Black Russian Terriers, Bichons & Havanese, Oh My!

Information on shows, breeding, puppies, & interesting dog stuff. Dave can help you with training, conditioning, handling,or finding a dog of any breed. Please visit our website: www.WeShowDogs.com. Contact Dave at Dave@weshowdogs.com or 816-213-8100. The entries on this blog are made by Darlene Scheiris, with Dave not seeing them until much later. DARLENE ACCEPTS ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS BLOG. NO CONTENT MAY BE USED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF DARLENE SCHEIRIS.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Central Iowa Kennel Club, Des Moines, January 19, 2012

Selena - Select

Congratulations to Bill & Paula Frazier for going Winner's Bitch with their girl Riverhill's Uptown Girl At Angelheart Los Feliz.

Judge Ms Mike MacBeth

Condolences to Kaylee Kovar

It is with sadness that I post about Kaylee Kovar's father. He passed away this week and I believe that the funeral is tomorrow. Kaylee is a wonderful person and I know her heart must be heavy at this difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Kaylee and her family.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Our Puppy Contracts - Now We Are Stealing Puppies???

OMG What bad people we must be! Protecting our bloodlines and the health & welfare of the puppies that we produce, and that they produce. Damn, why would anyone want to work with people like that ?!?!?!

We have heard many times that people think our contracts are too strict. That is their choice. I have seen contracts much stricter, or that did not cover the puppy buyer if a show dog didn’t turn out, so we have tried to be very fair, and will work with people.

Recently, we heard that a breeder in Florida has been telling people that if they get a dog from us they had better hide them away so that we don’t come and take them. My first reaction was “WTF?!?!?!” Then I thought for a minute, and the person that has been spreading these ‘stories’ has co-bred with the dreaded “Platter” (see blogs dated August 31 and September 14, 2012) and evidently we are just another victim of his untruths.

Let me clarify things: When Dave and I first teamed up started breeding dogs, the contract was all of one, count ‘em, one page long. It is now six, yes six, pages long. Still not the longest or most intense puppy contract I have seen, but still six pages, including Dr. Jean Dodds, DVM vaccination protocol.

This person in Florida has a very nice male from one of our first litters, and has been acquainted with Platter for many years. Platter knew that Dave had been showing the #1 Havanese in Canada (as well as top dogs in other breeds) and knew that we were going to be breeding those bloodlines. I believe that this Florida person got our name from Platter, and contacted us about a puppy. We didn’t co-own our dogs at that time, and she was supposed to do all health testing, with a few other requirements. Not a real tough contract We have done nothing except praise her for how great the dog looked in the ring. We have since found out that there were breedings to un-championed, un-health certified bitches, but could not do anything about it except add more paragraphs to our contract. But back to Platter and the people in California who were ‘Long Time Dog Show People.’ They had a pet Bichon, and a pet Havanese who Platter & his partner were showing. Yes, the Havanese did some winning because of the handlers, but it still took him forever to finish. The dog was almost 13” tall (I stayed at their house and together with the owners, measured him). They wanted a good Havanese bitch, but the only one we had was a small girl that we thought we might keep. The woman flew out and picked her up, falling in love immediately. She informed us that her intention was to breed her to her male that Platter had shown. We told her, in no uncertain terms, “No.” If she wanted to breed this girl to her male after fulfilling the contract, that would be her choice, but since we got puppies back, we did not want her bred to that dog as part of the contract breedings. She understood, although she was ‘hurt’ because we didn’t like her boy. We didn’t want his type in our bloodline. Had he been a nice dog, and had what we were looking for, it would have been fine, but he wasn’t.

So the year goes by. The lady hires Platter to show the little bitch. She topped out at about 9 ¼” which, by California entries at that time, was miniscule. They put one or two points on her, and proceed to tell everyone how ‘bad’ she was. The lady brought her to us, we got her to 14 points within a few weekends, and the lady wanted her home. I had so much faith in this little girl that I flew to California, at my own expense, to show her. The judges should have been good for me, and I could not have asked her to show any better if we had been in the BIS ring at the Garden. It was perfect, I was finishing this girl...not. She was so different than her competition that the judges didn’t know what to do with a mover, with a really soft, really silky coat. They chose big and clunky. Oh, well, you pays your money, you takes your chances. It cost me almost $500 in airfare to lose. I was bummed. A month or so later, we met a show and she finished. Platter was pissed!!! I finished a dog that they could only put a single or two on. Later, we heard from judges that he was going around telling them how bad our dogs were and how “that bitch didn’t deserve to be finished.” AND That started while he was showing her! When I confronted him, he of course, denied it. After all, he had called me to tell me how bad she was, and I told him that I would reserve my decision for a time when I could go over her. Why would judges approach us with that information if it weren’t true?

So the months go by and all is quiet on the Western Front. In the spring, the little bitch is about 15 months old, and we get a call from her owners. They want to breed her on her next heat cycle (in a month or so), and they want to breed her to their big dog. What part of “NO! - read the contract” don’t these people get. Before being bred she must have all of her health testing, and will be bred to a stud dog that we approve in writing. The health certification cannot even be completed until after she turns 2 years of age. We will not approve this male as he is 4 times the size of this bitch, as are most of the dogs in his pedigree. Don’t want it, won’t have it. Do it later if you must but not while she is under contract.

Another couple of months pass, and we lost one of our beloved BRTs in a sudden and unexpected way. We received condolences from around the world, and one of those was a sympathy card from the owner of the little bitch, with a note: “Hopefully this will cheer you up, Ally is pregnant with ‘big dog’ puppies, and is due in a couple of weeks.” “WTF ?!?!?!?” What part of NO didn’t they get? She was just barely 18 months old, no health testing, and was bred to a dog that we specifically refused. Guess what? Platter told them the contract didn’t matter and there wasn’t anything that we could do., so breed her if they wanted to.

We contacted them and offered them a compromise to the contract, allowing her to keep the bitch, and continue on with the contract. Platter gave her his advice which was to ignore any offers, because they had the bitch and the puppies, and possession was 9/10 of the law. What could they do? Besides, their son worked at some big time law firm in San Francisco and would handle it. They insisted that they would give us puppies back from that litter and the contract would be over...NOT.

Because of their blatant disregard for the contract, and basically flipping us off when we made a very generous offer, we did file a suit against them. It is the only time that we have ever filed suit against the owner of a bitch puppy for violation of the puppy contract. What would you have done?

The contract said that for ‘unauthorized breeding’ the bitch and litter came back to us. The attorney asked, “What part of this didn’t they understand?”

When registering a litter, online with the AKC, the owner had to check a box saying that she had permission from all owners of the bitch to register the litter. With Platter’s guidance, she checked that box, “because after the litter is registered, what can they do?” Again the attorney asked the same question, “What part of that didn’t she understand?”

They played stupid and said that they didn’t understand these dog contracts. Well, for one thing if you didn’t understand, why did you sign it? And for another, you both deal with contract negotiations for major medical organizations, and you didn’t understand a one-page contract with no legal-eeze? Maybe that was it, we should have made it more complicated. So we did.

Even after being screwed over, we didn’t want these people to feel so duped by Platter that they were totally turned off by the dog show world, so actually allowed them to keep 2 puppies, hoping that they would ‘see the error of their ways.’

Their big time attorney son did come in to play, when he delivered the bitch and the puppies to us. This little bitch still lives with us.

Oh, and that ‘Long Time Dog Show” thing that Platter told me, NOT. The male he was showing for these people was the first show dog they ever had, and I think the last. Platter makes another negative impact on the dog show world with just another of his lies.

So if this makes you think that we go and steal puppies back, so be it, but now you have the facts.

I would much rather NOT sell a puppy than sell them to someone who intends to break the contract. We have clauses in there and, being a living document, amend it when something else happens to us, or one of our friends.

If you want a story about stealing a dog, I have one of those too. Only the person showed up at a show with fake paperwork and a sob story, and took one of our dogs from a handler threatening her with Grand Theft. I’ll tell you about that one and how much it cost just to get our own dog back some other time.

17846

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Year End Stats 2012

ALL BREED TOY GROUP STANDINGS
Mason - GCH That's The Notorious Defender - owner Connie Rousch #17

Roche - MBISS AM GCH CAN CH Adorabull That's Better Than Sex #20 (even after retirement!) - Owners Dr. Stephen & Mrs. Patricia Lucas

http://caninechronicle.com/statistics/?type=allbreed&b_year=2012&cat=Toy+Group&breed=518

HAVANESE BREED STANDINGS
Roche - MBISS AM GCH CAN CH Adorabull That's Better Than Sex #13 (even after retirement!) - Owners Dr. Stephen & Mrs. Patricia Lucas

Selena - AM GCH CAN CH That's Adorabull's Dreaming of You #20 - Owners Dr. Stephen & Mrs. Patricia Lucas

http://caninechronicle.com/statistics/?type=breed&b_year=2012&cat=Toy+Group&breed=518

BeBe X Benson Girl 1 January 13, 2013

Well, the BeBe X Benson kids are 5 months old and looking good! Everyone got baths yesterday, and of course it snowed, so no outside photo ops (it's too cold for me!). We did some photos of the kids today, and doing the rest this week. I will get them posted as soon as I can. Below are the ones we did today of the BeBe X Benson puppy Girl 1. Born August 5, 2012. She is available to a very special show home.

She is now known as HOLLY
That's The Original Parti Girl Eh
(Think Holly Golighty from Breakfast at Tiffany's)

Kansas City Show March 14-17 2013

In a metropolitan area of about 10,000 square miles, and over 2 million people, you would think there would be more than one or two choices of venues for dog shows.

When Heart of America Kennel Club went back to their spring show and they kept the American Royal Complex, we were all glad. The show site is huge, the parking is great, inside bathing facilities, showers, the works. The worst thing we could probably say is that there are not any nice hotels that are close.

This spring things will be different. The show will be March 14-17, 2013 at Bartle Hall, in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Think downtown, very few, if any dog friendly hotels and areas, no parking, St. Patrick's Day weekend in the city with one of the largest St. Paddy's Day Parades in the country, combined with the NAIA College Basketball Championships from March 13 - 19 right across the street, as well as the Dance America competition, also across the street. At the same time, the Big 12 Mens Tournament is at Sprint Center right down the street. Plan for a very crowded time, with hotel room prices jacked up all over the area because of the tournaments. Another thing to consider is the crime rate, which is bad enough on a regular day, but with all of this out-of-town activity, it will definitely go up. Be very careful out there.

We live here and don't know if we will go. The club is no where near as organized as the IKC in Chicago, so good luck to us all.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

RIP Maggie

As many of you know, we have been caring for my late mother's dog, Maggie. A Miniature American Whosit Hound (aka don't really know - maybe a Maltese - Yorkie cross). Maggie crossed over the Rainbow Bridge yesterday at the ripe (really ripe) old age of 23. At least that is 23 years that I can account for. When she came to live with us about a year before my mom passed, we didn't think she was going to live another year, and here it is 7 years later. She was a hoot and a pain in the you-know-what all at the same time. Maggie will be missed, but I am sure she is sitting on my mom's lap right about now.

Friday, January 11, 2013

CH Spellbound's Wild About Harry CD RA

Big congrats to Harry and owner Barbara Barton. They were quite a success at the Dallas Agility Trial in November. They participated in 2 events Standard Novice and Jumpers with Weaves Novice, placing first in both classes with a 100 in the regular class, and an 87 in the Jumpers class. One day and two legs towards his first Agility title! What a team.
We are so proud of both of them. Now if I can just talk Barbara into taking on another puppy!

CH Spellbound's Wild About Harry CD RA with owner/handler Barbara Barton

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Dave Update

Met with an Orthopedic Surgeon today. Dave needs surgery on his knee, but we will be getting a 2nd opinion. Dave isn't real comfortable with this Dr, and we spoke with two friends this afternoon who actually had him as their surgeon and were not at all happy. In the mean time, Dave is hobbling around with a brace, taking some good drugs, and getting over bronchitis.

Thanks for all of your well wishes. We will keep you posted.

Girl Scout Cookies

Have you tried the 'new' Mango Creme Girl Scout Cookies? The description sounds absolutely yummy:
MANGO CREMES
with nutrifusion (??? - see below)
Vanilla and coconut cookies filled with a tangy mango flavored creme enhanced with the nutrients found in fruits.

I think these are the worst Girl Scout cookies ever!!!
Tasted like weird cucumbers!!!
With their love of sweets, even Dave wouldn't eat them, and Tim didn't like them.

I had never heard of 'nutrifusion' so found the website and here is about all it said:

Imagine…an all-natural, nutritional additive that…

Is 100% from fruits & vegetables.
Can provide the nutrient-rich benefits of fruits & vegetables in everyday food products.
Is easily understood - little consumer education needed.
Offers high bio-absorption…the phytonutrients are readily absorbed unlike many synthetic vitamins and minerals.

What would you call this all-natural nutritional-rich food additive?...

NutriFusion™NutriFusion™ is by far, the emerging leader in both the rapidly growing food science and nutritional supplement categories. This all-natural blend of whole food concentrations will enable more people of all ages, young adults and children to consume vital nutrients more regularly and more conveniently.

SOUNDS KIND OF SCARY IF YOU ASK ME.

I miss the good ole days, where there were actually more than a few cookies in the boxes, and they were all good. Changing things up is not always a good thing. The Girl Scouts have been around for ages, their cookies don't have to change every year. The consistency is something we could always count on, with cookies, uniforms (hence the name - uniform!), etc. Now you can see a troop with so many different uniforms you don't even know that they are all girl scouts, let alone from the same troop.

OK, I am officially old.

Friday, January 4, 2013

We Love Getting Pictures!!!

We love it when our 'puppy people' and friends share photos and stories with us. Below are a couple of photos of Ouzo...a 7 month old BRT puppy, enjoying life...

Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!

We have all had our ups and downs this year, and I hope you are all ending 2012 on a high note.
If you are going out this evening, be safe and watch out for those who aren't being very smart.

Wishing you all a safe and blessed 2013!!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Bichon Puppies - Havanese Puppies

We have Havanese and Bichon Frise puppies available to show or 'companion only' homes.
Please peruse this blog for photos or drop us an email or give Dave a call to see if yours is still available.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Peter Belmont, Jr.

We are saddened at the loss of Peter Belmont, a great force in the dog show world. Peter was a long time Afghan Hound breeder/owner/handler.
Peter was the victim of a homicide in Kansas City, Kansas.
He will be greatly missed.
News that Peter Belmont Jr.was the victim of a homicide in Kansas City, Kan., is reverberating through the close-knit dog show community across the country and around the world.

Police are asking that anyone with any information about Peter Belmont's death call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. It is completely anonymous.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Havanese Puppies

Tina Fey X Quincy Whelped August 24, 2012

Tina: CH That’s Timeless Elegance - a beautiful Black Black and White White girl who finished quickly out of an ALL-CHAMPION LITTER and has been having fun on the couch. http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1502518 - animal

Quincy: CH That’s My Sweet River City Blues - a gorgeous silver, black, and white boy. Out of another ALL CHAMPION Litter, Quincy finished very quickly and now is spending time hanging around the house and having fun at an occasional show. Maybe we can talk his mom into showing him next year for his Grand Championship! This is one little dog that deserves to be out there kicking some big fuzzy butt! http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1422366 - animal

Both parents have awesome movement, great attitudes, and silky coats that they have passed on to these puppies.

Miss Kitty, aka Kitten, aka "Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!"

UPDATE 01/22/13:

I FOUND MY FOREVER HOME and Betty LOVES me.

She changes my name though, I'm now Little Missy,

because people would think that she was senile if she called 'Here Kitty, Kitty' expecting a 'dog' to come.

Add caption

My name is Marley.

Tina X Quincy Havanese Puppy Girl Available

Tina Fey X Quincy Whelped August 24, 2012

Both parents have awesome movement, great attitudes, and silky coats that they have passed on to these puppies.

Two boys and One girl are available. These puppies make you say “OMG - They are sooooooo CUTE!!!”
For More Photos go to the November 3, 2012 entry on this blog
http://dogshowupdate.blogspot.com/2012_11_03_archive.html
On the puppy photos from November 3, this little darling was known as Ruby, her name has since been changed to Kitten or Miss Kitty. She is totally outgoing and loves everyone. She is going to be tiny, so will not be looking for a show home. She needs her own home where she can be spoiled rotten, she will demand it! If you want a 'pocket book' dog that you can carry everywhere, Kitten is your gal.

Also, if you just like the idea of having a dog that you can call by saying "Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!" she is for you.