JANUARY 2020
Here we are in 2020 and I made a New Years resolution to update the website every month, and I have only just made it by making this short post tonight on the 30th of the first month. I have to admit that I have neglected the website and quite ashamed that my last post on the Blog page was back in June 2019. Where did those months go!!!
Anyway time for a bit of a catch up.
I threw myself hard into the show scene last year as Autumn (Locksheath Princess Tiana) and Jago (Locksheath Black Ice) were competing for points towards their Junior Warrant Award, this meant that nearly every weekend was taken up with a dog show, I have just had the dog bus MOT'd and was not surprised when the mechanic said I had clocked up over 24000 miles in the year from the last one. Not surprising with shows all over the country from the south cost up to Scotland and everywhere in between.. Still I have enjoyed every show that we attended.
I was quite surprised of the low entries at some of the Championship shows over 2019, this made it even more difficult to obtain points as we need to have a minimum of three dogs in the ring to stand a chance of gaining points if placed in first place, a lot of the shows where we had entered Autumn & Jago there were only two in attendance so although we were often placed first we could not gain those important points, in August it was obvious that we would not be able to gain enough points with Jago so I eased back on the entries with him. This was fine as it meant that he could enjoy some holidays with my Mum & Dad who Jago lives with.
I had entered just about every show possible with Autumn and Summer and we gained Autumns last point that she needed 2 days before she turned 18 months old. This was achieved at a local show to us where I had entered Autumn into a strong AVNSC Gundog class and she was placed first out of 7 other entries. all that remained now was to complete the award form and send off to the Kennel Club for confirmation. About 8 weeks later we received the confirmation we needed in the form of two certificate, one for the Junior Warrant award and the other with her studbook number. I am so proud of Autumn, she really is a special girl.
Summer (Locksheath True Baloo) continued to show well over the year and was consistently placed in all the shows we attended, in fact she is now over qualified from Post Graduate up to Limit or Open, again so very proud of her also. Just a little forward news. We are planning another litter with Summer this year, we have selected the Stud dog and we have now completed all the health test on both so are now waiting for Summers next season, so watch this space.
Although we didn't obtain enough points for Jago to achieve his Junior Warrant I did receive news earlier this month that he did gain enough points for the Glenarden Lord of the Night Trophy for Top Junior Dog from the Gordon Setter Association. What great news. and another proud breeder moment for me.
Marlon (Locksheath Back in Black) who resides in Germany with Silvia Timmerman and is co-owned by me is progressing well, He has been lightly shown but obtained his first tickets towards his German & Belgian Champion award and has also been awarded his first CACIB. Marlon had a holiday with us and Silvia booked him into British Gordon Setter Club show where he was placed first in Yearling which made us all very happy. I look forward to being able to handle him for more shows here and in europe this year.
Other news. We bought a Motorhome last year and I have converted the garage area into a huge dog area that even has its own fresh air ventilation and warm air heating system. We don't spoil our dogs much do we.. We have used it several times and its fantastic, this should make our trips to the Scottish shows a bit easier as it will mean no more driving up and then straight back home after.
I will just briefly touch on our most recent show for which I travelled to Dortmund Germany to attend a Setter & Pointer CAC show. We had a great trip and a very successful show too, more about that in the Blog post that I will be putting up in the next few days.
So to finish off I will make sure to keep this part of the website updated every month and I will post some mini blogs about some of the shows and events we attend also, this should be easier as I can now update and post blogs from my phone how very clever..
I hope you have enjoyed reading through the mini news update, I always welcome feedback good or bad and If you look on the blog post there is a way to become a member where you can message me or just leave feedback.
Written by Keith on the 30th January 2020