Chaplin's a Champion!

Chaplin is one of Romeo's sons, who turned 10 months old today. It was a wonderful event to get to watch him win his final major and become a Champion. Chappy already won a Group 3rd along the way, so we really look forward to watching him grow up and start his Specials career.
We couldn't resist taking a photo of Chaplin (being held by his mother Lesley Stevens, but co-owned by Bonnie Rose) beside his father Romeo seeing they were actually at the same show for this huge milestone.

Lilly settles in

Lilly made the trip to her new home very well, sleeping most of the way (as well as her new girls). Luckily she took right to her new bed which has her name beautifully embroidered onto it. She's not a big fan of her new 'little brother' Wilbur (the family's chihuahua), but hopefully they will figure out how to get along with time.

Lilly goes home

Lilly seemed very happy about meeting her family today. She's looking forward to many, many years of sleeping on the girl's beds, giving licks, and sucking up as much love as possible. It was wonderful to spend some time with the Rinks today and hope they had a fun time at the dog show.

Big day for East and West Coast Brothers

Today Ti, who's in New Hampshire got to go to the beach for the first time. Looks like he enjoyed a beautiful day with his family. On the West coast, brother Bow attended the Mt. Hood Dalmatian Club's summer specialty and won Best In Sweeps (again). So it looks like both brothers had a big day!

Lexi heads to the Mountains

On a little camping trip to Mt. Rainier National Park. So overcast that day, was a bummer we couldn't see the top of Mt. Rainier. A bridge was washed out to St. Helens and we didn't get to go. Was so bummed.

Lori, Pat & Lexi

(Lexi is from Jazz's first litter which was born 11/06/08)

Sky's solo flight

Tonight Sky made her first trip to the Walla Walla Dog Park all on her own. I've taken her there several times in the past week, but each time her brother Monty has escorted her for moral support. Monty LOVES the dog park, all the strangers and all the dogs, big and little - but it was time to see if Sky could handle it all on her own. She did very well, although she was a little nervous starting off again, but that only lasted a few minutes. She met several new dogs and got to visit with a few she has met at the park previously. She's also getting braver about meeting strange people and letting them pet her. On the other hand, there was a young man (maybe 8 years old) at the park who was swinging a tennis racket, which she did not appreciate at all. After lots of barking and a little growling even, I asked the boy to come scratch on her while I held her. She was very tense, but relaxed as the two of us talked and scratched on her. After that, she didn't bother him again the rest of the night (we spent about 1 1/2 hours at the park), but she didn't get very close to him either. Overall, it was a success and I could see she made huge strides forward in her progress tonight.

Lilly & Chip

Lilly heads to her new home next Saturday, where she will have two little girls, loving parents and a 'grumpy Chihuahua' all her own. Seeing she hasn't really spent a lot of time around little dogs since she was just a puppy, we decided she better have some one on one time with Chip. Chip used to be Adrian's dog, but he adopted my parents and spent the last 7 months traveling in their motorhome with them. Lilly was pretty excited about having a 'new' dog to play with, and Chip, just like Lilly's soon to be Chihuahua, doesn't have much a since of humor. She quickly figured out that if she wanted to be close to him she would have to stay very still and quite - as you ca see on Chip's face, he's willing to tolerate her, but he doesn't have to Like It.

Sky's visit to Walla Walla

Sky is our big chicken of the house and has had some issues in the show ring because of it. So my mission this month has been to consentrate on exposing her to lots of new things. Today we headed to Walla Walla so she could walk through the Famers Market, but thanks to the gray weather there was only about 12 people there. So we decided to take a strole down Main Street to see what/who else we could find. All of our Dals have met Walla Walla's statue dog, some have ignored it (the ones smart enough to understand it's a statue and not an actual dog) but Sky is one of the few that was very scarred of this big dog. She handled it well though, sniffed it's rear and offered her's - but she found it to be pretty unfriendly. After this we headed to the dog park where she managed to find LOTS of dogs willing to sniff back.

Lack of posts

I'm WAY behind on my posts, so hopefully there is still some people out there hoping to read it. :) I've had plans to do lots of work on it, but the time just doesn't seem to come. I've now decided I'll have to just set aside a half hour a couple of times a week and just do what I can. I've taken photos and made notes, so now all I have to do is get it updated. I've also decided to combine our two blogs into just this one - which will make it easier seeing we don't exactly keep the two litters separated any longer. So keep checking, don't give up on me, and be sure to scroll down to the older spots every now and then seeing those will be the ones I'll be filling in as I can.