20. July

As you have already seen on our mainpage we have a new girl in our family. Bakervill's Fiddle Dee Dee aka Nora, came to us before the weekend and are settling in nicely. Already the first day she strolled around like she's always been here. She is a wonderful girl, happy and playful. But she's also good with relaxing and sleeping, which is also important for such a little one. The first couple of nights she woke up around 3 in the morning, and was veeeeeeery awake. Last night she slept through and woke up at 0530. I think it's because she was playing with Modesty before we went to bed. Modesty is super with her, lays on her back and let her play on her. Effi wants Nora to herself, so she will chase off the other dogs if she wants to play with her. The whole pack are guarding more than usual, but we know it's only for a while. They will settle down soon.
Thank you so much for the greetings in our guestbook, it is so nice when peopl share our joy. :-) Once again we want to express our gratitude to Michel and Sandra for giving us this oportunity. We look forward to many wonderful times with Nora.
She now has her own gallery, you can see the pics here.

13. July

I guess it was about time with a small update again. :-) It is after all summer, so it's not much news. The days goes by as usual, dogues are doing just fine. We don't walk them much now in this heat, they prefer to be inside in the livingroom where it's airconditioned. Last night we had terrible weather here, they measured up to 1000 lightnings in one hour! It struck twice in the forest near our house, but luckily no fire. It was raining very hard. We both got up and went downstairs to the dogues, in case it should strike the house. The youngest ones were a bit worried, but when we sat down and relaxed, they got calm and went back to sleep. I didn't sleep much the rest of the night, so I'll take a nap on the sofa later today. :-)

On July 3rd, Espen went to the Int. show in Trondheim with Lucifer and Hellga. The trip went fine, and Lucifer did very well with CAC, CACIB and BOB. Hellga didn't do well at all, she only got good. The judge said she don't have trapezoid head which is completely wrong, but of course he is entitled to his opinion. I'm just happy we've showed her for breed specialist Alcrudo, his saying counts much more. He found her worthy of the CAC and best female, so we are not too worried. But of course we are not happy about the "good" - who would be!
We'll take it easy the next coming weeks, no shows until August. It's nice with a break, it has been intense for a while. Both Hellga and Lucifer needs one more CAC to become Champions, but they have to turn 2 years first.

Wish you all more nice summerdays. I will try to take some new photos this week. As you can see, most of the links are still not working. I don't feel like doing it right now, very lazy ;-) so I'll get back to it later on.

29. June

Circus Laila.........! Talk about chaotic trip......... I went to the ferry on Friday afternoon. Met up with my sister and her friends and drove the rest of the way together. Or at least that was the plan. When we arrived Oslo, I got way ahead of my sister because of the traffic, so I decided to drive to the ferry and wait for them there. Only thing was that I drove to the wrong ferry......so I had to drive back again. Finally we were at the same place, and we got our tickets and waited to get on board. I picked up a small backpack and was going to take the doggies out of the car when I discovered I had lost my ticket........in that short time! So I had to go up to the information desk and get a new key. Then down again to get the dogues. When I arrived the cabin the keycard didn't work! Luckily the key to my sisters cabin worked, so I got in there with the dogues and she went down to information again to get a new card. This one worked and the dogues and I was finally in our own cabin and could relax a little. We had a nice dinner and then went to bed early. The next morning we got to place the dogues in the car 20 min before they opened cardeck. As soon as I got out of the ferry, I stopped at the closest gas station and rested the doggies there for a good while. My sister and her friends continued to the speciality show for their breed. I got in the car and looked for the gps so I could find my hotel easily. But guess what.......it wasn't there. I had used it in the Excursion last weekend when I was in Oppdal with Donatella. I was supposed to use it this time too, but it had to have something fixed and it wasn't ready by Friday. I forgot all about the gps of course........but the guy in the gas station gave me a good description and I found the hotel in Herning quite easy. Of course I arrived way to early, so I found a nice park and walked the doggies for over one hour. The park had some ducks and horses nearby, and Lucifer was sooo interested. He likes other animals and could stand and watch for hours if I let him. After walking the dogues, I then walked to the center of Herning and enjoyed seing all the people, hearing lots of music and then - in the middle of everything - an oasis for dogs. It had a sign saying: You and your dog are welcome to sit down for a drink of water and some treats for the dogs". There were two huge waterbuckets and a huge bucket with snacks. It was really cozy, and I've never seen it before. Wish it could be like that everywhere. After strolling around for a while, I went to a store to shop something for my mother and myself, and of course some grilled chicken for the doggies (and me). ;-) When I came back to the hotel, the room was ready for us, and the dogues and I enjoyed a little nap. In the afternoon my sister and friends came to the hotel, and we went out to a steak-restaurant for a nice dinner. I went to bed early as the show was the next day. I woke up before the alarm went off, and walked the doggies, got ready and then went for breakfast. It only took 8-9 minutes to drive from the hotel and we were there in good time. We met Linda and Tero who already had all their stuff and doggies in the hall. Eukanuba had an offer to all participants, get 12 kg adult for free, just bring the number of your dog. Linda and I went to pick up our bags but woooow what a queue! It would have taken over 1 hour before it was our turn, so we decided to skip it. Instead we walked around looking at all the things that were for sale, and came over some canvas cages for only 60 euro's each! It was the biggest size and it was three times cheaper than what I just paid for one here in Norway - and a size smaller! So I had to buy two. :-) Linda and I walked back to the ring, and waited for the show to start. The puppyclasses went first, and then came Champion males where I showed a dog for my friend Jørn. He got Excellent. Then I went in intermediate class with Lucifer who also got Excellent. :-) After the males, the judgement began on the Champion females where I had entered Minx. She was number 2 in Championclass with Excellent, so we are happy about that. Not bad for a dogue that evidently "was done and nothing for the rings"...... ;-) With TLC you get a long way. :-)
When the judgements were done, I had something to eat and shopped a little. I was so tired so I skipped the finals. It was so nice to be back in the hotel and relax. In the evening we had a lovely meal and went early to bed again, I had to get up at 0500 to walk the dogs and get the last of the stuff in the car so we could leave at 0600 to make the ferry home again. The weekend in Herning has been very nice, and I have really enjoyed meeting up with people I usually see only once or twice a year. And of course to meet my puppybuyers and friends was so nice. Martin and Laura who has Toa from my last litter, made the trip to say hello and see all the beautiful dogues. Linda was there with three of her dogues and they got Excellent. And our friend Tero from Finland who has Peppi from my M-litter showed his male Jethro and won the Intermediate classe. We are sooooo happy for you, big congrats again. :-) Thank you everyone for making it a special weekend, and of course to my sister and her friends for great company.

Next show is already this coming weekend, but now Espen will go. I need to rest. ;-)) Here are some pics from the show - thank you Martin and Laura for the pictures. :-)

21. June

Donatella have been to shows this weekend here in Norway. She got her last two cac's and are now Norwegian Champion. :-) She now has two titles - NUCH and SV-10. :-) We are awaiting confirmation from the Swedish Kennelclub if her Championship there is valid too. :-)

Our country has a spectacular nature. I drove in valleys between two huge mountains. Some places you get to drive very close to the mountain and you feel quite small. The houses that are at the bottom of the mountains looks like small doll houses. We have a beautiful country, and should really try to explore it more than we do!

Our next show will be the WW in Denmark this coming weekend. Can't believe it's time - it's been over 3 years since I booked the hotel. We'll have a cozy time on the ferry to DK, and then on Saturday I'm gonna take the doggies for a nice walk and just relax before it's time to show on Sunday. Also I'm looking soooooo much forward to seing some of my friends/puppybuyers again. :-)

Wish you all a nice week. It looks like we'll have some nice weather, so I'll try to be of use outside a little too. :-)

15 June:

It appears I've lost all previous text in the diary of this year, but hey - I can't fix everything. ;-)

We have some exciting news! Donatella begun her show-season well. She got BOB with CAC and CACIB at the Int. show in Drammen on June 5th. Really fun, and a great day around the ring. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the groupfinals because we had a 40-year party to attend. It's not often the females gets the BOB so it would have been fun being there, but we hope she'll get another chance this year. :-) She now needs two cac's from National shows to become Norwegian Champion. I have high hopes she will get them this summer.
This weekend I took the long drive to Avesta in Sweden. They arranged the Swedish Winner show this year. It went super, and Donatella got her first title - Swedish Winner 2010! :-) A big thank you to everyone for a nice day at the show, and especially to our friend Kalle at Doguehill's for all the help! Also a big thank you to Anneli Åhlén at kennel Heart of Darkness who filmed most of the show. You can see it here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdnxxo_svensk-vinnar-2010-swedish-winner-2

I'm still trying to get everything back on the website, so if there's something missing, it will hopefully be up very soon. :-)