Tragic news

I must post on the passing of Francois last month. It was a tragic accident and he was so young, his owner Deborah Nieborg of Holland, and the whole Shannon Down family still morn the passing of this youngster who had so much life.

BIF winners!

We have two new Best In Field winners in the past month of so. Mya finished her AKC FC a few weeks back and the following day, her first time running in FCh, she won BOB and went on to win BIF! (Her sister Layla finished her AKC FC that same day) Then the other weekend Cricket won her first BIF up in Canada and is currently the #1 Whippets in CSFA!!!! Way to go girls! Cricket and Blair are pictured after winning BIF!

Monty

Got a new picture of Monty the other day - littermate to our Brooks, Leigh & Scarlet from Sweet Pea's first litter sired by Blaze. He looks so happy! I can't believe they are 7 years old now, time flies.

Nigel news

Nigel won his first AKC Ch. point today by going Winners Dog and Best of Winners under judge Mr. Frank McCartha in Deland, FL! Way to go Nigel and Emily! Good luck in juniors today!

Anna pregnant pic

Here is Anna, taken tonight - at just over 4 weeks pregnant. She's growing by the day, actually more like by the hour. I'm scared....

BIG news

Well, it's time to announce it since we have confirmed the news today. Anna is pregnant by Tigger. Anna was accidentally let outside with Tigger (Tigger was hiding) when she was in season, day 10. He bred her and the tie broke before 2 minutes was even up - well we took her in for an ultrasound today and though she counted THREE times, she counted THIRTEEN puppies each time. So it looks like we are going to have a very large litter mid October. I am working on making a litter page for them now to get the news on the website, but here it is. Anna will be a momma again in October and it looks like she's quite the brood bitch carrying huge litters - her first litter being a litter of 12 (11 surviving).

Krys

Weekend news and titles

It was a great debut weekend for two wonderful girls in Antioch, IL. Aesa - from the Bosley x Raku litter - made her WRA debut on Saturday where she finished 8th in the meet and then she finished 8th in the meet today (Sunday) AND finished her CR title!! Congrats to Aesa and her owner Whitney Watts - I know they both had fun! At the same race meet, Michelle ran Tala (from the Bosley x Carina litter bred by Michelle Bernier) in the puppy meet both days and both days she won the puppy meet. There were 5 puppies entered. Steve and Kay took the girls, Mya and Layla, to an AKC coursing trial in Knoxville, MD today only and Mya placed 3rd in the FCh Stake of 7 dogs and Layla was 4th to her in Field Champions! They intend to run at the ASFA Regionals next weekend so fingers crossed that they do well and run safe :) While I was updating the website (and by the way there is a new page for Aesa under the 'Other Dogs' section if you want to take a peek) I went to place Aesa's name under our WRA titled dogs and was amazed at how many of our dogs (owned or bred by us) have titles in certain venues! Here is a quick breakdown but you can also go to the website - under the Archives section (Our Titled Dogs) to see each dogs name that has a title in each venue.

Dogs we have bred or own
5 American Champions - and several others closing in on theirs
2 UKC Champions
1 Colombian Champion
1 Latin American Champion
1 Polish Champion
42 AKC Field titled
18 ASFA Field titled
1 Canadian Field titled
27 NOTRA titled
26 WRA titled
4 Obedience/Agility titled
7 Best In Field Winners
4 NOTRA Meet Winners
1 WRA Meet Winner
1 Best In Sweepstakes Winner

Dogs not bred by us, but out of or sired by a Shannon Down bred dog or bitch
1 Ameican Champion
1 UKC Champion
11 AKC Field titled
4 ASFA Field titled
6 NOTRA titled
7 WRA titled
1 CWA titled
4 Obedience titled
2 Best In Sweepstakes Winners
1 Best In Field Winner

I don't think that's to bad at all :) We couldn't do it without such wonderful owners and breeders who have bred to our dogs. Thanks guys :)

Krys

Weekend news so far...

We've had a great weekend so far in East Ridge, TN. On Friday we had ASFA lure coursing, Helen won the Open Stake of 10 - her first time running ASFA. Striker placed 2nd to her and Tinsley was 3rd to them and Quincy was NBQ. In the Field Champion Stake of 12, GiGI placed 4th (just coming from having a litter of puppies several weeks ago), Cuda was NBQ in Field Champions. Liam and Imagene both earned their first leg towards their JC titles.

On Saturday we had AKC lure coursing, Liam finished his JC title and placed 2nd in his Open Stake of 15 for his very first AKC Field Champion points! Imagene also finished her JC title but sat out of the trial. Trick placed 2nd in his Open Stake for his first 3 point, the 4th puppy from that litter to have AKC FC points. He was also RWD at the show that morning handled by Deborah Johnson. Cuda placed 3rd in Field Champions and Helen was 4th behind him.

Today, they haven't finished with coursing yet (AKC), but at the show this morning Trick was WD for 2 points! He was handled by Deborah Johnson in his class and handled in winners by Grahm Swayze - thanks guys. If there is anything to report with lure coursing, I'll post more later :)

Krys

Basenji news

Also didn't mention that my Basenji kids are now showing! Nathan, that I have been showing myself, so far has 3 wins - totaling 6 points and a major.

Then Nadia who I still co-own, has a 3 point major already - handled by me :) She was 1st in her 9-12 month class at the National Specialty this month as well!

And then the other weekend, a 3rd pup (from a litter of 5), Ms. Nellybelle - was Winners Bitch and BOS for a major handled by Jerry Hope. (Haven't gotten the picture yet) She placed 3rd in her 9-12 month class at the National Specialty this month.

Two other pups from this litter remain, one who has only been shown once (Novalee) and one that has yet to enter the ring (Nora). I am so pleased with my first co-bred Basenji litter and how well they are doing in the show ring!

Krys

Time to get back to the blog

Okay, I have neglected the blog for far to long. I can't go through everything I have missed on the blog these past few months but you can always go to our website and check out the news page to see what you're missing.

I gave the website a re-design which took a few weeks and just went up recently. I am having some issues with our web hoster which is preventing me from updating right now (transferring it over, should be all fixed in a few days when the transfer is complete). Right now our black background is missing so I hope I can fix it ASAP.

Anyways, on to some news - GiGi has given us a beautiful litter of 8 born August 8th sired by Elektra's Infineon RCh, ORC, CC, CM. They are almost 5 weeks now and are growing beautifully! You can see pictures of them on the website.

For weekend news - last weekend was great. On Saturday our Tinsley was 3rd at the AKC trial in Hanover, PA for 2 points. Sunday Mya won the Open Stake for a 5 point major to finish her FC! Sister Layla was 2nd to her for 3 points and Tinsley placed 5th in the Open Stake. On Monday Layla won the Open Stake for a 5 point major to finish her FC!!! Mya won the FCh Stake and took Best of Breed and went on to Best In Field!!! Glenda and David went to a UKC show down in TX. On Saturday Jack (from the Anna x Rupert litter) was Best Whippet Puppy and went on to win Puppy Best In Show! Leo was Best Male which completed his UKC Championship! On Sunday Shinju (Jack's brother) was Puppy Best In Show at the morning and afternoon show!!!! Leo was Best of Breed and Sighthound Group 2 at the afternoon show! Not a bad weekend at all :)

Delite went to her new home this past weekend with Jason Cohen who had our girl Cliona who passed away the end of last year from kidney failure due to lyme disease. She's doing really good so far and settling in great in her new home. She will continue to lure course on occasion, she's already AKC FC pointed.

Well, that's it for now - I promise to keep the blog up to date from now on :)

Krys

I've been bad :(

I'm so bad for neglecting the blog like this!!! I've been working on a monthly newsletter and that has been taking up a lot of the time I would normally use to post to the blog. I am going to try and figure out how to post a PDF to the website so I can attach a link to the blog so you can view what has been going on this past month or so :) I'll make sure to do better with posting from now on!

Krys

Pictures, lots of them!!!!!

TONS of pictures to share that we have gotten over the last week or two :)

Joker - taken at the 2009 AWC National - so cute!

Star in Rally - taken at the 2009

Caleb, in his racing gear - getting ready to run a puppy race. Caleb left for his new home after this meet - he now lives with Peppi Grecco of Ladyhawk Whippets.

Huey - pictured at 5 months old - just looking so cute!

Litte Miss Widget at agility class and loving it - 5 months old

The bratness herself, Novalee. She is about 5.5 months now and bratty as ever!

Her bro Nathan, picture directly below trying to take out Isaac the babysitter.

Byelobog - at 5 months old, already measuring in at 19.5 inches

Princess Elisa - our very pretty little tomboy girl - 5 months old

Alistair - FINALLY got some stacked photos of him!!!! He's been so bad about stacked photos that we haven't gotten any of him in months - finally here are some decent shots of him. I really love my Ali boy - 8 months old.

Alexa the menace - looking beautiful as ever at 8 months old

Update

Neglected the blogspot a little bit this month, not much on news as we haven't traveled much lately. The Anna x Rupert puppies are growing up and doing wonderful... Glenda and us have made a decision as to who we are keeping. We will be keeping the cream boy "Gavin" and Glenda will be getting "Hayden", two very nice boys that we are excited about. We got some new pics of the older puppies the other day which I will attach to another post later this evening. Everyone is doing wonderful, we got a new freezer the other day and picked up a bunch of meat rolls and chicken necks/backs for the dogs which they are loving!

We have changed breeding plans for one of the girls this year... instead of breeding GiGi to Bosley we have decided to go ahead and breed her to "Infineon" Elektra's Infineon RCh, ORC, CC, CM We are excited about what this litter will produce!

As more news happens, I will make sure and post and keep up to date. I will post some pictures in another post :)

Krys

Francois pics

I thought these were really cute and wanted to share them - these are two pictures we got of Francois from his owner Deborah in Holland.

New pictures - Fergie & Cricket

Didn't get time to do a full update on the National but all the news is on the News page on the website - check it out. But I wanted to post some new photos - I just got some new photos of Fergie (from the Dido x Quincy litter) and I also was going through some old emails and came across some photos of Cricket is from the 3rd litter of Murphy x Daisy - she was a singleton pup and she had a blue eye, so she went to a home in Canada with Blair Shinski where she could still lure course and race :) Enjoy the photos!

Fergie

Cricket

National - photo album link

Just the start of the photo album - pictures of the costume contest and Widget (Leigh x Hudson) at 4 months old.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SDWhippets/2009National#

We have a couple boys entered tomorrow - Caleb & Liam in 6-9, Spencer in Novice and Quincy in Open. I believe we also have Scarlet entered in Altered bitches tomorrow evening - fingers crossed!

Update - off to the National!

It's been so busy here that I haven't been good about updating the blog :( There are now 1 and 2 week old photos of the Anna x Rupert puppies on the website, some great news on the 2009 News page, check it out. Lena just moved to California with her new owners Suzanne & Janis Bouzard of Paragon Whippets and is now Izabelle "Shannon Down Simply Irresistible". Porter finished his Championship with 3 majors!!!! Way to go Porter and Debi! Dave ran his very first NOTRA race meet today and finished 13th out of a 30 dog meet, Blaine has earned 2 legs towards his RN title and Bosley is now only needing 0.33 WRCh points to finish!!!! I know I have missed some stuff but it's all on the News page on the website :)

Tomorrow we hit the road for the AWC National and we are excited, we have a van load of dogs going with us - 4 Futurity pups to show and racing this coming weekend. It's going to be tons of fun and I plan to take TONS of photos and put them in an album to share. So come back soon to see news and get the link to the photo album I will be setting up for the National pics. Cecilia & GaGa will be leaving to their new home from the National to live with Elle's owner, Janina. They will eventually travel to Poland later this year or next year. They are going to be so much fun!

Any who - tons to do around here to get ready to leave tomorrow, I will be updating the blog this week from the show so stay tuned!!!

Anna x Rupert Puppy Pictures

Whelped March 22, 2009!

Puppy #1 - Girl (6.8 oz)

Puppy #2 - Boy (9 oz)

Puppy #3 - Boy (9.8 oz)

Puppy #4 - Boy (9.1 oz)

Puppy #5 - Boy (8.7 oz)

Puppy #6 - Boy (9.1 oz)

Puppy #7 - Boy (9.7 oz)

Puppy #8 - Girl (9.5 oz)

Puppy #9 - Boy (7.5 oz)

Puppy #10 - Girl (7.1 oz)

Puppy #11 - Girl (7.6 oz)

A very eventful weekend!!!!!!

Okay - so we left Friday to head down to Jacksonville, FL for NOTRA racing. We decided to take Tigger with us for some practice so he did his first practice since his injury Friday afternoon and did SPECTACULAR!!!! He handled it wonderfully - he kept close to the rail, no wandering, kept awesome speed and came off the track barking and wagging his tail. No soreness, lameness, swelling to his leg at all.

So we started our day out racing on Saturday - it ended great with Viva getting 3 ORC points and completing her Oval Race Championship and finished 3rd in the meet of 30 dogs!!! GiGi was 5th, Striker 6th, Bosley 7th, Quincy 8th (huge surprise!), Cuda 9th, Tinsley 12th, Winnie 14th, Charlize 18th and completed her OTR title - her very first title, Delite 22nd, Gali 26th, Helen 27th and Rupert 29th for Best of Opposite Turtle Award!!! Then we decided to practice Tigger again, but with a dog this time, so we picked what we think is our fastest dog right now (Viva) and ran him and her together. He passed her coming out of the box, she caught up to him on the straight a bit and then he blew in front of her on the backstretch. He's nearly the same ole' Tigger!!!! Then we get a phone call from Sharron Lane, Blaine took Winners Dog for a point at the Franklin, TN shows!! Awesome day!!!

Then on Sunday we got a phone call around 7:30am on our way to the track, Anna decided to whelp early and already had 3 puppies. My younger brother Stuart (14 years) and my father were acting midwives this day :) We continued to recieve updates throughout the day and she had 9 puppies before we got home. So now on to racing - we decided to run Tigger in the meet - he placed 3rd in the meet (30 dogs) behind Stoney & Brodie!!!! If he had pulled out the 2nd place, he would have finished his SORC, but we are SOOOO incredibly happy that he ran all 3 programs with no problems whatsoever. He is still doing awesome, hasn't been sore at all and is happy as can be! Striker placed 4th for 4 ORC points and GiGi placed 5th for 2 ORC points - way to go kids!!! Bosley placed 6th, Cuda 7th & Helen 9th to finish her OTR title. I will have to check results again to see how the kids all placed, but they all did awesome! We get another phone call from Sharron on our way home to tell us that Blaine was Winners Dog AGAIN for another point (he's a 1/3 of the way there) and all his points he's been handled to have been by his owner Sharron Lane!!!! Huge Kudos!!!

So we FINALLY get home, Anna's had 9 puppies and we can tell she still has more but is tired and hasn't been contracting hard enough, so we give her an oxytocin shot to help her along. She pushes out #10 (with some help from us) and it's a BIG (well, much bigger than her other puppies) white/brindle girl who is dead. We work on her for a long time, but can't get her going and she is incredibly cold so we had to give up on her - just wasn't meant to be. But she has another 2 puppies after that for a grand total of 12 puppies (7 boys and 5 girls). Our final tally after loosing the one puppy is 11 puppers (7 boys and 4 girls) and they are all doing fabulous. We are VERY surprised to have solid white puppies (most likely will be creams), we have 5 of them and they look very strange among their brindle/white littermates. I will post individual photos in another post but here is a group shot of them all after we all got cleaned up.


And then to top it all off, I get an email from Janina today to tell me that Elle won his Intermediate class at a VERY large International All-Breed show in Katowice, Poland!!!! She was thrilled with this, he has to wait until May until he can get his last CWC for his Polish Championship - but they are still showing him in the mean time and he's doing incredible!!!!

We also heard from Janet that Star got her first leg towards her RN and had a great score to boot!!! Not easy with Whippets so we are VERY proud!!!!

AND - Sarah took Dave to a practice straight race and he did awesome - ran through and open box, through a closed box and with a muzzle on - he really enjoyed himself and we look forward to when Sarah starts running him - we think he will do great!!!

What an AWESOME weekend it was!!!!!! And thank you to all our owners and co-owners, we can't do it without you ;)

Lola's at home...

Lola has apparently settled right into her new home in Canada. Claudine left David to read Cheyenne bedtime stories while she went and tended to the horses and this is what she walked in to - LOL It's too cute and so like Lola :)

Poor Anna!!!

Here are pictures of her taken the other day - she looks MUCH more pathetic in person. She's not happy with this new condition of hers - her little back legs and feet are swollen and she doesn't even want to get up to go potty. I have to drag her out the door - she can't fit more than a few big bites into her tummy so she has food in front of her all the time. It looks like she may be going for a Shannon Down puppy record! The most one of our girls have had was her momma Pea and her first litter of 10. I hope she doesn't try and beat that!

Lola and Elle

Got news about Elle today - he showed in Jaroslaw, Poland today and won Best Male/Best of Opposite Sex for another CWC at the National All-Breed Dog Show! He can't finish his Polish Championship until April as the first and last win have to be atleast 6 months apart. But this is awesome news!!! Congrats to his owners Janina and Angelika Wojcik!!!! He has another show (International All-Breed show) next Sunday!!! Fingers crossed, it's suppose to be a BIG show!

And we got Lola's first picture in her new home in Canada at Dreamwindz Whippets....

Saturday news and new homes

First - Saturday's ASFA Coursing news. Mom went to GA for some ASFA Coursing just for today, on her way home now. Just took a few dogs this time and Viva won the Open Stake and went on to win Best of Breed to finish her ASFA Field Championship!! Cuda won the Field Champion Stake - so it was a good day!

Now - for the new homes...

Shakira got to her new home in Missouri yesterday and is happily in her new home with Mike Broder and doing great. She had a good first night and I just got the first picture of her in her new home.

Landis left today with his new owners from the GA ASFA trial. His new owner is Andy Wiggers and his family and they love him. Hopefully he will get to do some lure coursing but his new two kids love him already and that's all that matter.

My baby girl Lola left today to fly into Montana where her new co-owner Claudine Hamilton (of Dreamwindz Whippets) came down to pick her up and is now on her way back home to Canada. She will be showing Lola up there in Canada and her first shows are next month. She will be bred when she comes in season in a few months.

Krys