Marahootay

December

Despite the snow, which all the dogs are thoroughly enjoying, we did two shows this month.

First we went to the LKA. Hades finished a very good 3rd in a tough open class but Ghost surpassed all expectations winning the Limit class and then going on to win Best Bitch, Best Opposite Sex and the CC

Congratulations to Bryony and Ghost for a fabulous performance.

Hades then went with John and Senay to Brussels and won Best of Breed the CAC CACIB and making the cut in a very tough group.

This means that Hades has now qualified for FCI Centenary World Champion of Champions show in Brussels 2011. There are only 4 qualifying shows so we will look forward to next November and seeing some superb dogs there.

Well what can we say about 2010!

Hades has managed to surpass our wildest dreams achieving his American, Luxembourg, Slovakian, German German Club titles and of course he became an International Champion. We went to our first Nationals in America and had a wonderful time, caught up with some excellent friends and made some new ones.

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We had our first litter from Effie and we will wait and see how Sultan progresses and hopefully in the new year will start showing him. And what do we say about Ghost and Bryony apart from enjoy the moment and we're sure that there will be more to come.

To everyone we wish a merry Christmas and a happy peaceful New Year, and what of 2011?

Well we will concentrate on the UK and Ireland, we'll go to the World Dog show in Paris and of course the Euro dog Show in Holland and hopefully we will go again out to America for the Nationals.

November

A quiet month for us here. Hades competed at Kortrijk Winning RCACIB RCAC against some very good oppostion.

We then went to Amsterdam and spent a wonderful weekend with friends Rita and Tonny and Senay showed Hades at the Amsterdam show winning Best Dog and the CACIB CAC. We had a fabulous time and it provided us with time to catch up with friends and relax.

October

October 23-24: Another superb weekend for Hades We went this weekend to the dogshows in Stuttgart Germany and we had a BLAST!

On Saturday: International Dogshow Stuttgart with Breed judge: Mrs. Heine and Group judge: Mr. Peper - Ch. Stormchaser's Prince of Darkness mit Marahootay 1 exc VDH CAC/CACIB/DCNH CAC, Best of Breed and Best of Group!

On Sunday: National Dogshow Stuttgart: with Breed judge: Mr. Muthsam and Group judge: Mrs. Clerc - Ch. Stormchaser's Prince of Darkness mit Marahootay 1 exc VDH CAC/CACIB/DCNH CAC, Best of Breed and Best of Group!

October 17: Hades becomes a German and International champion Hades is still in Europe with Senay and they are having a great time.

Senay writes:

On Friday: Multi. Ch. Stormchaser's Prince of Darkness mit Marahootay went 1 exc VDH CAC, thank you to judge Mrs. Angelika Kammerscheid.

Photo with thanks to Caroline Chaveau

On Sunday: under breeder/judge: Mrs. Kimberly Meredith-Cavanah: Multi. Ch. Stormchaser's Prince of Darkness mit Marahootay went from the open class 1 exc VDH/DCNH CAC, Best of Breed, Best of Group and the RESERVE BEST IN SHOW at one of the biggest dogshow in Europe with more than 5300 dogs entered!

Photo with thanks to Caroline Chaveau

Thank you to the judges Mrs. Meredith-Cavanah, Mr. Schäfer and Mrs. Molinari!

Hades finished his German Championship in Dortmund! Within two months we finished his International, Luxembourg, German, Slovenian championship and put the European Winner 2010 on him too. Hades was already an American and Netherlands champion. This boy is having a blast!

The puppies reach 7 weeks old

     

September

The puppies are growing quickly and now finding not only their voices but their teeth as well. When you walk through the kitchen door all 7 charge at you with tails wagging which is wonderful but is quickly followed by large yells of Owwww! as toes and trousers are grabbed!

Hades and Senay started the month with a Bang winning in Luxembourg despite Hades being out of coat so Hades is now a LUXEMBOURG CHAMPION !!!

August

Well what a month August proved to be, Effie had her litter producing 4 girls and 3 boys all of course lovely just like mummy and daddy, Our son Craig got married to Zan it was a lovely day and all our children made us very proud, Dean made a very funny speach together with Zan's brother Carl and Francine looked beautiful as a bridesmaid, of course the bride and groom looked fabulous.

We were thrilled to announce the birth of 4 gorgeous girls and 3 handsome boys born to Effie on 5th August. Mother and puppies are doing well.

Watch our breeding page for pictures of the puppies and video's which we will hopefully update weekly.

We took Hades out to stay with our friend Senay in Belgium who is what can only be described as a professional handler and so far they have become a winning team.

July

Hades went to Belgium to compete at Leige Golden dog show where he was Reserve Best Dog winning the RCAC but took the CACIB which is another point towards his international title. He was beautifully handled by Senay so our thanks to her.

Meeko and Lucifer's Brother Raiden (Marahootay Diamond Seeker) went to his second ever show "The National Working and Pastoral Breeds" held at Malvern under Judge Keith Givens

He was handled very professionally by Simon Molloy to achieve 1st in the Post Grad class out of a class of 10 and qualifiying for CRUFTS 2011

Well done to everyone, and looks like Claire will be buying a new suit to show both of her dogs at her first ever Crufts.

We have had a quiet month with Effie getting gradually fatter and enjoying the sun, the weekends being free have given us time to spend with the dogs in the garden playing.

June

We went off to Blackpool this month and enjoyed the most wonderful of days with the most beautiful of weathers.

Ghost was entered and shown by Bryony and did us proud by placing 3rd in the Junior class, a Crufts qualifying position.

Then just for a change as Mr Micheal Craig was still recovering from celebrating his success at the world dog show, I showed Hades. Despite the fact that Hades wanted to move a lot more than I want or could run we finished a very good 4th against some excellent competition.

The following week saw us at Windsor dog show in blistering heat, with paddling pools underneath the water taps for the dogs!!

Ghost once more did us proud winning the Junior bitch class and finally showing that she is growing into a very nice young lady!

Hades was handled by Micheal and finished a very good 3rd.

John and I had a lovely afternoon enjoying the beer tent and staying to watch the group which was very hotly contested.

We also this month had a return visitor, Tikkanni came back from his owners in Kent due to family problems and had to be rehomed.

Despite the fact that he hadn't seen his older brother Lucifer since he left at 8 weeks and now he was nearly 18 months old, they both became best friends with lots of face washing and tail wagging.

Khan has now been rehomed with a lovely family Chris his wife Sadie and baby Ellie. Chris is in the army and a PT Instructor so Khan is going for long daily runs and by all accounts loving his new family life.

May

Well we started May off with a bang, collecting our new American Champion Hades from Holland as Andrea Sautbine had very kindly flown him back for us.

Our first show of the month was the Dutch Specialty. Andrea showed Hades for us and the winning team continued in style taking Reserve best Dog from a very strong field.

Andrea then continued in style showing Effie and taking 4th in the Open bitch class from 21 other bitches in her first show, we were absolutely thrilled with Effie's first attempt at showing.

On the Sunday we were once again up early and travelled to Antwerp for a Belgium show. Hades managed to take the Reserve Best Dog ticket again and Effie surpassed our expectations taking the Best Bitch Ticket and a Belgium CAC and a CACIB to boot!! Way to go Effie.

The next show we attended was The Birmingham National Dog Show. Hades was handled for the first time by Micheal Craig and finished a very good 4th judged by Sue Smith. Effie made the cut but was unplaced and Lucifer at his first big show handled by Francine finished 5th which given that he was more interested in playing with Francine, the boxers in the next ring and giving Sue a cuddle and a kiss was amazing.

For our last show of the month we travelled to Edinburgh, which for us is an opportunity to catch up with friends Claire and Gavin and their dogs Raiden and Leia.

Unfortunately for us and Micheal who was handling Hades we didn't make the cut in the open dog class.

However all was not in vain, the puppies did us proud.

Raiden finished a very good 5th in PGD at his first ever dog show handled by Bryony.

Bryony then took in Ghost into Junior bitch and I took in Leia, well you could have knocked me over with a feather when Leia finished second and Ghost took 3rd and both qualified for Crufts.

There were huge grins all round, and Daddy Gavin took lots of pictures just so none of us would forget the moment!

April

The dogs and John joined the intrepid AMWA people on a weekend of weight pull and 13 mile trek down at Bewl Water organised by Mark Squires.

Unfortunately the weather was against them as it rained heavily before the weekend and continued intermittently to do so over the weekend. Bewl water is beautiful, and although the going was tough John said he would be happy to go there again as the trail was excellent.

Saturday night was Karoke. Now John denies that the beer bottles on the table were his and said they were all Paul Pateman's! However...I didn't realise we had such a talented crowed with everyone joining in even John sang New York New York and I understand Paul Keen shook a leg or too! By all accounts a good time was had by all.

The biggest news is that Hades has achieved his American Title.

We are absolutely thrilled and thank Rita and Tonny for breeding such a wonderful boy and Andrea Sautbine for taking the time and effort to show our beautiful Hades.

March

End of Season rally: We followed Crufts with a visit to Thetford and Mr Paul Pateman's end of season AMWA rally which as usual when organised by Paul was not only very professionally run but excellent fun, oh and I must make a special mention of the cake supplied by Carol Atherton which was superb and John hasn't stopped talking about yet!

Crufts: We started off the month at Crufts where Francine showed Meeko in the Special yearling class which proved to be a very difficult class.

Meeko and Francine did exceptionally well finishing a very good 3rd and we were absolutely thrilled with their performance. Meeko is featured in this video - look out for Francine in the cerise jacket!

Crufts if you have never been is a wonderful doggy day out. There is flyball, agility and dogs oh and did I mention the shopping?!!!! For us it is also an opportunity to catch up with friends.

February

We returned from Aviemore having had a thoroughly good time, and set about trying to settle our newest bitch from America into our household.

We are very lucky that Bonnie allowed us the priviledge of having Effie, who's kennel name is Kasaan's Forever Fortune.

Effie is out of our GRANITE and WICCAH. As Bonnie states "Effie has gorgeous breed type, angles and has the most loving temperament. She has incredible side gait, huge feet and bone with awesome dark almond shaped eyes."

Effie has already had a litter whilst with Bonnie where she was bred to Jagger: Ch. SnoShire Polaron's Excalibur and produced Zivah who at the remarkable age of 15 months became an American Champion.

Later this year we are planning on breeding Effie to Hades. Pictures of Effie to follow!

January

After a very hectic Christmas we decided to continue in a busy vein.

Hades went to Belgium to compete and was very skillfully handled by Senay finishing as Reserve Best Dog.

We then kept our fingers crossed that the snow would remain up in Scotland for the annual pilgrimage to Aviemore and we weren't disappointed!

John competed for the first time on a sled running Feline with Meeko and Lucifer in the E2 class and finishing a remarkable 4th.

The event is an opportunity to try working the dogs under testing conditions, and an excellent excuse for the rest of us to meet up most nights for some delicious food and of course the odd drink or two. .