For many years, Mike and I hosted our families for Thanksgiving
at the farm. My sister Beck’s 9 year old daughter, Cadence, was really hoping that Liza would have her puppies during their stay, but sadly, she did not. Liza delivered November 27, after all of the
guests had gone home. Cadence is now a senior in college and has
just been accepted into Vet school.
I feel so fortunate that Holly had included instructions in
her last Will and Testament that he was to be returned to his breeder if she preceded
him in death. All of our puppies are sold with a contract
stating:
Over the 28 years I have been breeding dogs, I have only had
a handful of instances where the life circumstances of a dog have changed. I hope that truly only a handful of our dogs
have had lifechanging circumstances. That
is the case for Brig.
I was first contacted by Holly’s friend Kris that Holly was
in the hospital and Brig was safe with a friend. Kris told me that once Holly got out the hospital and rehab she would be going to assisted living where she would be allowed to have Brig. That sounded good. Holly and Brig would be together. Sadly, Holly never made it to assisted living and the
home that was caring for Brig while he was waiting to be reunited with Holly
couldn’t keep him long-term. No problem,
he is always welcome with us.
Brig seems to be taking this change in stride. Resilience is a great trait. We are proud of him and happy to have him back.
The difference between a professional and an amateur is not necessarily the level of skill, but rather that professionals do “the thing” for a living, while an amateur does it for love. In a 2022 article by Natalia Beard, she said, “When we denigrate the amateur, we dismiss the fact the at the origin of the word ‘amateur’ is the Latin verb ‘amare’-to love. Our passions are what make up our inner life, a place of consolation where things of meaning are stored and preserved, ready to be drawn on whenever we want or need them. They should be cultivated at all costs.” Peter Gray, PhD says, “The difference may lie in the dimensions of motivation and attitude, not competence.” To be an amateur does equate to accepting a “lessor than” status when doing “the thing”, but it might equate to a lessor capitalistic pursuit of “the thing”.
Today I have been looking back on my blog posts from 2025, and there is a Huge Missing Experience- I Judged Futurity and Veteran Sweepstakes at the 2025 ASSA National! This is quite the Honor because one has to be nominated, and then voted in.
One major disappointment was that the official videographer didn't make it on the day I was judging. I was looking forward to watching my ring procedure and also looking at the dogs from a spectator perspective to see if I would have chosen the same dogs once I was in the "arm chair quarterback" position. That is the view I normally have, and it was quite different being the one in the middle of the ring,
One of the biggest differences I noticed was that I was very focused on the dog being judged at the time. I didn't find myself looking at the lineup of dogs which, as a spectator, is something one does constantly. I was also surprised at how fast the time seemed to pass.
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| Best In Futurity: Laureate Ophelia |
While I was judging I made sure I did the exact same procedure for every dog. When I was done, many people complimented me on two things: 1. that I was smiling the whole time 2. that I was consistent and everyone was treated the same way. I truly enjoyed the assignment and I found qualities in all of the dogs.
Futurity (the National) and Sweepstakes (local specialties) normally have the lineup of winners come in the same way- the males followed by the females, or: 12-18 month dogs (males), followed by 9-12 month dogs, followed by 6-9month dogs, followed by 12-18 month bitches (females), followed by 9-12 month bitches followed by 6-9 month bitches. The classes are not divided by color, so the final line up is all 6 classes of winners. I have never liked having the 6-9 month puppy dog being chased by the 12-18 month puppy bitch. I feel it puts both of those two entries at a disadvantage. As the judge, I was able to change things up, so I put the ages together and had the 12-18 month dog, followed by the 12-18 month bitch, followed by the 9-12 month dog, followed by the 9-12 month bitch- etc. I also found it easier to look at the ages next to one another, and also evaluate if I felt the "dogs appear masculine, bitches feminine" (as stated in the standard).
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| Runner up to Best In Futurity: Erable Limelight |
I was very pleased with my final lineup, and also felt that if the classes had been divided by color, I would have had even more beautiful puppies to consider. My final 6 had all colors represented. In the end, the top prize of Best In Futurity went to the 12-18 month old bitch- a lovely, very feminine, sable. Runner-up went to a tricolor 6-9 month old bitch. Both of these girls finished their championships shortly after the National.
The veterans made me cry. They were so lovely and were such beautiful quality. I was interested to find out that Best in Veteran Sweepstakes was not a champion. She was so lovely and I felt that she could even compete today- however she was spayed, and therefore not eligible to compete for championship points.
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| bio writeup in the catalog |
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