Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[CountryEscape]

Wow, what a stressful day you had to finish your dog! What breed of dog did you show? My boss thinks she wants a Maltese ... non-shedding, small dog, she wants a "pocket pet", although Maltese's are not that small, but she knows that. Problem is that there are not very many breeders, and they all want a bunch of money. Told her to get a poodle. Smart, small (toy size), great with kids usually, non-shedding ... but her mom used to have one, and she wants something no one else has. Well, then fork out $1500 to $3000 and get what you want then! Nope, she doesn't want to have to even pay $300 ... good luck with that!
I'd love to have an Australian Shepherd or a mini Aussie, but they require way to much brushing, which I don't keep up with well enough. So, probably will get another German Shepherd or Golden Retriever if I go to a big breed sometime later. Have had both, love them both and they are all very smart dogs. But, nothing in my near future. Have 3 dogs now, one Boston that is registered, and two that people dumped and they got to stay. Lucky them!

 

[capewind]

We bred/showed six generations of Mastiffs. Just one dog now, a grandaughter to the one we were showing when I had the car problems with the rental. She was out of our final litter in 2006.

 

[capewind]

Here;s a couple of pics of the girl we were showing at the time (Cierra). The show picture was actually the weekend before in Syracuse, NY.. She took back to back 5 point majors there. She was 17 months old here. The other picture was taken 5 days before her 10th birthday. Warning, dont get me started on dogs, or I'll end up flooding your thread with pictures. I may be retired, but still a topic I am very passionate about.

 

[sissy]

we all love our dogs for sure .My pee wee and king Arthur are my heart .I think we all feel the same way about our pets no matter what they are

 

[capewind]

we all love our dogs for sure .My pee wee and king Arthur are my heart .I think we all feel the same way about our pets no matter what they are

Absolutely Sissy. As a breeder, I will tell you I intentionally placed the majority of my puppies into companion homes. I pissed off a lot of other breeders because of my views on the importance of being pets FIRST. I had a well known breeder tell me that I would never "make it" in the Mastiff breed, as I thought TOO MUCH like a pet owner. To this day, I laugh. I have personally produced, or was the stud owner to several top Champion, Obedience, and Therapy Mastiffs in the US AND CANADA (includes placements at both country's National Specialties), with a small, very dedicate breeding program, and a shoestring budget (showing is expensive). Every dog in my possession lived inside our home, and not in kennels.

My girl Cierra (above) was sired by the 1998 AND 1999 #1 Mastiff in the country ... It is an understatement to say this pedigree was in high demand. Cierra was the pick bitch of her litter. She was one of his last living daughters at the time I was breeding her (he was already gone).

Her first litter, I had some things going on with the kids, so placed the bitch I had intended to keep (they named her Aanya), with a novice who wanted to try showing (no commitment to champion her) and completed her championship at one of our biggest shows with two 5 pt majors ... the rest of the litter was placed into pet homes. The bitch (left) was Aanya taking one of her 5 pt majors ... the dog on the right (Clifford) was also mine, out of a nonrelated litter ... he also took a 5 point major. The judge was stunned, that out of almost 60 entries, that both her winner's dog, and winner's bitch, were from the same breeder, and were not related.

Second litter (sired by Clifford above), I kept a boy on co-ownership locally (he was my showdog, but a local familys pet, they named him Homer) ... I placed another boy with a young family that also wanted to try showing (no commitment to champion him, they named him Charlie) ... they did finish him ... the rest were placed into pet homes .
This is Homer at 13 months going Best of Breed

This is Homer again, all grown up at 41 months...

This is Charlie at 13 months taking a 3 point major

And this is Charlie all grown up...

The third (and final) litter (also by Clifford) ,.. I kept the bitch (named her Echo) and placed the rest in pet homes. I am NOT trying to blow my own horn here, but I had a well know breeder fly over from Australia solely to try to convince me to sell this puppy to her. It was really an honor, but I was keeping her!!! At the time Echo completed her championship, she was the second youngest bitch to compete her championship. She did it with three, 5 point majors, the weekend she turned 10 months.

This is Echo the day after turning 10 months.

I could spend HOURS talking dogs... these are just some of Cierra's kids and a pup I produced with the hopes of getting a nice boy to breed to her, I can post 6 generations of my own, before starting on what we sired LOL. This is why I say dont get me going on dogs. While my dogs did exceptionally well in the ring, I bred for TEMPERMENT and HEALTH, Their accomplishments in the show and obedience rings was just icing on the cake.

 

[capewind]

Last unsolicited dog pic ... after posting so many last night, I started organizing pictures again in my computer. Found a picture I though you all would apprecriate more than the show pics ... This is Abigal (Clifford's grandam) ... and NO, hubby was not happy with this pic LOL.

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, impressive indeed!!! I loved the pics, Cape, so no worries about tooting your own horn. Anytime an individual can accomplish what you did in such short order is something that you SHOULD let people know about. I know the show dog world is as political (you place my dog, I'll place yours at the next show) as horse showing, so getting to the top is not an easy feat. Who were the ladies showing your dogs in the above photos? I assume you .....
And, I LOVED the last pic of Abigail swimming in the pond. LOL
Now, I have to find a good pic of my neighbor's Mastiff. I know there are many type of Mastiff's, so I will have to ask which one he is. I just know he's right at a year, and he's as tall as a Great Dane, and weighs well over 100#, maybe closer to 120# or more. Big brutas, his name is Boozer. I'm only 5', but his back comes up to higher than my waist! He's a brindle, very beautiful, and a big lovable dog, loves and adores people, but don't let your dog come into his yard. LOL He does however play with his "cousin" from down the road, a Bloodhound names Buford. LOL Now, that's a pic, as the bloodhound is huge for that breed, IMO.

 

[capewind]

I didnt play politics, but I did use a professional handler. Logical choice, I was toting at least one dog, if not two, and 2-3 kids. When Cierra completed her championship so fast, it was said that she only did so because of who her handler was. I was still pretty naive to the dogshow world (BTW, I grew up in the horse show world LOL) .. I honestly hired the handler I did, because Abigal LIKED him. Even back then, we were all using message groups (although back then it was Yahoo groups) and when I mentioned I was bringing my Butler daughter out, it created a bit of a stir. I told everyone Cierra was no threat, she was coming out for the ring experience only. Hell, she wasnt yet trained to gate, and her stand stay/stack was weak. I have never had a dog who loved the ring as much as she did. She walked into that ring with so much attitude, she literally took over the ring (called ring presense) with her "look at me" spirit.

I LOVED the stir we caused when showing Aanya and Clifford at the same time (those were my next dogs out after Cierra). Aanya was shown by her mom, who had never before shown a dog. My normal handler had a conflict (he was campaigning a Special). The person showing Clifford in the picture with both dogs was just a friend. He bred Berners and Great Pyrs, and did some part time handling. As a friend, I loved him, as did my dogs ... as a professional handler, honestly, he sucked. THAT blew the accusations of me using a political handler out the window LOL.

The following year when we were showing Homer, we caused the same stirs. Now in this case I did play politics once... My other puppy owner came to one of the same shows Homer was at, and we THREW Homer (made him lose), to LET Charlie take the points. Homer was better than Charlie, but there was nothing else at that show (out of about 40 entries) that was a threat. The biggest threat was Charlie's handler absolutely sucked. I blasted that woman one day at a show for "stringing Charlie up" (she was choking him with the collar which prevent free forward movement) .. Even the judge overheard it, I was so pissed off. I dont care who anyone is, dont EVER manhandle one of my dogs. Charlie took the reserve to the 4 point major that day, when he should have taken the points. People learned quick that I didnt show a lot. If I entered a show, I was coming TO WIN, and did so more than 75% of the time.

There are different varieties of Mastiffs, but mine are THE Mastiff. Sort of like saying Standard fin koi verses Butterfly Koi... You need one to make the other. My MASTFF breed is over 2000 years old. The AKC simply calls ours MASTIFFS... the UK calls them ENGLISH MASTIFFS, the same breed. THE Mastiff is the heaviest breed of dog.

To give you something to ratio the size of a true Mastiff, here is a picture of Homer, with my youngest. She is 13 here about 5'0 (she only grew to 5'3" LOL). Homer was 33" at the shoulder, and 252 lbs.

 

[capewind]

More pics to show size ... This is Sassy (Abigal daughter, dam to Clifford) ... Handler is about 5'9" ... son is 12 here, and daughter was 10 for this one (taken in the benching area of a show) ... In the show picture, Sassy was 4. I never planned to show her. I didnt think she was worthy of the ring. She was one of the worst quality dogs we had produced (straight in the rear), but I had kept her for the apricot color gene. Our daughter on the other hand had a difference of opinion and was the one to ring train her, thinking she could show her in Juniors. Well, you dont just throw a 10 yr old child in a ring, with a 200 lb bitch, and a bunch of other kids, without knowing she (the dog) has SOLID manners. Surprise surprise, Sassy earned her championship quickly LOL.

 

[capewind]

Now if you want to talk about a dog that would truly make your heart sing ... This is Linc. These pics show him a bit over a year. I cant take all the credit for him, I was just the stud owner. He is a Homer son. This boy does EVERYTHING.

Just under 2.5 years of age, he had obtained the titles of CH, CD, CDX, RAE, DD, WD, WDX, CGC, TDI ,, I lost track of whatever else he added for titles, as again, I was only the stud owner.

Of all his titles, I am most proud of his TDI (therapy dog international). He doesnt just DO therapy visits, he is a working service dog EVERYDAY to his mom. She suffers from a nasty disease called Dystonia, and a severe version at that. Think in terms of having a seizure, where every muscle contracts (great pain), and even go blind during the episode, unable to speak, only able to hear, and then freeze in place, fully awake and aware. What Linc has been taught to do is "move her arm" which pulls her out of it after the episode is over.

 

[addy1]

CE have your boss check the maltese rescue groups, you can usually pick up a rescue pup for the cost of what they put in to it. Make sure she asks about the dogs personality etc before getting one.

 

[MitchM]

33" at the shoulder, wow that's big. My dogs are 29 at the shoulder and I thought they were big. (Black Russian Terriers)

 

[capewind]

That is a big dog Mitch. I wasnt familar with your breed, so just looked them up on the AKC site. Beautiful dogs.

With our breed, people get confused between the different mastiff (common noun) varieties. If addressed from the size prospective, folks usually understand the difference. In Mastiffs (proper noun), our breed standard states a bitch to stand a MINIMUM of 27.5" and there is no max. The average well bred bitch stands 29" but you will occasionally see a nicely put together bitch at 31-32" ... For the boys, the standard says a MINIMUM of 30" and again no max ...Most correctly built boys are 32"-34" ... Occasionally, you'll see a nice boy at 35" ... Like anything else, there are a lot of folks who think bigger is better.. and end up producing Mastiffs that look more like Great Danes ... lots of leg length, and little structure. I never bred for size. As long as we met the minimum reguirements, I was happy. I wanted the total package, which included soundness (structural health). Mastiffs are a working breed, and with all the thought on more height, less structure, folks are producing giant cripples. THAT is one of the reasons our dogs did so well in the ring. They had the total package

 

[sissy]

I did raise one show quality Chinese shar pei but never showed her she got cancer at 3 years of age and after thousands of dollars we lost her .she had so many names it got me confused because both her parents were show dogs .I know they had lots of ribbons and stuff ,but thats it .She was a pet that was just well loved .My son got her as a puppy because he was dating the daughter of the owners of the mom and she was the last puppy left because she did not have enough wrinkles to make her good show quality .Huh what a thing not enough wrinkles . :razz: But she sure had enough love to give

 

[capewind]

Ohhh, so sorry you lost her so young. ALL dogs SHOULD be a pet first, period. Showing SHOULD just be something you do for FUN. We had a few dogs who didnt enjoy the ring. Plain and simple, I didnt continue to show that dog. They stayed home.

Cancer is a big problem in Mastiffs as well, but frankly, being such a large dog, most of the time, they will pass from old age before cancer can raise its ugly head. We lost our present dogs older sister last Nov (2011). Tried to treat, removed the growth, but it had gone into the bone. She would not have been happy if we had amputated her leg (front) ... even when she was young she had such a "help me" personality. She wouldnt have adjusted well.