vikingdobermans.com Blog

Some photos–Charlie Brown’s CDX Ribbons

Ch. Careveille Dizzy Miss Lizzy — 5/13/1992 – 07/23/2000

Today is the anniversary of  Ch. Careveille Dizzy Miss Lizzy’s birth

–one of my very special heart dogs…

I showed and finished her in the breed ring myself, including two five point, back to back, specialty wins!

Rest in peace dear Lizzard-girl.  Our love for each other is manifested in the love I am able to give and receive from my two current heart dogs, Zellie and Charlie Brown.

Thank you for the many gifts you gave me, especially the ability to continue to give and receive love from my current loves who carry on for you–they take care of me, make me laugh and make sure I am never alone… just as you did!

PUPPIES EXPECTED: LINDY X CHARLIE BROWN IN JUNE 2010

Ch. Viking’s Charlie Brown, CDX, ROM, VPG II, OB3, ZTP1A, TT, CGC,  ”Charlie Brown” , was bred and is expecting puppies from  Ch. Dancing Star’s Born to Fly, ROM, AX, AXJ, NF,  ”Lindy”…  Lindy chose Charlie because she was looking for a beau who is an AKC Champion and she wanted him to have performance titles.  Lindy and her parents also wanted him to be health tested and they wanted him to be a ROM.  They did not want him to carry dilution and they wanted a dog whose body type would compliment Lindy’s body.  And they wanted a dog whose temperament and drive would help Lindy produce puppies with the drive to work, yet would still be the companion dog we all crave for our home…  No small feat to find it all and as luck would have it, they were told to check out Mr. Brown….

Karl, Donna and Lindy came a-calling in mid-April and we had two successful breedings.

The "boys" resting after a job well done... Lindy is upstairs napping...

The puppies (4-6 confirmed via ultrasound May 10th) will all be black and given their parents drives and accomplishments, we believe they will come with drive to do agility or any performance sport thrown their way and hopefully they will be competitive in the breed ring.

The puppies will be born around June 5-10th and will be ready to go to their homes in early to mid August depending on whelping date.

Dam:  Ch. Dancing Star’s Born to Fly, ROM, AX, AXJ, NF is out of Ch. Dabney’s Phenonanon NR, ANJ x Ch. Dancing Star’s Latin Sonata, CGC, TDI, TT

Sire:  Ch. Viking’s Charlie Brown, CDX, ROM, VPG II, OB3, ZTP1A, TT, CGC is out of Ch. Wingate’s Complusion, NR x Ch. Nova’s Zelda V Kelview, CDX, ROM, TT, BH, TDi, CGC

Both Charlie (27 1/2 inches) and Lindy (25 3/4 inches) are standard size; fully health tested with CHIC numbers; full and proper dentition; great substance and bone and best of all, lots of drive to work, play and love!

If you have questions, feel free to email me at kargaard@aol.com or Karl and Donna at KGetsinger@visi.com

Our first UDC National…

2010 UDC National in NY…  it was my first UDC National.  I’ve been to many DPCA Nationals, which are bigger in number of contestants, but not any bigger in terms of things to do.  This National had it all—GREAT food, friendly people, too much to do, seminars, banquets, raffle extraordinaire, great dogs, competition and yet, it was small enough to actually meet, greet and get to know people who up to now had just been a name.

It started COLD, WET, and WINDY.   This is not my idea of perfection!  I was cold, wet and miserable, but by Tuesday the weather was just cold and windy, so I resigned myself to coat, hat, and gloves (borrowed from Sharon Marinelli–thank you!).  Tuesday and Wednesday were seminar days for me and Mr. Brown with John Soares and Butch Henderson guiding each participant.    This was a chance to have a new set of eyes watch what Charlie and I were doing and to get new ideas and techniques introduced to our training.  In obedience, we worked on footwork (MINE!) and consistency (MINE!) and on the retrieve.  Lots to do, but the opportunities are there to improve for both Charlie and me.  Protection was dedicated to getting Charlie to target better and help him become more comfortable in the “pocket”.  Again, progress was made and I saw a side of Charlie that no one but John had ever brought to the table!  I was very excited.  John told me he has that “affect” on dogs

Conformation at the UDC National is European-style in nature with double handling allowed.  I never had so much fun in the conformation ring, nor had Charlie!  My able assistants, Chris Spiniello and Pam Burns, ran the perimeter of the ring with Charlie’s go-out toy, a large stuffed fox, flapping in the wind.  Trust me, this kept Charlie interested and moving like a champ.  The fact that everyone watching was also interested (and laughing) was an added bonus.

I tried to keep my hands off Charlie so he could show himself.  The ring was large and we were asked to move around it at least twice while the judge, KUSA Judge Hyman Leibman, watched… then an up and back.  Next Mr. Leibman moved around Charlie looking at him from all angles, while Charlie free baited.   Mary C was the very able scribe, taking notes as Mr. Leibman commented on what he saw.  The score sheet has a section for each area of importance, including overall impressions.  After all dogs are looked at and judged, you are called up one, by one and Mr. Leibman verbally reviewed for you and for the spectators, what he saw and gave each dog a rating.

The classes are different than AKC shows, with puppies and youths judged first, then Open for dogs without any titles, then a class for working (obed and agility titles) and sport class for dogs with working schutzhund titles and finally a champions class for dogs with championships (AKC, UKC, UDC…).  I elected to put Charlie in the Sport Class, rather than the Champions Class, because I am so proud that Charlie has working titles.  My man won his class, went Winner’s Dog and Best of Opposite.   Judge Hyman Leibman would have liked darker coat color and more underjaw (me too!)…, but he loved Charlie and was wonderfully complimentary when he brought us forward for his verbal review.   I like this part. I got to hear what Mr. Leibman thought about Charlie and the other dogs in the class. Charlie’s rating was Excellent and Charlie got his first CC towards his UDC Championship, plus lots of great ribbons and trophies!

Judge Hyman Leibman worked all day (until 7pm) judging dogs.  It was a long, long day and my hat is off to him!  Thanks for a wonderful experience.

Thursday evening was the business meeting and banquet.  The room was packed!  As luck would have it, I found a seat at the Tri-State table.  What a great group!  They put on the National and did an outstanding job and I was honored (and happy) to have found a place at their table.  This is a club that put’s their money where their mouth is and they did a fantastic job all week.  A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE THIS SUCH A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE!

Zelda, Charlie and I were to leave Friday morning, but Charlie was asked to be a “dummy” dog for the Obedience portion of the Schutzhund routines.  I gladly accepted.  Great opportunity to get an on-field experience–something we need.  It was hot and Charlie did the first long down.  His heeling was not as attentive or as enthusiastic as I would have liked, but ok.  Retrieves good.  Go out very, very fast, with two down commands… the trial judge, Dr. Joseph M. Bulo, commented on Charlie’s fast go out! OK, he also commented on the second down command.

I’m sorry I missed the Saturday IPO trial.  Congratulations to all who competed and a special congratulation to Pam for her IPO I and HIT with Roar!

We came home tired, but happy and look forward to attending next year if it is close enough!

Charlie Brown is now Charlie B, CDX

Charlie received his CDX on Friday, April 23rd!  It was not his best performance, but I was very pleased.  I showed him in Open B, rather than Open A in the hope the B dogs would be steady in the group exercises.  Charlie is good, but I did not want a dog getting up and wandering over to him…  he was bred for the first time about a week before the show and I didn’t know if that would be an issue for him… as it was, the only issue was all the girl dogs to check out which did distract him, but really no more so than having a small, indoor ring with spectators, food, kids and other dogs sitting so close while I asked for attention.  He is used to the wide open fields for his obedience and this was small, confining and very, very disconcerting for a dog not used to working indoors and so close to others.  We lost most of our points in heeling with him being a tad distracted…   186 and 2nd place.  This was his lowest qualifying score, but we are happy and I promised him, NO MORE GROUP EXERCISES!  Now on to his Schutzhund III.

Charlie has “officially” received his OFA CHIC #: 63648

Check my main man out…

http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1261812#animal

Of course, for this accomplishment to really mean anything in terms of individuals knowing Charlie’s current health status, I will need to do my yearly testing and remember to post it to CHIC so they can update his record…

As of today, he is up to date on his health testing and he will have his annual  CERF test for his eyes in two weeks.

Charlie Brown is going to add an OFA CHIC number to his name

I just heard from OFA that Charlie now has all his health testing in the database and sometime this month they will update their website and issue Charlie his CHIC number.  I’m pleased…  Charlie’s heart testing is up to date (Echo in Oct. 2009 and Holter in Feb 2010–both good); CERF was done Apr 2009 and was normal and will be redone at my show at the end of April  2010; Hips OFA Good; Thyroid panel for OFA was normal (March 2010); he is vWD affected; passed the WAE and has his ROM.

I think that is all the CHIC info…

Charlie Brown turned five on Saturday and got his OB 3 title

Gorgeous weather…. mmmmmm…. priceless!  Can you tell I love warmer and longer days?

Saturday was Charlie Brown’s birthday (photo from last year)

and Saturday was the Commonwealth trial… Charlie was entered in Obedience for his OB 3 title.  We wanted an opportunity to get on a trial field and we were in no way ready to do tracking or protection, so obedience was a good compromise.  We learned alot!

First it was warm and none of the dogs were in shape or really in top trial form…. the winter, the snow, the rain had taken its toll on training opportunities and Charlie and I were glad to have the opportunity to trial and learn from the experience without any negative repercussions. 

Charlie was good… my handling still needs help and the judge told me Charlie knows where and how to be in correct heeling position… but I dropped my shoulder back and became stiff in my arm motion and that drove Charlie out of position….  I need to work on that. 

As I walked back to Charlie on the moving sit (he was standing), the judge told me as I passed him that dogs being taught the moving stand, often lose the moving sit…  Charlie and I need to work on that.

Charlie’s fronts, finishes and sits were either slow or crooked….  We gotta fix that…

The go out would have been good, but if the judge told me to down Charlie, I missed it and by the time I heard him, Mr. B was almost to the end of the field… close enough to see the cinder block with the toy holder used for practice go outs… so rather than downing, he went to the cinder block and then downed (on my second command)…  Mr. Hartman told me in the future, if the dog has gone at least 35 feet and I don’t hear the judge, to down Charlie… better to get him down than to have him get close to the end of the field (a big no-no… the dog is not to be within 8 feet of the edge of the field)… I didn’t know that…  now I do

So Charlie can add OB3 to his list of titles and we will work towards his VPG3 this summer/fall.

Sign me the proud momma of Charlie, he da man, Brown OB3

Ch. Viking’s Charlie Brown, CD, ROM, VPG 2, ZTP1A, OB3, CGC

Jurgen vs “The Tree” and the winner is….

I’m at work and should be preparing for a meeting, but I wanted to post since it has been a while…  The massive snow storms created a split in my Bradford Pear tree and one limb was going to crash down on my garage.  Try getting a tree company to even come and look—believe me they are booked through next winter.  Enter Jurgen from Stage Left. 

 If you look close, you will see Charlie Brown in the lower right corner, checking out the alley.  The split in the tree is way up near the top of the photo, sorta in the middle… 

Jurgen drove to Baltimore, brought a ladder, a chain saw, gloves, rope and lots of ability and energy… I was the “designated stay outta the way and hold this” helper.  He climbed the tree (so many times I had to stop counting) to tie off the limb and prepare for the tree surgery.  When all was said and done, the tree limb was down, cut up and carted off.  The garage and tree are fine.  Jurgen’s hand will heal—the tree branch decided to take a bite on its way down.  Finally, I am very grateful for wonderful friends!

Charlie helping

Zelda sporting her basket muzzle…

As promised in my last post, here is a picture of Zelda sporting her basket muzzle.  Sadly after four weeks of leaving her cast alone, she changed course and decided destuffing the cast of its cast padding was the way to go and entertaining to boot….   She tolerates the basket muzzle and it is easier on her than other methods of keeping her teeth and tongue away from her cast….

Here she is asleep without the muzzle… she is still very good at leaving it alone when I’m around, even if I’m not in the same room with her….

And me blogging . 

I had to move the computer downstairs so Zelda would not feel left out.  I only allow her to go up the stairs at bedtime and back down each morning.  The rest of the time the babygate blocks the stairs…. As it is, I walk next to her going up and coming down, reminding her that she is to take the stairs ONE at a time… it is not the 50 yard dash up and down in an attempt to beat Charlie Brown to the top or bottom of the stairs!!!

Last night I had to get the water pistol out as the guys wanted to play chase, dash and get me if you can around the first floor…. cushions from the couch go a-flying and anything not nailed down is apt to end up somewhere on the floor…. luckily they both respect the water pistol…