#RecipeForMoments: My Soulmates Son

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I am joining other fellow bloggers and sharing my #RecipeForMoments story with you all. Brought to you by:

My special moment was born on 5/13/11. His name is Gambler and he is My Soulmates Son. I waited 8 years for my Norman son and he was well worth the wait.

Norman was my soulmate, my best friend, my faithful companion so Gambler has some pretty big paws to fill.

I competed with Norman in AKC and UKC hunt tests in which he received the highest titles, I never did any other venues with him. Gambler on the other hand in his short life has already outdone his dad in competing and titling in multiple venues.

Gambler has his UKC Senior Dock Jumping title, his UKC Hunting Retriever title, his UKC Grand Champion show title and his AKC Senior Hunter Title. All this before he is 3 years old.

One of my proudest moments happened at the 2013 UKC Premier. This is where I seen and felt the unconditional love this boy has for me. I had other handlers show him for me as I was handling his sister Glory in the same show ring. He never took his eyes off me. He always needed to know where I was. Needing to know where I was didn’t mess his gate up at all or his stacking. As long as he could see me he was a statue with the best manners. He wouldn’t face the right way when in the line up ready to be stacked. He was backwards so he could see me. The judges didn’t mind this as they said “it doesn’t matter what side I examine as long as he is happy” and happy he was when he could see his momma.

My heart just melted when he stood backwards. All this guy wants to do is please me and show me how much he loves me.

He went Best Of Breed three out of the five shows this week. You can just see the love and devotion in his eyes when I was handling him. He is 3/4 on the way to filling those big paws of my soulmate.

We finished off our special show moments by receiving his UKC Grand Champion title this past November. This truly is the most special moment for me as I have never shown dogs in conformation before and to have Norman’s son as a Grand Champion is more than I could of ever expected. He ended the 2013 year by being in the top 10 UKC Breed and Dog standings. He was #1 for the Chesapeake Bay Retriever two years in a row. #RecipeForMoments for sure!

“This post is sponsored by Nature’s Recipe® on behalf of the BlogPaws Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Nature’s Recipe for Moments on behalf of Nature’s Recipe, but we only share information we feel is relevant to our readers. Nature’s Recipe is not responsible for the content of this article.”

Our story is a part of the #RecipeForMoments blog hop hosted by BlogPaws.

Link up below to share your story of the bond you and your pet share.

What do you think your pet feels in your special moments?

Five random U.S. winners who link up their blog post will win a Nature’s Recipe® lightweight collar camera to capture special moments from their pet’s point of view.

See BlogPaws for official rules and details.

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The UKC Premier ~Sunday 6/16/13

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Sunday 6/16/13 was our last day of showing conformation at the UKC Premier 2013. Once again I needed to find a handler to show Gambler as I was handling Glory. I found a really nice Junior Handler who’s name I can’t think of (so sorry). She was a lovely girl and did a fantastic job handling Gambler to his 3rd Best Of Breed win at the Premier.

Gambler never losing site of me.

The judge checking him out.

Glory and I with our Reserve Champion win.

Miss Glory.

The judge telling us we got Reserve Champion.

The winners!

A big thanks go out to the handlers that handled Gambler, Shelly, Trish and the lovely Junior Handler. Without you Gambler wouldn’t have done so well. Thank you so much for all your help. Gambler showed so well for the gals, as long as he could see me he was a little statue in the ring.

Will post up Lure coursing and Dock Jumping photo’s in another post.

Follow-Up Friday

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

We are joining Jodi at Heart Like A Dog for Follow-Up Friday.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Follow-up Friday is being co-hosted this week by Kari from Hound Girl.

Today I am going to follow-up on the UKC Premier 2013 along with some pictures of Norman.

I want to thank you all for the congratulations on my winnings at the dog show. G & G really did clean house and we all had a fabulous time. It turned out that Gambler went Best Of Breed three days and Glory went Reserve Champion 2 days. I think if Glory wasn’t in season at the time she might of shown a little better but I digress, she did a fabulous job for having to show 5 days in a row for a 18 months old.

The below photos are from Friday when Glory got her Reserve Champion.

Glory showing the judge her teeth during her exam.

Checking out her backside.

Down and back.

Around, in this picture Glory is doing what the show people call “pacing” the legs on the same side are going in the same direction, this is a no no. The judge was so nice and asked me to go around again so he could see her run correctly. This is the day she got the Reserve Champion. My friend thinks he really wanted her to win since he asked me to re run her but he couldn’t put her up since she was pacing.

The correct way there legs should be.

Gambler with his BOB win on Saturday.

Showing in the Gun Dog Group ring in the afternoon.

Waiting for our turn at the exam.

One of my favorite pictures from the group ring.

The exam.

Trying to eat my belt.

Kissing the winner!

I also want to thank all my Facebook friends and fellow bloggers who left me some really enduring comments on my post about Norman and his newly diagnosed Osteosarcoma. I am so glad I have the support of so many wonderful friends. Many of you I haven’t met but you have touched my life some how and I will lean on you when times get tough. Thank you for being there!

Norman wanting to go train. Cancer can’t keep him down!

ok I’ll just lay down and wait.

I got me a duck!

Always happy!

Really I have to watch from the truck?

Tomorrow see how Gambler and Glory did on Sunday the last day of their show week.

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Wordless Wednesday ~G&G’s Ribbons

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Wordless Wednesday is a community linkup of bloggers. Visit our host, BlogPaws, and you can use the icons below the post to hop from site to site. It is a great way to discover new blogs…..or even just a convenient way to find all of your favorites in one place. When you visit each site, be sure to leave a comment and let them know you found them through Wordless Wednesday.

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This ‘N That Thursday

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs for their This ‘N That Thursday’s blog hop!

This is what she has to say about the hop,

A little of this and a little of that and everything in between…

“This ‘N That Thursday is for anything you want! Maybe you want to post about unrelated topics, or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post, or you have awards to share, or you have one long post…anything goes! So grab the button and join the hop!”

This is a little of this and that about the show-The UKC Premier 2013

I am in Kalamazoo, MI this week for The UKC Premier with my friend Kathy from Whiskey Creek Chesapeakes. We both have dogs that were in the UKC Top Ten standings for 2012 so we got invited to the UKC Top Ten invitational. We are spending the week here doing conformation, dock jumping and lure coursing. We might even sneak off to do the Barn Rat Hunt. Here are a few photos of our adventure so far.

Scrub a dub dub, Glory in the tub!

Gman under the dryer.

Kathy’s girls Evin and Violet wanting to come by me to sneak kibble from me.

Violet loving me up!

Me getting a very pretty show lead from Kathy to show one of the dogs with this week.

Can you see the cute duckies on it?

Glory-ous looking very pretty in her new show lead.

Gman stealing Pinky. He left us and jumped in the truck and came running back with her!

Today was the United Retriever Specialty. Kathy was showing Duke and Evin, I was showing Gambler and Glory. We were all in the Champion class going for legs towards our grand champion title. We needed to find 2 extra handlers to show one of our dogs as they were all in the ring at the same time. We were getting close to the wire and we finally found two gals to show one of our dogs. Glory being in heat I decided to show her so Shelly showed Gambler. Around the ring we went and low and behold Judge Pam Moore chose Gambler as BOB! How exciting is that he now has one leg out of 5 for his grand champion title. After everyone showed their dogs the United Specialty club had a Total Retriever parade. To be in the parade your dog has to have a performance title and a show title. Both Duke and Gambler were in the parade because they have HRC titles and a UCH. They got a really cool ribbon for being a Total Retriever!

A couple pictures from the show.

Gambler and his stand in handler Shelly.

Kathy and Evin.

Glory and I.

Jen the stand in handler for Duke Dog.

And the winner is……..Gambler! He took Best Of Breed for the Chesapeakes at the United Retriever Specialty.

Going back into the Gun Dog Group ring. The Flatcoat won the Best In Specialty Show.

Gambler and his Total Retriever ribbon!

Poor pitiful Gambler with his lovely ribbons and basket of goodies.

Tomorrow is the Top Ten conformation show, lure coursing and dock jumping.

Go Team Giblet & Glory-ous and Team Whiskey Creek!!

So that wraps it up for today, why don’t you hop on over to 2 Brown Dawgs see what their up to and grab the badge and join the hopping fun!

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This ‘N That Thursday

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs for their This ‘N That Thursday’s blog hop!

This is what she has to say about the hop,

Saturday

I had a full weekend with Gambler and Glory this past weekend. Saturday we had our first AKC hunt test of the season. It was put on by the Fox Valley Retriever Club and was held at Bong State Park. If your in Wisconsin and are into outdoor activities Bong is a great place to do things. You can enjoy camping, hiking, horseback trails, get involved in rocket launching, upland training and hunt test training along with running competitions there.

Gambler and I were running seniors, John and Glory were running juniors. To run juniors Glory needed to do 2 single retrieves on land and if she passed land she got to move on to the water series. She passed her land so John and her moved onto water. She did 2 singles on water and passed her first junior hunter test of the season. She was such a good girl! You can tell by the picture how happy the both of them were!

Gambler and I on the other hand didn’t fair so well. I should said Gambler did great, I didn’t fair to well. Seniors consists of 2 land and water retrieves, a land and a water blind and one of the series has to have a honor in it. Other things can be done also like a diversion and a walk up. We started out with a land double with a honor. Gambler stepped on the second bird thrown, went on to retrieve the live flyer that was shot and he had a little bit of a hunt but stuck with it and found his bird. While he was out there hunting the judge commented on what a great hunt he was doing and that is the way it should be done. He then got to honor the next working dog. He sat there patiently and was excused after the working dog was released. He got called back to the next series. That series consisted of a land blind and a water blind. He ran the land blind first with lining the blind and didn’t need help from me to find it. He moved on to the water blind. I lined him up, released him, he ran around the bank and not straight into the water, I forgot I was in a test and not training and I called him back to me side and lined him up again and resent him. When at a test you don’t get to repeat or redo things. So I tried to finish the blind but he wan’t listing to my whistles so I called him in and I knew we were not passing. I was a nervous wreck so that didn’t help with my thinking. I can’t say it was a waste of time as anytime out at a test or training is a learning experience and I learned what I need not do next time.

Sunday

Sunday Glory and I had a dog show put on by the Fond Du Lac Kennel Club. It was held at the Fond Du Lac expo center. Glory was being shown in the Amateur owner-handler group. She was the only dog in her class so she took First in that class. She went up against one other female for Winners Bitch. The other dog won Winners Bitch and Glory got the Reserve Winners ribbon. We had a good time and got practice in the ring and hopefully learned something for next time which will be in a week. Here are a couple pictures of Glory and I.

Stacking Glory

Photo taken by Julie Darling.

First and Reserve Winners

So that wraps it up for today, why don’t you hop on over to 2 Brown Dawgs see what their up to and grab the badge and join the hopping fun!

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Crafty Tuesday

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I finally got around to purchasing shadow boxes for Gambler and Glory’s UKC show ribbons. They each got their own box for displaying their ribbons. I put a small show picture with their name on it in the box. Now I have to find a spot to hang their show accomplishment.