Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Heidi now has the letters CGN after Her name




The Leonberger Club of Canada had our annual fun day on Sunday September 21st. We call it Leopalooza

We held a Canine good neigbour test and Heidi was one of the 12 Leonbergers enterd in the test. She passed her testing so now is Davida Vom Lowengarten CGN Alost finished her CH to so that can go in front of her name hopefully shortly if we can get to enough shows soon !!

Friday, September 19, 2008

My trip to Germany to pick up a Leo puppy

I left Friday evening to fly to Hannover to pick up a pup for my friend Linda. Yes you read it right Germany and to pick up a pup but not for me . Yes I am a little on the crazy side.

My friend Nathalie who has the Kennel Member of The Leo gang had done a nice breeding with Stompa who is from Norway and is a gorgeous boy.His breeder Tone from Skaergardens Leonbergers is a friend of mine also. Nathalie was breeding her girl Tutti and I knew this would be a wonderful combination. Plus Nathalie does a lot of health testing on her dogs, Hips,elbows,eyes,heart,and Thyroid the same as we do here. Linda has gotten 2 Leonbergers from me and when she lost her Brody and just had Kenzie and Tanner left she wanted another little boy for Tanner to play with. She fell in love with the dogs who were having the pups so asked if I could go over and pick him up for her. Linda has always been so good to me so how could I possibly say no :-)

I was happy to go but it was going to be a quick trip because I have so much going on here. I left Friday night and was back in Toronto Tuesday night.

I met Nathalie at the Hannover Airport and we hurried back to her place to be there when the breed Warden checked the pups. For once he was early and also their was an accident on the Autobahn. Figures !!! He went over all the paperwork until we got there.
He went over every pup and checked their bites and size and made sure they were within the standard. Then he tattoed them. That took a couple of hours to get everything done. He was very happy with the way the litter looked .

I spent the rest of the day playing with pups and meeting the rest of Nathalies family. She lives with her dad ,mom and brother and the gang of leos she has. By that late after noon I was getting pretty tired. I had been up for 24 hours at this point. Nathalie and I were looking at pictures on the computer. I fell asleep in the chair and almost fell off of it lol. At that point it was time for a nap.

Felt much better after a nap and then sat and visited for a while longer and played with pups too.

Sunday Nathalie and I went to the Nature Park in their area. It is quite the tourist destination and has a fairly large lake . The lake is only 4ft deep !! There were still lots of sail boats and small motor boats on it though. Beautful area and we spent time looking around. we had taken percy with us. She is only 16 months old and very pretty.

Then comes Monday and time to get going with the pup. I was bringing home Mister black . He is the pup with the black ribbon !. We all liked him the best. Nice size great head and nice bone too. Plus he has such a sweet personality.

I put him in the Sherpa bag and off we go. He was such a trooper. No crying or complaining at all. We flew from Hannover to Frankfurt and that went really well. Then we had to leave for Chicago , yep Chicago did I mention this is where Linda lives. Before we boarded the plane I walked him around on the tarmac to see if he would pee. He finally did and I thought all the other passengers were going to clap and cheer for him lol. We got our picture taken by the plane too.

He slept the entire way on the plane. This little boy is an angel. Of course we were located in the back of the plane and when we landed were one of the last to get off. Which meant standing holding this 22lb pup for an hour waiting for our turn at customs. He was still so good and had not had a pee for about 10 hours.

When we got through customes we had to go to the health department area for them to check him and his papers. By the time they were finished we were the last ones there. Got my bag and went to see if Linda had a heart attack wondering where we were :-)

She was a little concerned lol but happy to see us. Jeff and Linda were very thirlled with their new little boy. We drove the hour to their place and he was so great. When we got ther he was able to meet his new brother and sister. Tanner and Mackenzie. They were not sure if they wanted a new brother and looked at Linda as if to say whose idea was this.

I went to bed and handed over the pup to Linda. It was ncie being the Grannie for him and saying ok he is yours for the night. He cried a little but was pretty good.

He played with the older dogs the next day and checked things out. Now it is time for me to continue with my trip.

We left for the airport and had made arrangements to meet up with another friend and Leo owner. Heidi lives towards the airport. She met us with Hugs and Eyyko and Hanne the Daschund. What a site they were with all their heads hanging out of the car windows.

Heide volunteered to take me the rest of the way to the airport. So we moved all my stuff to her car. We had a nice visit which made the time go by fast.

Finally on my way home to Toronto. Ed was there to meet me and said it felt like I was gone a month instead of 5 days. Nice to be missed :-)

We went to Scotts hockey game and then finally home !! My girls went crazy to see me. Heidi cried and cired and licked me. It is good to be home and to be loved. Now to get back to normal again. Damn cant remember what normal is. Hope you enjoyed the story and I will upload pictures soon

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Thursday and Friday of Sadies Breeding



Thursday morning I had Sadies blood drawn again. She had ovulated and was at 39. Another breeding was recommended. Groan I lvoe visiting Jan but another day of driving was not something I looked forward do or was going to be easy seeing as my store was open on Friday.

Sadie was crazy Thursday night and was whining and mounting the other girls. What a tart,
My friend Marilyn took Sadie to Lucan for me on Friday. I am blessed with some fantastic friends !!!

Poor Marilyn got lost and had a scenic drive to Jan's :-) She got there and they had another breeding and both of the dogs were more excited. So hopefully that is a good sign.

Now comes the hard part WAITING !!! So please cross everything for a pregnant dog :-)

Day 2 and 3 of Sadies breeding adventure

On Tueday september 2nd we had Sadies P4 drawn to see where she was. She was only at 11 so had not ovulated yet. Which meant another drive to Lucan

My friend Marilyn came with me on Wednesday for the breeding. Well Monty wasted no time as he knew what was going on this time. So another great breeding and play time for all the dogs.

But had another car problem. My pwoer steering was empty and thankfully close to home it became manual.I had to stop and add fluid and it was good as new!

our breeding adventure with Sadie Day 1

Monday september 1 we left to drive to Lucan Ontario for Sadie to meet with Monty. It was a beautiful sunny day for a drive. Lucan is about 2 1/2 hours from home. Ed and I enjoyed the drive and chatted all the way. When we got to Straford Ed stopped at the Tim hortons for a coffee. Well there he asked 2 young guys directions to make sure we were going the right way. Yes I know he is a guy and was nto lost and still asked for directions. pretty good dont you think !!

These guys were so nice and were talking to us and giving us a short cut. When one of them said your rear tire looks bad. Ed said I know I need to get a new one. He said no it is really bad. Well it turns out this young guy (dont know his name ) works for a large tire company :-) Because seriously who looks at other peoples tires that closely. He showed Ed where part of the tire closest to the inside of the truck was not bad it was ready to blow!! The steel belting was showing. They offered to change it because they said we would not get more then 50km before it blew !!! Talk about somebody watching out for you.

We got to Jan and Pauls and Sadie walked in like it was her own place :-) Then Monty came out and wow he is even better looking in real life then in his photos. Ed wanted to take him home. He is so sweet. Well this was Monty's first breeding and he could not have had a better partner. Sadie is not shy !!! She was very encouraging to him. We got a good breeding and had two happy dogs.

Then Jan let out the rest of her gang and Sadie played with , Monty,Leisle,Hallie and Odin. We never heard or saw her lift her head all the way home lol