Marahootay

We have had a wonderful year.

We had our first litter from Mushu and Hades which with 11 puppies was an experience I am sure the whole family will never forget. The litter enabled us to make new good friends and meet lots of new people which has been a pleasure.

Feline became a GERMAN CHAMPION, we are all so proud of her and thank Leah and Terry Coldham for allowing us to own such a beautiful girl.

Hades rounded off the year with a wonderful win in Wijchem taking Best Dog and becoming a DUTCH CHAMPION. We are eternally grateful to Rita and Tonny for letting us have our wonderful boy and becoming such good friends.

Our plans for next year include:

Hopefully we will have puppies from Feline and Hades in the near future see more in planned litters.

January, we will be at SWECA, BOSTON and MANCHESTER with Hades and hopefully a puppy or two. Then it's off to AVIEMORE for our favourite week of socialising, drinking and catching up with friends.

We hope we will see you on our travels, please come and chat to us, we are always happy to talk about our dogs and we wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful new year.

December

We are planning a mating between Feline and Hades in the near future. If you are interested in giving a life long commitment to one of our puppies and being loved unconditionally in return please contact us.

HADES BECOMES A DUTCH CHAMPION!!!!

We took Hades out to Holland to compete at Wijchen and he finished his Dutch Championship in style winning Best Male Dog. At the same time his litter sister Stormchaser 7th Heaven took reserve Best Bitch making her a Champion on the same day.

Congratulations to Rita and Tonny on their achievement and many thanks for letting us have such a special boy.

Hades with Sue in the ring at Wijchen winning Best Male Dog

November

We had a lovely weekend at Brandon, catching up with all our friends and the weather was quite kind to us also. We spent the night in Mildenhall and had a delicious meal, where Bryony made us all very jealous and ordered the last portion of pate!!

Lucifer (R) and Meeko (L)

Lucifer

See more photos here.

We then travelled to Buttersteep for a one day AMWA rally organised by Terry Coldham. John ran our three dog team in the M2 class and finished a very respectable 14th.

See more photos here.

October

We participated in the first AMWA rally held on the 25/26 October organised by Paul Pateman and friends. Although we didn't compete the girls ran in the R class and thoroughly enjoyed themselves so we hope they will be fit enough for the AMWA rally on the 9th November. We also had a surprise presentation of a birthday cake for John who was 50. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of his face but I promise you it was a picture.

Baloo owned by Wendy and Kevin came to visit and we had lots of laughs at the puppies antics in the back garden, espeically "weeding" my flower beds.

Well we all travelled off to Dortmund for their International and National shows this weekend. On the first day Hades won his class and then came Reserve Best Dog losing to his older brother Phantom. Feline came second in her class losing to the bitch that won best bitch.

On the second day the tale was reversed. Hades came second in his class losing to the dog that then went on to take Best of Breed while Hades received reserve.

Feline won her class and went on to be Best Bitch which now makes her a GERMAN CHAMPION.

September

We all motored off for our first taste of the backpacking weekends. We choose the very scenic new forest for our first taste of this type of weekend and what a good choice it was.

The scenery was magical, the company excellent, there was plenty of booze to keep you warm of a night and the food which was in the form of a bar-be-que on the Saturday evening was a very welcomed focal point. Where after a few drinks, some excellent food we all sat down to compare notes on blisters, sore legs and what a very enjoyable time we had all had. See the photos from our weekend.

August

A wonderful weekend was spent in Salisbury where we were fortunate to catch up with a couple of new puppy owners.



Baloo with Kevin and Wendy, Dakota with Denise, Nigel and family. At the fun show Dakota was very professionally shown and took prettiest bitch.



She then went home and took best pre puppy at the match night which thrilled her new family!!

Narla and Hero go to make some new friends who are intrepid explorers!

And relaxing after a hard weekend playing in the water. Who said it's a dog's life?!!

During August the puppies started to leave us to go to their new homes and our house began to return to some semblence of normality. You can catch up with the puppies on our extended family page.

July

The puppies are growing up, running around and generally causing wonderful havoc everywhere. They are now bouncing around the patio and trying out their little teeth on our visitors!

To keep up with all the gorgeous puppy pictures and video go here.

June

**** NEWS ****
Mushu had her litter on 7th June and surprised us all by giving us 8 boys and 3 girls. Mummy and puppies are all doing well and are wonderfully contented. For further information and to keep up with all the gorgeous puppy pictures . . . please go to our puppy page.

May

Scottish Kennel Club We had a wonderful time up in Edinburgh despite the rain. Feline received a Reserve in Limit Bitch. Hades won Post Graduate Dog and then went on to take Reserve Best Dog and obtain his first Reserve Challenge Certificate giving him his Stud book number. Fortunately nobody managed to take a photo of my face, I was stunned!!

Following a scan we can confirm that Mushu is pregnant with approx 7 puppies and the litter is due 9th June. At present Mum is doing very well with no morning sickness, just a ravenous appetite (so no change there!!). Following a good time at The National Dog Show in Stafford our next adventures will be at the Scottish Kennel Club show in Edinburgh on 17th May and then the Alaskan Malamute Open Club show in Leciestershire on 24th May. If you have the time why not come and talk to us?

Getting back onto news - The National Dog Show Stafford. Hades took 2nd in Post Graduate Dog and Feline took 3rd in Limit Bitch, of course both ably handled by Charlie Hughes as always. The classes were huge, and as it was the first show since Crufts, it was really good to catch up with friends, hear their news, and of course do some shopping!!

Hades competed in Dortmund this Sunday in the VDH Europasieger-Zuchtschau Dortmund 2008 in the Intermediate Class ably handled by Charlie Hughes and won his class gaining two points towards his German Championship Title.

With us over the weekend were Wayne and Bryony Clark, Rita and Tonny and all the rest of the Stormchaser clan. We had a wonderful weekend, even the weather was warm and bright.

April

We are delighted to announce that a mating has taken place between Mushu and Hades and we are hoping for puppies around June 9th. If you are interested in owning one of these wonderful dogs then please visit our puppy page for further details or contact us.

Hades competed at the Wickford, Basildon and District Open show finishing Best in Breed this weekend. Our thanks to Wayne and Bryony for taking him to the show for us, as we were otherwise occupied and a big thanks to Charlie who as usual handled him so expertly.

March

Well what can I say, our boy did us proud. Hades took second in Post Graduate Dog in a big class of 14. He looked beautiful, and at only just 18 months of age not a sign of nerves. Charlotte as always handled him superbly.



Our congratulations to Bryony and Wayne with their girls who also did exceptionally well, and Sarah who took Puppy Boy with her new import.

It was a shame our girls were out of coat, but we now have the prospect of puppies when Mushu comes into season. Crufts as always was chaos, but the shopping such fun, and as my oldest friend Gail came for the first time to Crufts said you have to see it to believe it.

March 21st saw us travelling up to Norfolk for the AMWA weekend, and whilst the weathermen were warning us of winds and sleet/snow us optimist's thought as usual they would get it all wrong!! Well they didn't. We had heavy rain, with snow.

The weight pull was interesting with Guiness as usual showing all the rest how to do it! The rally was a lot of fun, with several competitors including John taking the opportunity to dress up.



The dogs had a wonderful time making the most of the snowy conditions, and with lots of hot drinks and many laughs we had a terrific time as well. Our thanks to everyone for a very memorable weekend.

February

We are pleased and proud to announce a planned mating for March this year between Hades and Mushu. This will hopefully prove to be a good pairing and produce some well boned puppies with excellent temprements as both parents show and work well. For more details please see our puppy page.

Whilst I was busy working John decided to join Wayne and Bryony at Elvenden for the BSHRA rally. The course was hard work but the dogs all enjoyed their run out, and made lots of new friends. Our thanks to Bryony and Rachael for helping to set the team off, yes we know they can be a handful.

Our last rally before Crufts was the AMWA buttersteep rally which was a wonderful day. The weather was clear and the day warm, a little too warm for Hades but all the dogs had a wonderful time. John despite being stiff, he says from digging the patio (I think old age!) managed to finish a very good 3rd in the M2 class, and Hero even went out all on his own to take part in the R class over 1 mile which he thoroughly enjoyed (the same can't be said for John!)

Now all we have to do is get ready for Crufts. Unfortunately Mushu and Feline won't be competing despite qualifying, they are both completely out of coat, so we will only be taking Hades. We are looking forward to catching up with all the show people we have missed over the working season, and to of course the SHOPPING!!!

January

January has been a mixed month for the Marahootay clan. We started off the year by taking the dogs for the first time to Sherwood Pines in the run up to Aviemore, and whilst the dogs didn't run as well as we hoped everyone had a wonderful time, and the trail and race site was beautiful.

Just prior to us setting off to Aviemore we had two pieces of heartbreaking news.

Stormchaser Rita and Tonny lost their beloved foundation dog and father to Hades: Seven. Seven was bred and loved by Lynda of Windchaser Kennels in America. He was a beautiful example of the breed and we feel very fortunate to have a son, we know that he couldn't have been loved more and his years at Stormchaser were very happy ones. Our thought and love go out to Rita and Tonny.

The second piece of sad news was the Polarpaws Leah and Terry lost their beloved Nikita who is Mother to our bitch Feline. Nikita lost a brave and long battle against the illness that eventually took her and Leah and Terry did an amazing job in keeping her going for as long as they did. Nikita was a true character and without her we would not be so fortunate to have either Mushu and Hero (Nikita was their Granny) or Feline. Again our thought and love go to Leah and Terry.

Now to happier times.

After a long drive to Aviemore the Marahootay clan arrived and had a wonderful time as always. Catching up with old friends and making lots of new ones. The wonderful thing about Aviemore is the atmosphere. After a day out either training or competing with the dogs, we all meet up and have a drink and a chat. It allows time to meet people that you regularly see at other races and put names to faces.

The organisers were sorely tried this year due to the ice on the trail and we were one of the fortunate classes that were able to compete on both days. After a very close run event John finished 3rd in the E2 class narrowly beating Ian Munkaster by some 5 seconds!! Well done to Darren Le Fevre and David Salter who finished first and second respectively. Terry Coldham was bitterly unlucky having to retire on the second day with an injured dog, and having been in a very good position to finish in the top two.

After a days break the dogs then went out on the trek. The teams were led by team leader and ours was Sue Smith. The rest of the group was made up of John, Paul Pateman, Bryony and Wayne Clark, Justin with his team of three sibes and a mal and Mark played escort on his mountain bike.

The trek is treated as a sightseeing opportunity. John decided that just cooling his feet in the stream was not extreme enough and opted to fall in, much to everyone's amusement!! Unfortunately no-one was quick enough with their camera's! Everyone enjoyed their mid trek break and John assures me that the wine and Guiness tasted much better up in the mountains! All returned with big smiles on their faces including the dogs.