19th November: The Northern Bernese Mountain Dog Club held their Annual Super League Final's at the Bridge Inn Hotel, Wetherby, the competition is open to invited dogs. During the show season we achieved the qualifications for invitations for Geilo, Freya, Johann and Jenta, due to Freya still being out of coat she did not attend. The Super League is a Knockout Competition, in the Veteran section Geilo was knocked out in the first round, the last remaining dog being the winner of the section.

 

All the dogs that were knocked out from the first round competed against each other for the Best of the Rest Award. There were five dogs in this line up to decide the Best of the Rest, the two judges again assessed each dog in turn and then awarded Geilo First place, we were delighted as he was the only dog to beat more than one dog, he beat four other dogs, including one Champion.

 

In the Puppy section both Johann and Jenta were knocked out in round one, they also took part in their sections Best of the Rest. They both behaved very well and were a credit to us in the Lounge where the exhibition took place in the hotel, they quite happily layed at our feet while all the dogs were ran up the mat in front of us. The only time they looked at another dog running up the mat was when their father Geilo was running up and down, they spent the full day inside with us, great socialisation for two young puppies.

 

 

12th November: Pat and Majella the owners of Odin (Staubach Jozef von der Wald) exhibited Odin at the Fermoy Canine Club Open Show in Southern Ireland, he was handled by their daughter Amy. He had been entered in three classes, in the Bernese Puppy class he was 1st, unfortunatly he was the sole entry in this class. Odin was also entered in the Any Variety Puppy Dog class and placed 2nd, he was entered in the very strong Any Variety Beginner Dog class, with an entry of 11, Amy handled him very well, her mother and father watched her take 1st place beating some excellent dogs of several breeds. Congratulations to Amy and Odin from all of us here, keep up the training.

 

 

11th November: Happy 9th Birthday to our very special girl Pia (Glanzberg Pia at Staubach), Pia has been blind since she was two years old, nothing bothers her at all, she is a pleasure to live with and all our dogs love her. When we have visitors Pia is the first one there for attention, she loves to meet lots of new people and is at ease with everyone from very young children to adults. Today she will be sharing her special birthday cake with all our dogs. 

 

 10th November:  Happy 3rd Birthday to Steffi (Gwen-Stefanni von Bernice Love Imp Ger),  Steffi gave us a beautiful litter of puppies earlier this year with Geilo.  You may wonder why there are no pictures of her with Johann and Jenta, well it is because she will not sit still with them, she just wants to play all the time.  One day soon we will get a picture of her with them.  Steffi is a very happy girl who loves to be with you, however for some reason she now hates travelling in the van she gets so stressed by it, consequently this means that most of the time when we go away she stays at home and looks after Pia.   

 

7th November: It is with sadness we have to report the death of Hughie who was given sleep today, he was from our fourth litter, his mother was our gorgeous Madi, he was the second Bernese belonging to Will and Hazell Tayor and their family in Enstone, Oxfordshire. We only saw Hughie a few months ago when Will and Hazell came to visit us to see Steffi and Geilo's litter from which they have a male puppy Lewis, it was not long before he became Hughie's best friend and companion. Our thoughts are with Will, Hazell, Elizabeth and son Will at this sad time.

Message from Will and Hazell:

Hi Ian and Jill.

Sorry to have to tell you that today we said goodbye to our gorgeous big boy Hughie, he was the best dog you could wish for.  He was just so amenable and never any trouble; he fitted in with whatever we were doing, and was never ruled by the clock or routine. The best example was when we had our holiday earlier this year to the Outer Hebrides. We travelled over 2,250 miles in the car, stayed in seven different hotels and cottages and went to so many different places.  He was always so adaptable, slept in the rooms with us without mess or ever barking, ate in the car when necessary and was just such a good boy all the time. We couldn’t have done it with anyone else.

 

We’ll miss him so much, but still we have Lewis, and we can still keep our routine going, it must be awful to suddenly be without a dog. Regards, Will Hazell and Lewis

 

 

5th November: Today we left home at 05.15 am for our drive to Edinburgh in Scotland where we had entered Johann and Jenta at the Working & Pastoral Breeds Association of Scotlands Championship Show. We arrived in plenty of time for the judging to start at 09.30, however another breed was in the ring first and it was about 12.00 when we finaly were in the ring. To our surprise our friend Pat from Cork who owns Johann and Jenta's litter brother Odin arrived at the show, he was in Scotland on business and decided to go to the show. Unfortunatly he had to leave before the juding as he had an afternoon ferry booked for his return, he did however see Johann and Jenta, we also had with us Geilo, Elkie and Freya who he showed to his friend.

 

We had a good day at the show, Johann was First in a class of four in the Minor Puppy male class and beat the Puppy male so he was Best male Puppy, in the challenge for the male C.C. he stood well and did not look out of place. When he came up against the Best female Puppy we were not surprised when she was awarded Best Puppy in breed. We had entered Elkie but as she was out of coat we did not show her.

In the Junior female class Freya's litter sister Tillie (Kinelarty Norsk Star Struck) was second, in Post Graduate female class Elkie's litter sister Hunny (Tiggerifik Hunny Bee) was placed fifth.