Spring is on its way in Chihuahua Town and all the Chis are looking forward to the warmer weather. We’ve had a quiet weekend here with a rare weekend without any shows. I find my Chis can be very lazy on weekends like this and will happily spend the entire weekend lounging on the sofa enjoying a film or three; although we have to avoid the ones with any dogs in as then they’ll just bark at the TV. They’re not very helpful when it comes to catching up with the housework, but I do have two that think the hoover needs a good telling off.
No champ shows this weekend but I do have news from the open shows. At Bootle Crosby and South Liverpool, Serena Hunt’s Moltobello Queen of my Heart went BOB, BPIB and PG2. At Exeter, Angela Aylett’s Dan’s Only For Me At Angcherish went BOB and BPIB. At Llandudno Leana Evans’ Lemaritz Minnie Mouse went BOB and G3 in longs.
Isa Randle’s Chi Lucky has been starring in an advertisement for Royal Canin and will be working on a shoot for Playstation in the coming week. His work in the media continues and is indeed gathering pace!
I stumbled across an advert on Facebook yesterday from a Chihuahua breeder advertising two smoothcoat puppies, not KC registered, for £1200. I nearly fell off my chair. I had a read through the lengthy advert and was dismayed to see the advert waxing lyrical about the quality of these puppies and all the champions in their pedigree. The Kennel Club names of both parents were on the advert so I wandered over to MyKC and looked them up. Guess what? Not one single champion in the last 5 generations. The advert named one dog in the pedigree stating in no uncertain terms that he was a ‘famous’ UK champion, which some rudimentary research revealed he was most certainly not. I don’t for one minute think this is a puppy farmer or anything similar, but this was an example of a back yard breeder in its most basic form. How is the average pet buyer supposed to know any different? There is loads of information out there educating the public on how to avoid puppy farmers, but I don’t think there is enough to educate buyers on the difference between the top quality breeders who breed for health and to improve the breed and back yard breeders who make false claims about their puppies and charge way more for puppies than they should. I really need to stop looking at these things as it does nothing for my blood pressure. Apart from anything else, it is now (and has been for sometime) against Facebook rules to sell live animals via Facebook.
I’ve also joined a group on Facebook regarding missing critiques, this really gets my goat. I had a bit of a tot up of critiques I’m missing and was shocked at how many there were. I see that Southern Counties is now going to take in to consideration when selecting judges whether they have a history of not submitting critiques and will not be offering judging appointments to repeat offenders – a huge step forward. We can report these judges as much as we like, but I think it is this that will really start to address the problem. Kudos to Southern Counties for leading the way, and I hope many others follow suit. Incidentally, the critiques for both longs and smooths for Boston are still outstanding.
In other news, Lesley Taylor has a new little one, High Society Cheshire At Arkoschi, aka Willow, so I look forward to seeing her in the ring. Next weekend is UK Toy Dog. Longs have an entry of 141 dogs making 151 entries. Smooths have an entry of 139 dogs making 144 entries. Looking forward to seeing you all there; please do come and tell me your news, big or small, for inclusion in the notes.
The clocks have gone forward this weekend. Anyone who says dogs can’t tell the time is lying. My lot know exactly what time breakfast and dinner is so we have a week of acclimatising to the new times. Such fun!
Until next week my lovelies, enjoy your week.
Rachel Berrington
01384 358308
07837 371209