the 'dry spell' has been broken and she'll take off. She has a few more shows this fall. Taeja's littermate, Cleo, finished with 4 majors so now it is Taeja's turn!

Antonio's Win Photo From Lawrence, KS

Pictured here is Lamars Antonio, bred by Gayle Essex, and owned by Joan Groh, Miles City MT and handled by Betsy Owens taking his second major of the weekend in Lawrence, KS. We are so proud of Antonio coming here and making himself right at home and showing so well. Last weekend he bombed though because he 'fell in love' with all the girls in season at Betsy's house.

At the Oklahoma Chihuahua Specialty in Tulsa on 10/30 he went Reserve Winners Dog and Betsy says he has his focus back. So lets hope he picks up some more of the 6 remaining points he needs to finish so he can go home to Montana before the snow flies!

Baby Smiley Wins BOV Her First Show

This is pretty little Smiley at six and one half months old in her first show. She won 1 point and Best of Variety under Judge Arley Hussin at Fremont, NE October 18, 2008. She showed very well and even the photographer was impressed at how quickly he was able to snap the photo. He said, anytime you can get a good photo of a chihuahua this fast is amazing.

Smiley's next two shows didn't go as well. She realized that this was serious business and not play time...so we have a little more work to do to get her back to gaiting like she can. She is great on the table tho. Watch for her updates..probably next year. She has one weekend of shows left this fall and then we are pretty much done showing until it slowly starts back up in January.

Scotch's 5 Point Major Win Photo

Here is beautiful Lamars Scotch On the Rocks-S owned by Dena Wortman and here being shown by Gayle.

The photo is her winning a big 5 point major under Judge Raymond Bay at Lawrence, Kansas. We were so excited that day as another home bred, Lamars Antonio went Winners Dog and Best of Winners for a 5 pt major also. We will post his photo when we get it.

Scotch is probably one of the most sound chihuahuas you will see. She is really hard to find fault with in my opinion. Her markings have made it difficult for the judges to evaluate her head as well as they could so it is taking her longer to finish. But this girl is showy, wonderful moving up and back and around. Her topline is outstanding as is her tail set. Plus she has that terrier temperament so lacking in some chis. She doesn't have that extreme head but I'll take her head and soundness any day over a dog with just and extreme head.

Scotch was bred to Antonio last week so we expect some outstanding puppies in a couple months. She will be going to her owner in Canada mid November to whelp her babies. We hope she will have her Championship by then. If not, she will come back to the States in the Spring to finish. She has 9 points and one major.

UPS AND DOWNS

As we all know, life is full of ups and downs. We have been blessed to be able to have had many ups to report over the past few weeks. In the show ring our dogs have won many awards this year and believe me, the competition is fierce here in the midwest! In the whelping box, our beautiful bitches have produced us many lovely puppies to make us proud.

Unfortunately this week, we have had to experience the down side. We are so sad to have to report that our beautiful Champion Whisperun Lamars Caramel died on October 22 at only 5 years of age. She was such a wonderful companion to my daughter Brandy's family and they of course, are devastated by her early death.

Then Ivy's beautiful litter out of Blaze and Beep has diminished by two with the loss of two beautiful little fawn bitches. One was a tiny one that tried hard but couldn't make it. The other died this morning suddenly. A breeder friend says he calls it SIDS when one dies this quickly. I guess that makes as good of sense as anything. Needless to say we are taking precautions on the rest of her litter and have them started on antibiotics just in case it was something else.

To top it off...we are taking our turn at losing in the show ring this weekend! But we understand you can't win all the time. So we try to take our losses graciously.

Hopefully the following weeks and posts to the blog will be back to the 'happy notes'.

BEAUTIFUL COOKIE AND DIDI

I'd like to share these beautiful photos of the last two IG's that I sold. Thank you Erika for sharing them. I do miss the IG's and am sure I'll have another some day. I just felt a need to concentrate on the chihuahua's right now. But for anyone who doesn't know IG's...they are a joy to live with. We'll watch for these girls in the show ring next Spring. They now live in Montana where showing has come to a stop for the long winter.

BEEP BEEP WHELPS LUCKY 7

What a busy morning we have had here. Beep's temperature dropped so we headed in for a C section (with her previous whelping history we knew we needed to have one).

We knew she was huge and her previous litters were big...5 and 6. But who knew this time she had seven in there?! BEST OF ALL SHE PRESENTED US WITH 4 GIRLS AND 3 BOYS.. we are always happy with a larger girl to boy ratio! We were also so happy with the colors...2 blacks and 5 fawns.

The breakdown is 2 fawn males and 1 black (tri) male, and 1 black/white girl(probably tri) and 3 fawn girls. Mom and kids are doing fine so far. Ivy is panicking...lol Beep does ok with 4 or 5 but 7 is a bit much. Sugar's kids are tiny so we will probably bring a couple of Beeps smaller kids over to Sugar. In the photo the two boys are on the right as you look at the photo.

Funny thing is, Sugar's kids at 4 days are still smaller than most of Beeps!

We will keep you posted on the progress of the Sugar and Beep kids. Needless to say, since both litters are CHAMPION SIRE AND CHAMPION DAM there is no shortage of people wanting these guys. We will each keep a Beep kid and Ivy maybe two because we dont' know if she'll be bred again.

SIX MONTH OLD WILD ANGEL WINS IN FIRST SHOW

Hurd's Wild Angel At Lamar (alias Smiley) who is just six months old won Best of Variety today in her first show garnering her first point. She showed her little heart out going around the ring like she was a seasoned show dog...tail up and gaiting nicely. She was steady on the table which is doubly impressive for a chihuahua puppy. The photographer commented anytime you can get a chihuahua photograph that quick and easy is outstanding. Let's hope she repeats tomorrow!

This photo was in a training session last month. We will update with the show photo when it comes. We are excited about this little bundle of energy!

Murray and Liberty got Reserves today. So lets hope for better luck with them tomorrow. They both showed really well..especially Liberty.

MURRAY'S PHOTO FROM CCA NATIONAL SPECIALTY

As promised, here is the photo from Murray's prestigious placing at the Chihuahua Club of America's National Specialty this month. This was his first show and even though he wasn't feeling well he still showed like a little trooper and won the 4th place out of 12 puppies in his 6-9 month puppy class.

He was falling asleep during the photos because we had to wait until all the Smooth Dogs had been judged...which took hours. Then we had to wait in line. The day before he had shown in Sweepstakes and got pulled for that. Friday evening, after the Sweeps judging we also entered the Fun Match and he also got 4th in that class.

We feel Murray really represented Lamars well and it was especially pleasing for me to show him as breeder/owner handler.

FRANKIE AND SUGAR PUPPIES HAVE ARRIVED

Well, I am happy to report after long night, Sugar sucessfully free whelped her 4 babies. She once again made us very happy with having mostly girls again. This is a repeat breeding and the puppies from the first breeding are just hitting the show ring this fall. But of course, since it is almost winter...Spring will be when they will be out in earnest.

We are proud to announce 3 females and l male. The male is a white so will probably be creme. The 3 females are Gold/White, White, and Chocolate or Sable and White. The first breeding was 2 fawn and 1 tri and 1 fawn spotted on white. Funny how you can have the same sire and dam and get different coloring all the time.

Watch the blog and website for updates as they grow. Sugar has lots of milk so they'll be fat pigs in no time.

LAMARS GRABS TWO 5 POINT MAJORS TODAY

Another WOW day for Lamars. The Lawrence KS Kennel Club show Oct 11 was a Red Letter Day for us. Lamars Antonio, owned by Joan Groh and bred by Gayle, won Best of Winners for a 5 point major. Then Gayle showed Scotch who was bred by Gayle's daughter Lari and is owned by Dena Wortman, won a 5 point major. We are so excited for these two big wind and thank Judge Bay for this kind of honor. Needless to say both breeders and owners are so happy. It would be great if it could be repeated tomorrow but we know that would be pushing our luck...lol. Watch for the winners photos.

Lamars Murano (Murray) won his class today but he thought getting up at 4 AM to go to a dog show was a bit much and he didn't seem really with it today. That's ok...because we wanted Antonio to win so he can go back home to Montana before the snow flies!

Ivy's bitch Taeja, a beautiful long coat girl being shown by Betsy Owens won Reserve Winners Bitch today. So all in all, everyone we showed did pretty well.

CHIHUAHUA NATIONAL SPECIALTY WINS

Ivy and Gayle attended the Chihuahua Club of America National Specialty October 3-5. It was a long drive and tiring weekend but we are thrilled to announce that we had 3 of our puppies compete in the 6-9 month old puppy class and on Friday in the Sweepstakes Lamars Knight Rider of Ka-Lynn won 4th place in this very competitive class of 12 with Lamars Murano-S making the cut of the first 5 puppies. Lamars Dream Big-S was shown by his new owner and did very well for his first show.

Then we went to the puppy match Friday evening. Again most of the puppies who competed in the Sweepstakes attended the match for more training! This time Lamar's Murano-S won 4th place in the same big class.!

On Saturday, once again these same puppies competed under the wonderful Judge, Michelle Billings and Lamars Murano-S won 4th place!!!!! Needless to say we were so thrilled at how well our babies represented us there. Murano (Murray) and Dream Big(Gage) had never been entered in a show before so this was a big one for their first out! Gage was just barely old enough to show so he did very well for a baby. We expect big things from all these boys.

We also showed Ivy's new Champion Lily in the Best of Breed Competition with 38 other Champions. It was just a thrill to be in the ring in the company of so many beautiful chi's. Lily showed beautifully as usual. She is now retired to the whelping box and to live the life of riley.

Ivy and Gayle were also voted on at the Specialty and we are proud to announce we are accepted for membership in to the Chihuahua Club of America.