This weekend...

This weekend will be a happy and sad one - we are traveling up to Ohio to take Elle and Dave to their new owners. We are so happy that they found their forever homes, but sad to see them leave :( They've been a part of the family for over a year now. Also, we are picking up Sailor from Kiesha and taking him to his new home up there as well.

We are also doing the show in Lima, OH on Sunday and possibly Monday (depending if Dido finishes on Sunday) while we are up there. Fingers crossed for Dido (needs 2 points), Anna (needs a major) and Isaac (needs a major) - only Dido and Leigh are entered on Monday, so if Dido happens to finish on Sunday, then we are coming home a bit early.

We will be taking pics of the kids with their new parents and will post pics when we get home. We'll be sad to see them leave :(

Krys

New web update!

I have created a new page for all the dogs health testing - you can find the new page under the Archives section - it lists the dogs registered name, sire x dam, sex, height/weight, health testing and the year it was last done & their whippethealth.org ID #.

I am going to keep it updated as we do health testing and it includes our dogs, dogs we have bred and dogs sired by our out of a Shannon Down dog - I hope to be adding breeders/owners to each of them down the road as well. We are very proud of our great health testing record and feel that even if good or bad, the Whippet community should know.

Also everyone - don't forget to add your dogs and all their information to www.whippethealth.org It is a great database for the Whippet family and should be used by all!

Krys

Just some updates...

Here is a nwe pictures of Mercury (Gali x Quincy) taken on her birthday - 1 year old!

Also - Dido was bred for the first time today! She was bred to Quincy naturally and then to Brooks by AI, so in a few weeks we should know if we have little Whippie babies on the way!

Happy Birthday to Quincy!!!

He is 2 years old today - already!!!! For his birthday, mom drove down to Georgia to have his heart checked and it was totally normal :) Scarlet & Brooks also went along and they are normal as well... he'll get a special treat when he gets home.

Happy B-Day Quincy (aka Meatball).

New Apoll & Viva pics

I caught some good pictures of Viva this morning, as well as my baby Apoll (8 weeks old) with her ears down and her face shaved!

Happy 1st birthday!

Happy 1st birthday to the Winnie x Bosley kids!
Tower, Delite, Mya, Layla, Striker & Ravin

And God Speed to baby Georgia

Happy 1st birthday!

Happy 1st birthday to the Gali x Quincy kids...
Francois, Tommy, Apollo, Barkley, Elle, Mercury & Spencer

Dido news...

We discovered on Sunday night, after we got home from coursing - that Dido is in season! We are showing in Lima, OH the end of this month, and hopefully she finishes there... if not, we will still breed her and try and finish her shortly after she is bred or wait until she has the pups - she only needs 2 singles to finish so she is so close. But she will be 4 this year and with our performance litters planned next year, we would have to wait until 2010 for her if we pass on her this year. So she will be breeding her to both Quincy & Brooks (see previous Litters post from this month or visit the website for information) in a few weeks! Mom is taking Quincy, Brooks & Scarlet to have their hearts done on Friday - so let's hope for the best for their cardiac exams. Scarlet is due in season anytime and we plan to breed her to Bowie, so we hope to have some fall puppies - it will be over a year soon that we had puppies last and we are so excited! These will be the first Whippet pups born in the new house and I can't wait to see what we have!

Apoll - almost 8 weeks old!

My baby girl is almost 8 weeks old - these pictures were taken 2 days shy of her 8 week birthday and she is just adorable. I can't begin to explain how spunky she actually is! She also already has her own special show lead for when she is old enough to show (got to wait another 4 months!!!!) which I will take pictures of today - it's just gorgeous! Anyway - here she is :)

Happy 1st birthday - a little late....

Forgot to send happy birthdays to the Bosley x Raku babies on May 29th - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Here you guys are as tiny babies :)

Happy 1st birthday!

Happy happy happy birthday to the 'About' litter :) Rupert & Fiona's kids turned a year old today!!! (June 15)

Happy birthday to...

Helen, Brom, Romero, Christian & Imagene

Here they are as tiny wittle babies :)

GiGi goes BEST IN FIELD

We are so proud of our little GiGi :) She took Best In Field yesterday at the Rocky Mount, NC AKC Lure Coursing trial!



Saturday...
Open Stake (15 dogs)
Choo Choo took 2nd and collected his first 3 points towards his AKC FC!
Rupert placed 4th
FC (7 dogs)
GiGi won and took Best of Breed and then onto Best in Field!!!! Adding 5 points towards her LCX
Tigger placed 4th

Sunday...
Open Stake (15 dogs)
GiGi placed 3rd for 2 more LCX points
Rupert placed 4th
FC (5 dogs)
Cuda placed 2nd
Bosley placed 3rd
Tigger placed 4th

Isaac was tied for 4-5 along with Rupert and two other dogs - since Isaac needs a 3rd place to finish, we pulled him. But we are so proud of him as he ran so wonderful after having 2-3 years off and not being in running condition yet - we didn't run him yesterday due to the heat and course plan, but we are so proud of him today. Isaac is back here at Shannon Down to finish up his FC and Ch. - needs a major in the show ring and 2 points in the field and he will be a new Dual Champion! We are so proud of the kids this weekend - even with the heat and a bit of rain today, it was a great weekend!

Oh - and little Miss Helen ran today (on her birthday) for her first leg of her JC!!!! She had a beautiful run and we think we have another Rupert on our hands!

Krys

More heights

Got some more heights...

Quincy - 20.25
Murphy - 20.75
Brooks - 22
Choo Choo - 22.25
Cuda - 21.5
Hummer - 22
Tigger - 22.25
GiGi - 19.5
Viva - 20.5
Anna -20.25
Winnie - 20

Dog heights

I've decided to measure everyone's height to post on their pages on the website, I did a few tonight and will probably do more in a bit but this is what I found...

Scarlet - 19.5
Charlize - 19.5
Lola - 20.5
Rupert - 21
Sweet Pea - 19.75
Gali - 19.75
Isaac - 21.25
Dido - 19.5
Leigh - 19.75
Bosley - 21

How I did it was I took the larger wicket for each sex, put it on them and measured the space between the wicket and the withers and subtracted from 22.5 inches (males) or 21.5 inches (females)

And we already KNOW that Delite (Winnie x Bosley) is 17.5 inches and Francois (Gali x Quincy) is 18.5 as they just measure in with the small wicket.

Will post more later and the ones I have done so far are posted on their pages on the website.

Krys

Litter plans this year

Our litter plans have changed here and there but I think we have the final plans all laid out :) We haven't had any Whippie pups in almost a year and we look forward to having our summer litters, none of the girls are in season yet - but Scarlet and Dido are due in pretty soon.

Scarlet will be bred to "Bowie" - Multiple Best In Field, DC Snow Hill Indecent Proposal MC, LCX-2, LCM I am so excited about this litter - though we may not have many pups, I am still excited about seeing the quality in the few pups we have. This will be Scarlet's 3rd and final litter, her first litter she had 1 pup and her second litter she had 2 - so we don't expect a huge litter from her at all. Bowie's first and only litter at the moment, all 6 kids are pointed in the show ring from the puppy classes! With Bowie's wonderful coursing career as well - we expect to have beautiful show puppies that will excel on the coursing field! Bowie is up to date on all his health testing (heart, eyes, ears and hips) and Scarlet will be updated on all of hers shortly (heart & eyes and will also have her ears checked before breeding)

"Scarlet"

"Bowie"

Dido's litter will be a bit more complicated - she will be bred to BOTH Quincy and Brooks, our boys - we are going to attempt a dual sired litter and have figure out how we are going to do it. We are going to breed her to one of the boys naturally and artificially inseminate her with the other the same day and then the next breeding day we will switch the boys. Both boys are DNA tested already, we will be sending Dido's in before she is bred and all puppies will be DNA tested to detemine which puppies belong to which father. I am sure whatever pups come out almost solid colors will be sired by Quincy as from his first litter all of his puppies were solid colors except for their faces and feet. This will be Dido's first litter. Dido and Brooks have had their heart and eyes done and Brooks has had his ears done, Quincy has had his eyes done and will have atleast his heart done before he is bred to Dido.

"Dido"

"Quincy"

"Brooks"

Leigh's litter will be much later this year as she was just in season not to long ago but we have picked the boy out for her - this will be her last litter and will be bred to "Hudson" - Ch. Harmony's Andauer Lover Come Back. Mom saw some of his pups at the National and decided this was the boy for Leigh :) Hudson is up to date on his heart, eyes and ears and Leigh will be updated but has had her eyes & ears done and has had her heart echo'd 3 times and all have been clear.

"Leigh"

"Hudson"

So that is what we have planned for this year - next year we will focus on our race/performance litters, but the breedings are still a bit up in the air - will post when we are certain of what we are doing :)

Check our our Current Litters page on our website for more information on these 3 litters.

Asheville, NC Sunday show

Nothing much - but the dogs showed wonderful, even in the scorching heat.

Isaac won his BBE class and Choo was 2nd in his Open class and probably showed the best he ever has - we were so proud of all the kids for showing so great!

Krys

Asheville, NC show today

The dogs did wonderful, but just no points :( Isaac was SO close to finishing by taking Reserve Winners Dog to a 4 point major (1 dog shy of a 5 point major) and Choo Choo placed 3rd in his Open Dog class of 8. Anna was 4th in a very big Bred By class of 10 or so and Dido won the big Open bitch class of about 10 bitches. So everyone placed and did great, it was EXTREMELY hot and they are happy to be home resting on the couches and napping in their crates in their air conditioned room. We showed Leigh in Breed but she was not feeling her best, she is going into the chiropractor on Monday and that should fix the problem. She has an obsession with trying to crawl under the couch and it bothers her back, poor girl. But everyone did great and we had a pic taken of Isaac, hopefully it turns out well though his ears probably won't be up as it was so hot that we were lucky we even got his mouth closed!!! LOL Thank God we showed early in the morning and we escaped the REALLY hot temps. But tomorrow we don't show until after 10, so we will all be really hot I'm sure.

Showing again tomorrow, will update on how it all goes :)

Krys

Congratulations...

Dave and Elle have found their forever homes!!!

Dave is going to his new home in Indiana with Sarah New and her family. Dave will be a beloved pet and couch potato. Here is my favorite picture of him!

And then Elle, he will also be leaving to his new home in Indiana but will only be there with his new owner a few days before flying with her over to Poland where her family lives. He will be shown all over Poland and Europe and will be co-owned by us. His new owners are Angelika and Janina Wójcik, the own, show and breed Borzoi and Elle will be their first Whippet and the start of their new Whippet family. We are incredibly excited to see how his show career goes. He will be moved to our Co-Owned page today and will remain there so that everyone can see new pictures and keep updated on his show career. Here is my favorite picture of Elle's happy face ;)

Congratulations on their new owners and the boys will be leaving us the end of this month, we will miss our boys dearly.

Krys

Isaac & Wallace

Isaac just arrived this morning, he is staying here with us for a visit and going to work on completing his show Championship (needs a majors) and his AKC Field Championship (needs 2 singles)!!!! Be sure to see some pics on the blog real soon of him here at Shannon Down - he was so excited to see his sister again, he lives as the only Whippet in the Johnson family - so he was very glad to see all the Whippies he could play with!

And Wallace left to his new home with Amanda Smith and might get to play around on the coursing field, they live in North Dakota right now - not to much out that direction as far as Whippet activites but they do plan to move soon and she hopes to move somewhere where she can play around with Wallace. We hope to receive pics of him in his new home soon and we'll post them right here on the blog ;)

Krys

May recap...

May was not a bad month either ;) Starting from the beginning of the month, this is how it all went down... (some of our FC were moved down to the Open Stake for some trials to help make a full stake or split stakes)

May 3rd - AKC Coursing in Ohio
Cuda placed 4th in the Open A Stake
Rupert placed 5th in the Open A Stake
Anna placed 4th in the Open B Stake
GiGi placed 2nd in the Open C Stake for 3 LCX points!
Tigger placed 3rd in the FC Stake
& Viva placed 5th in the FC Stake

May 4th - AKC Coursing in Ohio
Quincy placed 2nd in the Open A Stake for 3 FC points!
Rupert placed 3rd in the Open A Stake for 2 LCX points!
GiGi won the Open B Stake for 5 LCX points!
Anna placed 2nd in the Open B Stake for 3 FC points and finished her FC title!
Blaine won the Open C Stake for his first 5 point major! (only his 3rd trial and has 8 points and a major now!)
Tigger won the FC Stake for 2 LCX points!
GiGi went on to win Best of Breed!!!

We took a weekend off and then did a small show, nothing great to report there.

May 24th - AKC Coursing in North Carolina
GiGi placed 2nd in Open for 3 LCX points!
Rupert placed 3rd in Open for 2 LCX points!
Tigger placed 2nd in FC for 2 LCX points!

May 24th again - WRA Racing in New Jersey
It was a 44 dog meet
Ripley placed 10th
Aren (a Murphy son) placed 14th
Trick placed 23rd
Avery placed 24th
Derby placed 25th
Not bad as this was most of the kids first WRA meet!

May 25th - AKC Coursing in North Carolina
GiGi placed 3rd in the Open Stake for 2 LCX points!
Rupert placed 5th in the Open Stake
Cuda placed 3rd in the FC Stake for 1 LCX point and completed his MC title!
Winnie placed 4th in the FC Stake after many months of hanging at home and not running

May 25th again - NOTRA Racing in New Jersey
It was a 45 dog meet
Aren placed 15th
Trick placed 20th
Ripley placed 21st
Derby placed 26th and completed his OTR title!
Avery placed 27th
Marseille placed 29th

May 31st - ASFA II
Derby placed 2nd in his Open Stake!!!

And though it's not May, it's still close...
June 1st - CWA Racing in Texas
Leo places 3rd for 2 more ARX points, he now has 8 ARX & 6 NARX points!

Titles earned...
Derby - new OTR
Avery - new OTR
Margo - new JC
Choo Choo - new SC
Cuda - new MC
Anna - new FC

Points earned...
GiGi earned 13 LCX points
Rupert earned 4 LCX points
Tigger earned 4 LCX points
Cuda earned 1 LCX point
Anna earned 3 FC points (new FC)
Quincy earned 3 FC points
Blaine eanred a 5 FC points (major)
Leo earned 2 ARX points

Health testing results...
Tigger, Winnie, Viva, GiGi, Bosley & Rupert were all tested this month for Myostatin Deficiency (the bully gene) and all were N/N (normal - not carriers) which makes all of the Bosley x Winnie and Bosley x Raku puppies N/N by default!!! Joanne also tested Marseille (Sweet Pea x Blaze) Aren (a Murphy son), Avery (Brooks daughter) and Kira (mother to Avery) and all were also N/N
Helen was BAER tested - normal
Leigh was CERF'd again - normal

And I didn't mention (I don't think I did anyways) the health testing done at the National in April. Leo was BAER, CERF & Cardiac tested, all normal. Brom was CERF & BAER tested, all normal & Magnum was BAER, CERF & Cardiac tested, all normal!!!!

Fingers crossed & knock on wood - we have yet to run into any health problems!!! We have been extremely lucky and we hope it continues :)

Well, I think that's about it for the month of May - let's see what June brings!

Krys