News
Autumn is expecting!
Good news, finally, Autumn is expecting a litter of puppies at the end of March 2019. There will be limited puppies available as the litter is not going to be large. |
Sherry becomes a Novice!
We had a lovely weekend in the Hawke's Bay on 7 and 8 September to compete in some obedience competitions. Saturday was a complete 'fail' but that was my fault for being in the wrong frame of mind. However, on Sunday I got myself together and made sure that Sherry was not going to get away with anything. Not only did we, surprisingly, come first in Special Beginners, but we also got 72 points which is a qualifying round and means that we are now finished with Special Beginners. We can no longer compete in that event. We are Novices now! I'm very proud of my Sherry because we got there with not really much practice. We just don't get enough time. We will have to put in more effort now!  |
Golden Retriever grooming
I am now offering a Golden Retriever grooming service for the Wellington region. Go to my Grooming Your Golden page for details. |
First North Island Challenge Certificate (CC) for Sherry
We had a great weekend in Hastings. The weather wasn't the usual hot and sticky stuff with guaranteed sun, no. It was predicted to be the only place in New Zealand to have rain at the weekend. So, having heard the prediction of that a week beforehand, we altered our plans, and instead of the weekend being our last camping weekend of the season, we chickened out and booked a motel! We were glad we did because the ground was very wet and it was drizzly on the Friday night, so we would have been putting our tent up in the wet and then trying to hunker down for the night. Nice motel and I managed to persuade the owner to let me have the dogs in the kitchen area. We had only take Shadow and Sherry, so not too many to be in a small kitchen. Saturday morning dawned a bit drizzly but by the time we got going - the show started at 8am and we left the motel at 8.30am - the drizzle had mostly gone and it was just a bit cloudy. At least it wasn't windy. At the morning show we got nowhere with either Shadow or Sherry but at the afternoon show Sherry got a Reserve Bitch CC, which means she was the second best golden retriever bitch there. We were quite happy with that. Sunday we did the same again, left the motel around 8.30am (but because of daylight saving ending we actually got an extra hour's sleep) and prepared for another go in the ring. In the morning show once again Sherry got the Reserve Bitch CC and so we were again really chuffed with that. Then, when she went up against the dog in the Junior class, the judge had difficulty trying to decide which one to give the award to and had to look at the dogs a few times to make her decision. In the end she put the boy up, but it was a pretty close call. As you can see from the photos below, Sherry was very tired after the morning show and took time out for a bit of a cuddle and snooze! Shadow was on guard.   Then came the afternoon show. The judge clearly liked the look of Sherry and he gave her the Bitch Challenge Certificate (CC) - that is what you want to get in breed showing, eight CCs and you can call your dog a Champion officially. We were absolutely stoked. Sherry has now got five CCs, so only three more to go. Sherry also beat the best boy dog to become Best of Breed for the show.  Now, there is no video or even photograph of this tumultuous event. My better half was standing by the ring looking after my numbers and slicker brush etc, and if you stand near the ring when the golden retrievers are showing, you become what I can only think of to call a doggie coat hanger, e.g. people hand you a dog to hold while they go in the ring with another dog, and then they come out and swap that dog for another dog, and someone else commandeers your other arm with a dog or two. So, that is what happened to Rob. He became surrounded by dogs with both his arms out each side and people putting and taking dogs willy nilly! So, there were no arms for a camera even if he had thought about it. Once you get Best of Breed, you get to go in for the Gundog Group awards, and Sherry went up for Best of Group and Junior of Group. She didn't win either of these but Rob did have his camera at the ready for this and below is a video of Sherry running for Best of Group. So, all in all we had a great weekend. We didn't leave Hastings till 4.45pm and got home at 8.45pm - very tired but happy with our Challenge Certificate. |
Sherry continues to shine in obedience
Sherry had another good weekend in obedience at Waikanae. Our Saturday started just after dawn with a beautiful, still morning. The moon was nearly full and the sky was a lovely colour.  The dogs had a nice walk on the park before we headed off to Waikanae. The day was sunny and hot so it was good that we were on fairly early in the morning. We completed the obedience and Sherry achieved 70.5 points out of 75 gaining 4th place.  Waiting for our 4th place award. Receiving our award from the judge Sunday was a bit cloudy but still pretty good for obedience, not too hot. Sherry did a bit better in the heel work (see video below) and gained 71 points out of 75 to get 2nd place.    So two more ribbons and some dog biscuits were won this weekend, and the reward on Sunday was a lovely swim at Waikanae beach. Then on Monday Sherry had a bit of chill time with her favourite toy, "Monkey."    |
Sherry competes in her first obedience championship test
Sherry has done really well today, competing in her first obedience championship show in Special Beginners and coming second on 72 points out of 75. Not bad at all. This was done at Levin on a lovely day, not much wind and not too much sun to make us too hot. She did pretty well in the heel work, a really good recall and perfect in her sit and down stays. I was very proud of her.  See Sherry's Breed and Obedience show achievements pages for other achievements. |
South Island Epic Adventure coming soon!
A new page is in the process of being created with the story of our recent South Island adventure. Please be patient as these things take time to create, but rest assured it will be loaded as soon as it is finished. Here are one or two photos for you to enjoy.      |
Snow dogs
It's been a long time since I have updated my website but then again, nothing out of the ordinary has been happening really so nothing to report on. However, last week, mid August, we had an event worth noting - it snowed in Wellington - in fact it snowed just about everywhere in the country. This is most unusual and although I have seen a few flakes fall on rare occasions when I have been here I haven't really seen it settle like it did last week. And to cap it all off we had a couple of power cuts too and our heat pump didn't seem to like the extreme cold and so we were left heaterless for a couple of days. The dogs had three cosy nights sleeping with us in the bedroom with the radiator on. Surprisingly our four large dogs were very quiet all night long and didn't wake us with their dreams or snoring. They also had a couple of days cooped up in the office with me as the rest of the house was so cold, (7.5 degrees brrr) so the radiator, dogs and I all hibernated in the office while I was working. They actually seemed quite happy so long as they got their walks each day. On the Monday I took them for a walk in the snow to the top of the hills here - Sugarloaf Rock - to get a view of the Hutt Valley. Below are some photos from the walk.      Sitting at the top of Sugarloaf doing our own thing (left). Eating dinner in the snow (right). Tuesday it decided to snow even harder and quite a bit fell over an hour or two. Below are some photos of our garden in the snow and also a video of Sherry and Shadow playing on the deck in the snow.     |
Sherry wins against other breeds of dogs
We had a super day on Sunday 13 February 2011. What started out as a thought that we would be at the dog show just for the morning and then would probably be home by lunch time turned into a marathon effort with us not arriving home until 7.15pm. Both Sherry and Shadow were competing, Sherry in Puppy and Shadow in Open. Sherry was the only puppy bitch so she got through in her class automatically (see video below). Shadow, on the other hand, had three others to compete against and I was absolutely chuffed because she got second. Not only that, but she felt like she was beginning to enjoy running with me and that was really lovely to feel that in her (see video below). Neither dogs did anything in the bitch line up, although Shadow did have to enter the ring with someone else because the other Open Bitch actually won the challenge. That was the end of Shadow's day. Sherry had to go back into the ring to compete against the Dog Puppy and lo and behold, she won. So then we had to wait around for the Puppy of Group award. By this time it was exceedingly hot and it was hard to keep both humans and dogs cool. However, it was well worth the wait because Sherry actually won! First time to win against other breeds of dogs. That was very exciting and below is a video of that prestigious win. Of course, this meant that we had to stay for the "In Show" awards, so that meant moving the van so it was closer to the ring and enabled us to provide ourselves and the dogs with a bit of shade to sit in. It must have been 28 or 29 degrees by mid afternoon and very hot both in and out of the sun. When we went in the ring for the "In show" awards the judge would send us out of the ring once she had seen our dog to find some shade while she checked other dogs over. We all entered the ring again at the end for the awarding of the prize. Sherry didn't win this one, but it was very exciting to actually be in the line up and I hope I did her justice. What a great day. (Click to enlarge photo)  |
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