2012 New Year Update 01/15/2012
 So much has happened over the past few months, since I wrote our last entry! Unfortunately I have no Nationals or Regionals show photos to add at this time because the show photographer skipped out half-way through the event and will not return anybody's contact attempts. Unbelievable and so very disappointing. Cassie, BPIS BIS AKC/CKC Ch Spiritrun's Singular Sensation, wrapped-up a very successful year by attending the Eukanuba National Championships with me in Orlando Florida, just before Christmas. We exhibited over the course of four days as three Orlando area kennel clubs hosted all-breed dog shows there as well. She was in very good company with exceptional "bitch specials" to compete against. It was nice to see that each day, a different, yet equally deserving bitch won Best of Opposite Sex. Cassie was one of them. It is nice to compete in good company with healthy competition. We are very proud of her showing -- beautiful as always. Cassie, Shelby, Spiritrun's Cool Ride, and I reluctantly travelled to the Elora gorge shows between Christmas and New Years. Though I dislike showing that week, the turnout was amazing. Cassie won 2x best of Opposite and 1x Best of Breed. Shelby won a Reserve Winners Bitch and a Best of Winners for her first points. Both girls show great! Cassie put a wrap on her 2011 run as #4 overall Alaskan Malamute and #1 Alaskan Malamute Bitch for 2011. Not bad for a veteran! We have received confirmation that her entries made it into Westminster again, so we will be in NYC for that prestigious event in February of 2012. We are very excited about that! Please, Cassie, hold coat! Our family enjoyed a lovely holiday season -- we wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Our first sledding event of the year had to be cancelled due to lack of adequate snow and trail conditions. This as been a strange winter, to say the least. Today is brilliant, sunny, crisp and white, while tomorrow calls for warmer temperatures and rain. Ah well....Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin Add Comment Most of the Spiritrun gang recently returned home from the Alaskan Malamute Club of America Regional & National Specialty week in Ypsilanti, MI. What a time was had by all. Huge thanks to Kathy Mudryk, great friend and dog-family, who house, dog and cat-sitted the remainder of our pack for us. That took the heartache and worry out of the trip knowing they were in good hands. We spoiled ourselves and rented a Damon Outlaw toy-hauler which fit our ten malamute entries and all our gear quite comfortably. That rig is definitely on my vision board to acquire in the next couple of years. Goal is to drive our very own Outlaw to the Nationals in California in 2014.  We had a large entry of ten malamutes ranging in age from 11 months to 13 years. Most everyone placed in the ribbons in their classes and/or made the cuts. Edmund and Colleen Belanger became fast studies of the finer points of grooming and being stellar ringside assistants. Collen Stone bonded beautifully with Bea and handled her better and better each day...or should I say she behaved better and better for him each day. His handling skills are cream-of-the-crop, but her attitude is, well, her attitude. And I am forever indebted to good, scratch that, great friends Karyn Colman and Nancy Zinkhan for putting on the brave face and taking Silly-Dilly (Dylan) into the ring for his first foray into dog shows. Alisa Syar, Mike Stone, Pam Kovac and Bob Sturdivant, our amazing extended dog-family, were also on hand to walk, cuddle, hold things, spray things, brush things and basically do whatever was asked of them and for that, guys and gals, I am so thankful. xo Here is how the week went down:: Regional Puppy & Veteran Sweeps (Ron Pohl judge)
AMCA Regional Specialty (Robin Hug judge)
Nationals Puppy & Veterans Sweeps (Robin Haggard judge)
AMCA National Specialty (Nancy Russell judge)
Regional Specialty Performance results for Deuce, Can Ch Spiritrun's Uppin Th'Ante (titles galore)
Regional Specialty Performance results for Madison, Can Ch Spiritrun's Utter Maddness (titles galore)
What a week!!! Boxes of ribbons and prizes for all. Cassie, our Specials bitch, BIS Am/Can Ch Spiritrun's Singular Sensation, made the cut in both specialties as did Crystal as a 13 year old veteran. We were very proud of these girls. And Gabby showed beautifully yet did not place as we are still spoiling her for putting in so much effort with her nine Lichen puppies, therefore she was not back into "show condition" quite yet. We were also incredibly proud of Deuce and Madison for being presented with their SERVICEABLE ALASKAN MALAMUTE AWARDS at the banquet. Many thanks to Colleen & Dave Belanger for being a "dream come true" home for our dogs and for accomplishing so much with them! They are the 2nd and 3rd Alaskan Malamutes to earn these awards! Thank-you to the photographers who took the photos in our slideshow below, who were generous enough to share with us and allow us to share with you. Kat Copley-Holland, Jennifer Next year:: Chattanooga TN and we are super-excited for that trip already!!! Hamilton Kennel Club Dog Show 06/30/2011
    We had a successful weekend in Hamilton with everyone on our string doing something! Thai, the golden, finished his Canadian Championship and picked up 2 BOB's; Bailey, the malamute, finished hers by winning a BOB; Marky Mark, the malamute, picked up points towards his by winning 2 BOB's, but it was Jazz, the golden, who had the banner weekend winning 3 BOB's and a Sporting Group 3rd. Way to go Jazzy! Recent Show Results and News... 04/13/2011
 Man oh man, have I slacked in the blog update department lately. I feel like I am pretty scattered and juggling a few to many balls. I have been traveling to shows with Cassie, Elliott, Beatrice and occasionally even Crystal, quite a bit this spring. In fact, you won't find me at home on weekends and I am very blessed to have my very own Edmund to keep it all running smoothly in my absence. Here are some highlights of our recent shows: Purina National - Am/Can Ch Spiritrun's Singular Sensation, Cassie, wins Best of Breed all three days over a very competitive entry and goes on to win a Working Group 2 on Saturday night at the Purina National under judge A. Zee and a Working Group 1st on Sunday under judge C. Myers-Egerton. This is a very prestigious show in Canada with an international panel and large, competitive entry, so suffice it to say, it was a thrilling weekend! And miss Beatrice made her show debut at this big overwhelming show and managed to attain her first points. Yay Bea! American Shows - Ch Spiritrun's Grandstand Man, Elliott, and Cassie have been in the US regularly, too as Elliott is working on completing his AKC Championship. He picked up points in December in Cleveland, a reserve to a major in Connecticut River and then collected both of his majors at Syracuse, leaving him with now only one point needed to complete, we think :-/ Crystal, at 12.5 years old, came with us to Connecticut River Working Dog to compete in Veteran's Sweeps. She came 2nd in her class on the first day and won her class the next. She had a ball! Just this past weekend we ventured through Algonquin Park to find ourselves in Petawawa for the Champlain shows. Cassie earned a Working Group 4th under judge D. Windsor and Bea worked on her ring skills. We were the only mal entry. Six month old Golden retriever, Thai, was handled by me and won the Puppy Sporting Group on Friday in show #2 and his first points by going WD/BOW/BP on Saturday. Yay Thai! Sipping my coffee now before bathing the crew for our annual trek to Harrisburg, PA for the Specialties there. Crystal, Elliott, Cassie and Bea are all entered. All I know is I need a bigger van...  Cleveland Cluster 2010 12/22/2010
We had a great time at the Cleveland Cluster this past weekend. I showed Elliott, Can CH Spiritrun's Grandstand Man to two BOW wins and two RWD wins, and a BBBE in Breed win. He showed wonderfully. Uncle Deuce, in his nakedness, managed some conformation placements but the BIG DEAL for his was earning his first AKC CD leg with a high score of 180! So awesome for Deuce and owner-handler Colleen!!! Our travel buddy Laura Heft earned a BOS and a couple of Select Bitch awards on her beautiful girl, Tassi, too! Here are some video clips from YouTube. Visit our YouTube site for more! Lucan is a New Champion 12/14/2010
 Congratulations to Annika and Darren for being the proud owners of new Canadian Champion Spiritrun's Hunt for Lucanus, CGN. Lucan finished his championship at the Brandtford show in Dec 2010 under judge Heather Langford. Now Lucan needs some time off to enjoy winter pursuits and to mature a bit. And we just received confirmation that Cassie, Am/Can CH Spiritrun's Singular Sensation will be the first Spiritrun bitch to grace the floors of Madison Square Garden this February at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. We are so excited!!! At the Credit Valley Shows, my Standard Wirehair Dachshund client Victory's Mr Magoo, won a Puppy Group under judge Wendy Paquette! He also earned another two points towards his championship!!!  Trillium Dog Fanciers - All breed Oct 29-31 11/03/2010
We had a great time as we do when everyone on our "team" comes home successful! Lucan, Spiritrun's Hunt for Lucanus, was BOB Friday and Saturday for another 3 points and Gambit's daughter Sunii, Howlingpines Has Come to Shine, was BOB on Sunday for another 2 points. Mr Magoo, Pam Meyer's SWD Dachshund whom I had the pleasure to handle for the first time, experienced his first show weekend at 8 months of age, and it was a busy one. In addition to the all-breed regular classes each day, he had a specialty each day, capping it off with the DCC National Specialty and sweeps on Sunday. We had tough competition! The #1 SWD was up from the US to work on his Canadian Championship. He took all the dog points Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the points we available again and Magoo just had to get past his very nice brother in his class. He did, when it counted and he earned his first point at the regular show on Sunday morning. That afternoon, our friend and "team-mate" Jenn Oliver, took the dog points with my first SWD love, Victor, who went WD at the National to finish. Nice!!! Mr Magoo, went RWD which wraps up an awesome weekend and a wonderful start to his show career! It is fun to learn another breed!!! Monroe GLAMC Specialty Weekend 10/04/2010
(Photo above taken by Jen Effler of the BBE Bitch line-up at Monroe 10/02/10)Ta Da! We have a *new* AKC Champion to announce. Cassie is now BPIS American and Canadian Champion Spiritrun's Singular Sensation! She came into this weekend of shows off a very long hiatus from the ring-scene and needing one point and one major. What a way to do it with a 5-point major, going Best of Winners from the Bred-by class under esteemed judge Michelle Billings! That same day, our little Miss Madison, owned by Colleen and Dave Belanger and myself, won her very large Open bitch class, handled by Colleen and went on to win Reserve Winners Bitch to the 5-point major! This girl is maturing so nicely and what a set of legs she has under her! Also that day, Uncle Deuce won a 2nd place in his large Open dog class. Other successes over the weekend included Cassie's Bred-by class win on Friday, 12 year-old Veteran Crystal's class win in the sweeps competition at the GLAMC Specialty and never a dull moment Deuce's NQ from the obedience ring for having "too much fun" once again. Sigh. And Sunny, Spiritrun's Good Day Sunshine, pulled 1,776lbs in weight pull. Her all time high pull! It was so much fun seeing everyone again and seeing such a wonderful turn-out of malamutes. The Great Lakes club put on a wonderful weekend of events and were incredibly hospitable. Thank-you all! | AuthorSpiritrun Malamutes ~ breeders of quality Alaskan Malamutes since 1998  ArchivesNovember 2011 CategoriesAll |
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